Disabled voters in Wisconsin may soon be allowed to use electronic devices while voting and potentially return ballots via an online portal, something that security analysts warn could expose elections to “international malfeasance” or other attacks.

In April, Disability Rights Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters Wisconsin, and four disabled voters brought the case against the Wisconsin Elections Commission for what they say are insufficient accommodations for the disabled.

Under current Wisconsin election law, only military and overseas voters are allowed to vote electronically. As it stands, no one else is allowed to receive, mark, or return their absentee ballots electronically in Wisconsin, something advocates say unfairly makes it harder for the disabled to vote.

Currently, 25 states and the District of Columbia allow military and overseas voters to return ballots electronically, and 13 states have expanded absentee ballot programs to allow disabled voters to return ballots by mail or through an online portal.

The groups that brought the case argue that voters should be allowed to use electronic accessibility devices in their home to help them vote. Under current law, certain voters must rely on an assistant to help them fill out and submit their ballots, a system that the plaintiffs allege violates their privacy while voting.

Specifically, the group has sued under the First Amendment, the 14th Amendment, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires state and local officials to ensure the disabled have an equal opportunity to vote.

“Voters whose disabilities prevent them from voting absentee without an accessibility device are therefore presented with a choice that individuals without disabilities are not: forgo voting by absentee ballot, or relinquish their constitutional right to vote privately,” the suit says.

The plaintiffs are seeking a remedy to have the current electronic voting system used by military and overseas voters extended to disabled Wisconsinites. 

This would actually represent a reversion to a policy that was ended in 2011. In 2011, Governor Walker signed a bill restricting electronic absentee ballots to only military and overseas voters.

If disabled Wisconsinites were to be given the same accommodation afforded to overseas voters, they would be able to receive and return their absentee ballots via an online portal. 

Prior to 2011, voters with qualifying disabilities were allowed to contact a municipal clerk, notifying them of their intention to vote and requesting specific accommodations.

While millions of voters with disabilities vote nationwide, it’s not immediately clear how many voters would receive electronic accommodations, if allowed by the court. 

The lawsuit focuses on voters with visual impairments who are unable to read or fill out a standard ballot on their own, and it’s possible that the court rules to extend voting with electronic assistance to a limited number of people, or allow local clerks to decide on accommodations, as they did before 2011.

Such instances are the sort of accommodation favored by a recent working group at the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Security in Politics.

In a report from the group, it cited concerns with general electronic voting options such as client-side malware, potential “international malfeasance,” and targeted attacks on internet service as potential issues, among others, that could affect internet-based voting methods.

For these reasons, the report concluded that “the current cybersecurity environment and state of technology make it infeasible for the Working Group to draft responsible standards to support the use of internet ballot return in U.S. public elections at this time.”

The group did, however, acknowledge that in certain circumstances, electronic voting “can be an important tool for accessibility and ballot access for overseas voters; voters for whom getting to the polls may be difficult; individuals who, due to physical limitations, may have difficulty accessing a traditional polling site; and others who struggle to, or simply cannot, use traditional voting methods.”

It continued to say that eliminating electronic forms of voting or voting assistance “without reasonable alternatives could produce an unacceptable risk to those with accessibility needs” and could potentially be in violation of the ADA.