Sec. of State Brewer Announces New Online Military Voting Process

Cutting Edge Voting System to be Utilized by Overseas Military Soldiers this November

PHOENIX -- Secretary of State Jan Brewer announced today a new web-based voting system for military and overseas voters to securely submit their voted ballots for this upcoming General Election on November 4. The Secretary of State's Military and Overseas Voting system uses industry standard, 128-bit SSL encryption technology to ensure security, privacy and the overall integrity of the voted ballot. This is the same type of security used for online banking and credit card transactions.

“ I believe this new state-of-the-art voting technology created by my office will emerge as a cutting-edge election system for military voters that will set the standard for other states to utilize across the nation ,” stated Secretary of State Jan Brewer, “I have always worked very hard to streamline the voting process for those brave men and women who are protecting our freedoms abroad, and this new system is a direct attempt to give those soldiers every opportunity to vote. Added Brewer, “The implementation of this new program will make it much easier for our soldiers to participate in voting, and provide a safe and secure process that will dramatically speed up the time it takes to receive these ballots.”

The new Secretary of State military voting program incorporates a newly designed secured website that will be a direct secured connection from which the soldier will directly transmit their voted ballot into the Secretary of State's computer servers here in Arizona .

Under this new program, the overseas soldier will receive their ballot and print it out along with their official affidavit form that requires their signature for verification purposes (this material is received via the counties early voter program). After the voter marks and scans this material into their computer, a soldier will next log on to the fully secured Arizona Secretary of State's overseas/military voting system with a specific user identification and password (provided separately from the Secretary of State's system when they requested their ballot). This user ID and password allows the voter a direct and secured access to upload their voted ballot and affidavit.  The County Recorder 's office then will get the soldiers voted ballot and affidavit and handle it like other early ballots. The County will ultimately validate the voter registration and verify the signature, before forwarding the voted ballots to the county election office for tabulation.

This online program is currently available on the Arizona Secretary of State's website at www.azsos.gov by clicking on the “Military & Overseas Voter” icon.

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