Just days after Apple CEO Tim Cook said Americans should be able to vote on an iPhone, Secretary of State Frank LaRose Ohio called the idea “ridiculous.”
After the adoption of a controversial voting law in Georgia, Tim Cook weighed in, saying technology may be the answer to making the vote easier. In an interview with The New York Times, he suggested that smartphones could be a solution to voting rights issues.
But LaRose, Ohio’s chief electoral officer, said he was “aggressive” against the idea. Not on my watch. Not in Ohio, ‘he said FOX Business.
“I think this is a classic example of one of this kind of elite, and I think they have a simple solution to a complicated problem,” the Ohio Secretary of State said.
As for the reason, LaRose set out a few reasons. He said that a certain degree of technological competence is required. Although he acknowledged that the technology could exist in the near future, it would be “more complicated than people realize.”
LaRose, for example, said that voting officials should be able to verify whether a voter is ‘who he is’ through multifactor verification. In addition, the system must prove that the voter is actually the one holding the device. A paper trail for audit purposes is also a necessity, LaRose argues.
“And then you have to separate the identity of the individual so that the individual can bring a secret ballot and not be able to track down by some government official the way they vote. This is something in which we all strongly believe … difficult to do, ”LaRose said.
He said the most important aspect of an election is ‘public trust’, which means that ‘every vote is counted fairly and free from fraud and strangers’. LaRose added that maintaining public confidence is far more difficult than technological skills.
LaRose further said he expressed concern about the fact that social media platforms and technology companies restrict or censor the content of conservatives.
“It’s clear that there are a lot of these technology companies left and that the cultural idea of censoring people whose opinions we disagree with is a very corrosive and dangerous thing,” LaRose said. “Why would you want to allow the same individuals to have control over the actual process of elections?”
The Ohio State Secretary of State added that technology can do ‘many good things’, and that he is a fan of accepting it. However, he stopped saying that it was a good idea to vote on a smartphone or internet-connected device.
“The idea that we would let people do with iPhones or any other mobile device is so ridiculous,” he said.