King County, where Seattle is located, is implementing smartphone voting for an upcoming board of Supervisors election. King County announced on Wednesday that it’s using smartphone voting.

King County’s 1.2 million residents can use their cellphones to vote in the election. The election begins on January 22 and continues until 8pm PT on February 11th. King County residents can also use their phones to vote.

The program is a collaboration between King County elections, tusk philanthropies and tusk philanthropies. Democracy live, a technology firm that develops electronic balloting.

King County elections director Julie wise said the election could be a key step in moving toward electronic access and return for voters across the region.

King County’s board of Supervisors election has seen less than 1 percent of eligible voters turn out in past years. Ceo Bradley tusk, CEO and founder of tusk philanthropies, stressed the positive impact the technology could have on voter turnout.

There’s no evidence that Russia altered any votes in 2016. Cybersecurity experts have cited the incidents as evidence that foreign powers might target us elections down the road.

Internet voting carries many of the same risks as other Internet activity. Links can be spoofed, devices can be compromised by malware, users can be impersonated, and systems can be DDoS’d.

In 2018, the National academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine warned against all forms of online voting. The US Senate Intelligence Committee warned against the practice as well in its heavily redacted report on Russian election interference.

The Democratic National Committee has also rejected proposals that would allow Iowa and Nevada to conduct virtual caucuses, citing security concerns. The Democrats have also taken steps to allow Iowa, Nevada and Iowa to conduct a virtual caucuses.

In 2010, the DC board of elections and ethics created an Internet-based election portal and invited security experts to probe it for vulnerabilities. The board scrapped the portal after a University of Michigan student breached it.

West Virginia allowed overseas voters to submit absentee ballots via a blockchain-based voting app called voatz in the 2018 midterm election. Around 150 people voted that way, but a small fraction of King County’s eligible electorate.

West Virginia’s online ballots went through an app dedicated to secure voting. The app verified each voter’s identity via facial or fingerprint recognition.

King County voters can submit through a mobile web portal, verifying their identities with their name, birth date, and a signature. Elections office plans to count paper copies of all electronic ballots as well.