Kamala Harris's chief of staff Sheila Nix is pushing for voting via mobile devices amid heightening concerns about election integrity and security according to Just The News.
Nix, serves as the chief of staff for Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign and before that, she was the deputy governor under Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich from 2004 to 2008. Blagojevich would later face impeachment and federal corruption charges, but Nix's political career continued to ascend.
Following her tenure in Illinois, Nix joined then-Vice President Joe Biden’s team during Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign and later served as Jill Biden’s chief of staff during Obama’s second term. This exposure solidified her status in Democratic Party circles and bolstered her resume in Washington.
She continued her trajectory by taking a key role in President Biden’s 2020 campaign after spending the Trump years as president of Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies.
This organization connected the West Virginia government with Voatz, which produced the controversial mobile voting app used in the state’s 2018 midterm elections.
While promoting mobile voting, Nix leveraged her previous experiences from both her time at Tusk Montgomery Philanthropies and her later role at the U.S. Department of Education.
The 2018 experiment in West Virginia allowed voters in 24 counties to vote using a mobile app, despite rising concerns over the security of such platforms. This is the latest instance of the Democrat Party pushing for unsecure methods of voting that can be exploited to commit voter fraud.
Nix co-authored articles with Bradley Tusk, founder of Tusk Philanthropies, advocating for the expansion of mobile voting to increase voter participation, citing the convenience of using smartphones over traditional voting methods.
They argued that obstacles like finding time and transportation for voting were reduced when one could simply cast their ballot from a mobile device.
Despite their enthusiasm, the push for mobile voting has met with significant skepticism from cybersecurity experts. In 2022, a working group of security professionals concluded that secure online voting is not feasible with the current technology and cybersecurity landscape.
This report highlighted the risks associated with internet voting, including concerns over ballot secrecy and the verification of voter identities.
William Adler, a senior elections technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, voiced the collective concern of many experts: “Basically every election security expert agrees that we should not have lots of people voting over the internet." This consensus points to a broad agreement among experts against the expansion of mobile voting due to unresolved security issues.
Despite these warnings, Nix continues to champion mobile voting as part of the Harris campaign, presenting it as a solution to enhance voter turnout and accessibility.
This stance remains controversial, especially considering half of the American states currently permit some form of online voting primarily for overseas voters, expanding the debate on digital democracy.
The advocates for mobile voting, like Nix and Tusk, suggest that blockchain and sophisticated authentication software could address security concerns. They highlight that these technologies, exemplified by firms like Voatz, are promising but require further validation and support from technology platforms to enhance voter participation effectively.
As the discussion over mobile voting continues, the balance between technological advancement and securing electoral integrity remains a focal point.
The advancement of mobile voting technology juxtaposed with robust security measures and public trust forms the crux of this ongoing debate in electoral processes.
In closing, the promotion of mobile voting by Sheila Nix raises important questions about the future of electoral technologies and their impact on voter participation and election security. As this technology evolves, so too will the discussions around its feasibility and security, underscoring the need for ongoing evaluation and consensus among technology experts and policymakers.