Today Governor Murphy signed bill A5159, this bill permits the county commissioner of registration and the board of elections to use electronic poll books instead of printed ones.

Here is a summary of the bill from BillTrack50, “This bill permits a county commissioner of registration and county board of elections to adopt the use of electronic poll books, and requires the Secretary of State to adopt and publish electronic poll books standards and regulations governing the certification and use of electronic poll books. Under the bill, electronic poll book technology is required to meet certain capabilities and standards, including but not limited to, the ability to enable a poll worker to perform by electronic means all of the same functions performed using a paper polling record and signature copy register during the conduct of an election, compatibility with the Statewide voter registration system, a proven ability to successfully meet requirements concerning data encryption, non-interference with and separation from the voting system in use during an election, device and system security, audit log, and data and power backup, and any other capability or standard deemed appropriate by the county commissioner of registration, county board of elections, or Secretary of State. A county commissioner of registration and county board of elections opting to use electronic poll books are required to furnish at least two certified electronic poll book systems for each polling place. The electronic poll books for each election are required to be prepared by the commissioner of registration no later than the 10th day preceding the election. The commissioner of registration is required to retain the electronic poll books records for any election for a period of not less than six years following that election.”

So after reading the above I take away the following facts. The first that this bill will make it easier to prevent mistakes and secondly I fear that no matter what safe guards are used some hacker is going to mess with these books.

There is no safe way to prevent a determined hacker from breaking in, unless the encryption is up to the standards that the military uses and even then it will be broken into someday.

Do the pluses of making it easier and more accurate for the poll workers outweigh the chances of corrupted data due to a hacker breaking in? In my opinion and that of many experts the answer is yes. My one caveat is that the state and county are going to have be on their guard to prevent the corruption of the voter rolls, if they are not then I say go back to the old system for it is much more secure.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike