Benefits of Mobile Voting
Our politics are broken. We’re more polarized than ever. Congress is more gridlocked than ever. State and local government is more one-sided than ever. Increasing participation in elections fixes this and forces politicians to act in the best interest of all their constituents; not just the extreme few who actually go to the polls.
Boosting Turnout and Fixing Our Democracy
Democracy depends on voters turning out. But in 2024, the average turnout for local elections in America’s fifty largest cities was on average 30 points lower than turnout in these same cities for the presidential election. Less than 25% of registered voters turned out in a third of America’s largest cities.
Local government has the greatest impact on everyday lives. It decides funding for schools, police, roads. The outputs of our government will never change without a drastic change to the inputs.
We know that when we make voting easier and more convenient, more voters participate. In 2020, a special district election in King County, WA offered mobile voting as an option for all eligible voters. The result? Turnout nearly doubled. And when the pilot was repeated in 2021, turnout jumped another 50%.
We have a solution that will drastically change the inputs into our government. Now is the time to utilize it and let mobile voting benefit everyone.
It’s not just about fixing our broken politics, it’s about increasing participation.
While mobile voting will benefit everyone, it would have an outsized effect on increasing participation of certain groups that currently don’t take part in elections for various reasons.
Digital Natives
In ten years, digital natives—Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha—will be the majority of the electorate. Young voter turnout has historically been low. As a result, young people’s interests are underrepresented in our government. A large reason youth turnout remains low is the voting process doesn’t align with the way they conduct the rest of their lives. 95% of 18-29-year-olds own smartphones. Why wouldn’t we utilize a voting solution that young people already use on a daily basis? Mobile voting meets digital natives where they are.
Voters with Disabilities
38 million Americans have a disability, and people with a disability have historically faced difficulties casting a ballot. Polling locations may only have one accessible voting machine and oftentimes the machine is broken or poll workers don’t know how to correctly set it up. And for blind voters, mail-in paper ballots disenfranchise them, because they cannot independently and privately mark a paper ballot. The turnout gap for disabled voters overall was 4% in 2020, despite increased access to vote-at-home options. That same year, 24% of visually impaired voters had trouble voting in person and 22% had trouble voting by mail.
Mobile voting will make voting more accessible for voters with disabilities by bringing the ballot directly to their mobile device, allowing them to vote using accessibility features they use every day. It will eliminate physical barriers at in-person poll sites and eliminate the reliance upon in-person accessible voting machines, which are often difficult to use.
Learn more in an op-ed from Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind: Why do some voting advocates fight equal access for the blind?
Military Voters and Their Families
Military members are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for our country. They shouldn’t have to sacrifice their right to vote — but that’s too often the case. Federal law requires that all states permit deployed military members to vote by mail. But in 2020, only 47% of eligible military voters cast a ballot. In 2018, only 26% voted.
Stationed abroad, military service members often face severe delays in returning mail-in ballots. Missed deadlines and late-arriving ballots lead to disproportionately high numbers of rejected ballots among our service members — as high as 21% in some states. And if servicemembers vote in a jurisdiction that allows them some degree of electronic ballot return, it’s often as an email attachment to their election officials, a method without proper security protocol and without measures to keep ballots anonymized.
Mobile voting is proven to make voting easier for military members and their families, helping them cast their ballots in minutes, regardless of where they are serving. A University of Chicago study of West Virginia’s mobile voting pilot in 2018 found that West Virginia’s military voter turnout increased by 3-5%. Similarly, in Denver’s pilot in 2019, military and overseas turnout nearly doubled for its municipal election.
Learn more in an op-ed from a US Coast Guard veteran: Why this Brooklyn veteran supports electronic absentee voting for New York
Displaced Voters in Emergencies
Every year, more than one million Americans are displaced due to natural disasters. Researchers from Climate Central and the Council on Foreign Relations have called climate change a genuine threat to democracy here and abroad. There are numerous examples of extreme weather striking the US in the lead up to Election Day, forcing Americans out of their homes, unable to access mail-in ballots, and far from their in-person poll sites. On October 30, 2020, less than a week from Election Day, Hurricane Zeta made landfall along the Gulf Shore. The storm left over 2 million people without power and many were displaced. Weeks before the 2024 election, Hurricane Helene tore through North Carolina. One Board of Elections member in Wake County said that polling places and ballots in mailboxes could have been “completely washed away.” The Executive Director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections said that one staffer in the Asheville area walked four or five miles to get to the county office.
Voters shouldn’t be disenfranchised during election season because a natural disaster has forced them to flee their home. Election officials shouldn’t have to put their lives in danger to save mail-in ballots. Mobile voting puts ballots on devices that evacuees carry with them, even when fleeing natural disasters. It mitigates the risk of relying on mail-in ballots that may not be able to be sent or delivered, or in-person voting at a location that may be unsafe. Mobile voting removes one worry as people flee their homes and ensures that our democracy is more resilient as extreme weather only gets worse.
Learn more in an op-ed from Bradley Tusk, Founder of the Mobile Voting Project: This hurricane season, mobile voting could empower disenfranchised voters
Workers Lacking Flexibility
Millions of Americans hold demanding jobs that make it difficult to take time off—from shift workers and childcare providers to first responders and healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses. Even when legally entitled to vote, many in these roles face rigid schedules, long hours, and limited access to polling places or mail drop-offs during open hours. Traditional voting methods often require time, travel, or coordination that these essential workers simply can’t spare. Mobile voting offers a powerful solution by removing time and access barriers, enabling voters to securely and privately receive, mark, and return their ballots in minutes—on their own schedule, without sacrificing patient care, classroom duties, or job security.
Working Mothers
74% of mothers with children under 18 are in the labor force. The average married mother performs 2/3rds of the work in their household. Single mothers often work several jobs and carry the full burden of running a household while managing child care. Their contribution to society is indisputable, yet they often lack representation and advocacy for the issues that most impact them. Voting on their phones is the easiest way to free time for all mothers to increase their participation and gain representation.
Voters Living Abroad
If overseas Americans were counted as a state, it would have a population roughly the size of Louisiana. Yet fewer than 8% of them voted in the 2020 election. An additional 40% desired or tried to cast their ballot but were unable to do so. Even in the most advanced regions of the world, the absentee process is incredibly difficult. Many faced significant challenges including unreliable mail, lack of access to printers or scanners, and the need to sacrifice ballot secrecy when voting electronically. Mobile voting offers a promising solution by eliminating logistical barriers, enabling voters to securely and privately receive, mark, and return ballots in minutes.
Additional Resources:
Federal Voting Assistance Program: Overseas Citizen Population Analysis