The Democratic National Committee will recommend that the state plans for virtual, telephone-based caucuses for Iowa and Nevada should be dropped over concerns about election security, the Associated Press reported.
State parties in Iowa and Nevada planned to allow some caucus-goers to cast votes over the phone in February in lieu of showing up to the meetings. The virtual plans were made to open up caucus voting to more people, but DNC leadership is reportedly concerned that the technology won’t protect against potential hacking.
According to sources with knowledge of the DNC’s decision who spoke to the AP, several presidential campaigns reached out to party leadership with concerns about potential hacking. DNC leadership is also reportedly particularly sensitive to the issue given its servers were hacked by Russian operatives last year.
The decision to offer phone-based voting was developed after the DNC asked the states to open up voting access to people who work evenings or have disabilities that bar them from the regular neighborhood meeting process.
