Online Voting For Military Serving Overseas

What would happen if all of our active duty members of the military serving overseas could vote in local and national elections with the click of a button?

Many advocates of the idea, say that finding a secure online system would solve the problem of military absentee ballots that often come in too late to be counted. Cyber security experts still feel the internet isn't 100 percent safe. This is why New Jersey Assemblyman Paul D. Moriarty says he wants the The Secretary of State to establish a pilot project that would use technology for an internet-based voting system that would ensure the security of the ballot and the integrity of the voting process for our troops.

The proposal by Assemblyman Moriarty would make official in New Jersey, what some states are already testing out.

According to the Verified Voting Foundation, this year, 33 states are allowing millions of overseas and military voters to use some form of electronic voting hoping to make the system more efficient. Moriarty tells Fox News, "it's a cumbersome process for someone overseas serving in the military to get an absentee ballot. They have to apply to the county clerk. The clerk has to send them the ballot. They have to fill it out. They have to send it back, and often times this may get lost in translation. It may not get back in a timely manner and it may not even be counted in an election."

And the numbers back him up. Percentage wise, more members of the military are registered than civilians, but their absentee votes are counted less than one third of the time than those by the general public, and 39 percent of Americans overseas said they didn't even get their ballots until the last two weeks of October, making returning those ballots on time nearly impossible.

On top of simplifying the voting process, Moriarty says online voting could reduce human error, preventing incidents like machine malfunctions and "hanging chads." We talked with John Weingart of the Eagleton School of Politics at Rutgers University who told us, "It is striking 10 years after the 2000 election when we thought that if nothing else, that election was going to lead us to make the election system work better. It probably works better, but it still has lots of problems and lots of opportunities for improvement, and this might be one of those opportunities for improvement."

The proposal doesn't have unanimous support; cyber security experts say it's a good idea, but there is still not enough safeguards in place that could prevent hacking and fraud. Assemblyman Paul Moriarty though will still push forward with his plan, hoping to have a draft on the governor's desk before the end of the year.

Read Fox News' full Days to Decide coverage here.