According to new research by Identity Theft 911, the upcoming election in Ohio has emerged as a test case for identity theft as a political issue, and may well serve as a proving ground for how well local governments can safeguard sensitive personal information in the new world of electronic voting. The lead-up to the election has been characterized by a number of scandalous incidents involving security breaches that have put the personal records of tens of thousand of Ohioans at risk for identity theft.

Identity Theft 911's research details a host of major problems in Cleveland's May primary, including the following: many voting machines were initially misplaced, making them vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves; workers were unable to operate the machines properly; other glitches caused the official vote count to be delayed an entire week. Also, after the voting ended, bags of memory cards, each containing thousands of votes and personal information, were sent from polling places to elections headquarters, unescorted by anyone from the elections bureau -- an egregious breach of security.

Experts are warning that the November election in Ohio may see a repeat of the voting problems that occurred in the May primary. A review board deemed it "an across-the-board failure to plan and manage the first countywide endeavor in electronic voting."

According to Steven Christenson, president of Identity Theft 911, "Voting and identity are closely related, as verification of the latter ensures the legitimacy of the former. What critics of electronic voting have overlooked from the beginning is the increased risk of identity theft posed by these voting systems. Identity verification is fundamental to legitimate elections, but in this case, major databases of sensitive personal information have been introduced into a system that is obviously flawed."

KW