A U.S. company, Integrated Biometrics, has been providing portable fingerprint scanners for use in Brazil to help register and verify voters. Much of Brazil is agricultural. With mobile fingerprint scanning technology, farming families who would have trouble traveling to cities to vote can be enabled through outreach to cast their vote.
Biometric authentication for voting has been in use for years in Europe. Apple brought biometric authentication into the mainstream in U.S. with Touch ID for the iPhone. Fingerprint authentication is now routinely used in the U.S. for accessing smart phones and mobile devices, for convenient payment transactions, for admittance to secure areas, and for express check-in at airports or events.
It seems only a matter of time before biometrics is used to verify voters in the U.S., at least partially, but there resistance to the idea of a digital identity registered with the government. Many feel it is invasive or a threat to privacy to share their biometrics, preferring to use a paper ID or passport.
Still, it would make voting easier: for people who don’t drive or have passports, for rural or low income areas, for the elderly and those in poor health, to name a few. It would certainly cut down on the number of deceased voters. And using biometrics to enable social service would help prevent social security and tax fraud.
Introducing biometrics in the U.S. voting process: Q&A with Dave Gerulski
Justin Lee, Biometric Update, October 16, 2016, an interview with Dave Gerulski of Integrated Biometrics
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