Overseas voters attempting to access forms to request a ballot or other official information about the upcoming elections in Arkansas are being made to find workarounds after being blocked from several state-run websites, officials said this week.
The problem occurs with the arkansas.gov and other related websites -- such those belonging to the secretary of state's office -- which are blocked to users outside the United States as a security measure, according to a spokesman for Secretary of State John Thurston.
The spokesman, Chris Powell, said earlier this week that the office has not received any complaints from overseas voters who were blocked from using the website.
However, after inquiries from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the office announced Wednesday that it would review its security measures.
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For Clayton Weeks, a 43-year-old user experience writer in Prague who is registered to vote in Lonoke County, the error message that appeared earlier this week when he attempted to download a form to request his ballot came as a shock.
A quick Google search to find the ballot application form sent him to the secretary of state's website, which was blocked, Weeks said. A link directing him to a customer support page was also blocked.
"It just kind of blew my mind that the website dedicated to providing absentee ballots to people abroad is inaccessible to people abroad," Weeks said.
Weeks, who said he has voted absentee in every presidential election since moving to the Czech Republic in 2001, said it was his first time encountering the problem. He said he was eventually able to access the website by routing himself through a private network -- or VPN -- based in New York.
But the technical workaround, he noted, might not be obvious to other voters.
Kevin Niehaus, another spokesman for Thurston's office, said that voters can call, email or fax their local county clerk to receive a copy of the form if they are unable to download it directly from the state's website.
Once overseas voters submit their absentee ballot request form to the clerk's office, they will be emailed a link to a website where they can download a copy of their ballot that they fill out and mail back to the clerk. That website, which does not use a .gov address, is accessible to users outside the United States, Niehaus said.
The issue of overseas voters being blocked from accessing state websites is not limited to Arkansas.
During the midterm elections two years ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Pennsylvania voters living abroad were sent emails that included a link with instructions for requesting ballots that were blocked due to their location. Similar problems existed in at least four other states at the time, the paper reported.
Earlier this month, Democrats Abroad -- the official party arm for Democrats living overseas -- posted a tutorial to its website explaining how voters can get around "geo-blocking" features on state election websites by using VPNs.
"We have identified several other states with this issue this year, and are working on addressing them through outreach to the state to ask them to open up their pages and provide access, and by providing information to voters on how they can bypass the geoblockers via free VPN solutions," said Julia Bryan, the global chair of Democrats Abroad, in an email Wednesday. "We always recommend that voters get in touch with their local election offices as well and make sure these offices know that they are adversely impacting their voters."
Seth Mays, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Arkansas, said the party has not received any complaints from overseas voters who were blocked from using the state's websites.
"We would direct that person if they were to contact us to reach out to the county clerk in the county in which they are registered," Mays said in an email.
In addition to providing forms related to absentee voting, the secretary of state's office also includes other services for voters on its website that are blocked abroad, such as district maps, voter registration forms, a list of candidates for state offices and access to those candidates' financial disclosures.
The arkansas.gov and affiliated domains are managed by the Arkansas Information Consortium, LLC. which is a subsidiary of NIC Inc., a company that provides digital services to many federal, state and local governments. The company's local subsidiary reports to a state board that includes Thurston and other members appointed by the governor.
Bob Sanders, the general manager of Arkansas Information Consortium, said that changes to block users outside of the U.S. were made to the state's websites around 2017 "at the direction of" state officials who were concerned about recent cyber attacks to the site.
"We followed industry best practices in order to mitigate these attacks," Sanders said.
Deputy Secretary of State Dwight Southerland said the office had begun a review of those cyber-security measures following questions by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to determine if the measures were still appropriate.
In the meantime, he said, voters can contact the board that oversees the state's web services, the Information Network of Arkansas, to be placed on a "white list" that gives them access to the site overseas. The list contains about 300 people, he said.
"It is all done in the intention of keeping the state website secure," Southerland said.
Overseas voters who are having trouble accessing the arkansas.gov website for election information may email help@ina.ar.gov in order to gain access to the website. In addition, voters can request the required forms to register to vote or request an absentee ballot by contacting their county clerk directly by phone, email or fax.
For Arkansas voters within the United States, information about obtaining an absentee ballot is available at https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/elections/voter-information/absentee-voting
The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 5, while the deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail or electronically is Oct. 27. Voters may request an absentee ballot and return it in person until Nov. 2. Absentee ballots delivered by mail within the U.S. must arrive at the county clerk's office by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3. Ballots from overseas and military voters must arrive by 10 days after the election, according to the secretary of state's office.
CORRECTION: Clayton Weeks, who now lives in Prague, is registered to vote in Lonoke County. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the county in which he is registered to vote.