With COVID-19 dominating the national conversation, there has been growing discussion about how to reduce crowds and lines at polling places during the 2020 election cycle. One possibility is to enable voting via smartphones. However, cybersecurity experts remain incredibly cautious given security concerns.

With today’s Iowa Caucus, the long slog to the 2020 Election is officially underway. In preparation for the General Election this November, West Virginia will become the first state to allow people with disabilities to vote with their smartphones.

Denver is hopping on the app-based voting bandwagon ahead of the 2020 elections.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) today released the finalists for its State IT Recognition Awards that recognize “outstanding information technology achievements in state government” in 10 categories, according to a NASCIO release.

Research firm Gartner has released its 2018 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report, which found technologies like artificial intelligence platform as a service, blockchain for data security, and quantum computing reaching the peak of inflated expectations, while technologies such as mixed reality and blockchain were on the downswing of excitement.

Hardik Bhatt is stepping down from his role as Illinois’ CIO to move to the private sector–joining Amazon in a public sector-facing role. To fill Bhatt’s shoes, current state CISO Kirk Lonbom is stepping up as interim CIO. Lonbom has worked in Illinois state government for more than a decade, and became state CISO in 2015.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has declared April to be Information Technology month in order to bring attention the state’s IT efforts and increase the IT workforce.