With an aging electorate, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which puts on the much-anticipated Oscars ceremony each year, has not had the easiest time embracing online voting for the film awards.
Many members complain that the voting process has been made anything but straightforward by the "military-grade" security deployed on the voting site to prevent fraudsters from manipulating the results.
According to the Atlantic Wire, the academy consulted with Everyone Counts to come up with a secure ballot system, but the multi-step, multi-device verification process had some academy members shaking their heads instead of making their selections.
In order to vote, academy members are reportedly required to create a new password separate from their AMPAS account and to register their cellphone number.
When they vote, members are asked to verify it with a unique PIN sent to their mobile device; the process is very similar to the two-step authentication method that banks require for customers to access their accounts online.
Fifty-four percent of the Academy membership is at least 60 years old, and many people that age have had only limited exposure to modern computing and the Internet.
The voting difficulties have AMPAS worried that members will simply give up and not vote rather than deal with unfamiliar security protocols.
There is reportedly a postal ballot process for those who cannot or do not wish to vote online. Either way, voting for Academy Award winners ends tomorrow (Jan. 4).
Results are to be announced at the awards ceremony Feb. 24.