I'm pretty bummed: I didn't vote on Tuesday.
Great struggle and sacrifice has been made so that I have the right to vote, so it's not something I take lightly. Also, like many, I want to be an active participant in creating our reality.
So I planned to vote in the afternoon. But after two meetings ran late, and I drove up and down the Valley, I had missed the 8 o'clock cut off date.
Now, I know this is my fault, and my responsibility. I should have managed my day much better, and have voted in the morning. My bad.
But voter turnout is painfully low. Yesterday, we're talking mid-20s, maybe low 30 percentages. I certainly won't argue that making it to the polls is more difficult, than say, back in the day by horse and carriage, but we are a population that buys our dish soap in bed.
I'm ready to vote online. Aren't you? What's stopping us?
California is a tech savvy state, so in 2000 Secretary of State Bill Jones actually put out a report on the feasibility of internet voting. Now looking aside the fact that this was 13 years ago (that's roughly 5 generations of silicon start-ups), let's explore their concerns:
1. Tech Threats. Viruses and trojan horse pose the same threat as ever, and an attack on your computer could prevent your voting submission or submit an altered ballot.
2. Voter authentication. Every voter has the opportunity to cast a ballot and no voter is able to vote more than one time. Right now, poll workers compare the signature on your registration, with your signature on your ID. I don't know why or how they do this, because my signature is a bunch of scribbles. Yet CA is concerned with getting you a "digital signature" to use on your ballot.
3. Privacy. Using a work computer? You don't want your network administrator to see your vote, do you? Well, truly it doesn't matter whether you do or don't. Secrecy is a cornerstone in our democracy. That's why e-voting is different than e-commerce. Banks monitor transactions, but no one should monitor your votes.
So, with these barriers, what's the process to implementation? My dream is 'remote internet voting'. That means using a computer not necessarily owned and operated by election personnel. Like the one I am typing on now. But that's not going to be the first step. At first, it's going to be internet voting kiosks at the polls. This will allow internet voting to be tested for authenticity, and minimized the threat of viruses. From then on, we'll be able to move into private residences (though that's a big jump), and maybe, one day, mobile devices.
Like I said before, this report came out 13 years ago. We better jump on this fast.
