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November 8, 2016

 

We’re able to order groceries, pay our taxes, and even control our homes using technology, but yet for most people in the US, voting is an analog experience. Huge ledgers filled with our signatures have to be manually flipped though by election workers as we sign our names using a pen filled with ink. Technology is far from advanced when it come to voting on election day.

Even though we trust technology for many other applications in our lives, it’s been slow to reach the polls because we do not trust a machine to properly and privately cast our vote. There is too much room for error, though some states do employ some tech advances like scanners and touchscreens alongside a paper trail. The analog and digital approach to voting is expensive with respect to both materials and manpower.

With the recent hacks that took down Twitter and Netflix, there are real concerns about cybersecurity; the possibility of a hacker infiltrating the ballot box poses a compromise to the sanctity of the election process. It doesn’t seem like we will be able to vote online anytime soon.

While technology may not be present at the polls, it is still playing a big role in encouraging people to get out and vote. Elderly and disabled people can use tablets that have large font sizes, Democracy Live’s LiveBallot.com allows users to fill out sample ballots online to learn more about issues and to become a more informed voter. As technology putters into the pre-poll process, the future of voting being better enhanced by technology looks bright.

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