Right now, voters have to get to their local poll location between 6AM and 9PM to vote. That is a large range, however, it isn't always achievable and is a major turn off to most people in general. If one is abroad during voting day, that person must acquire an absentee ballot and have it mailed to their districts polling location by voting day. For those who really don't wish to deal with the hassle of voting day, they may register for a mail-in ballot that will be mailed to them two weeks before voting day, acting as a reminder to vote and permitting plenty of time to send in their vote. However, this is still a lot of effort that should not need to be exerted.
The solution to getting voters to the polls is to bring the polls to the voters, and everyone already has the tool in their pockets. By now, I'm sure you have guessed I am suggesting we vote with smartphones, and you would be correct.
The most convenient possible way for anyone to vote is for a notification to be pushed to phones with a voting application. Simply navigate to the application, input some sort of two-factor (at least) authentication, and the user selects their desired candidates. The vote goes out to the servers and the user should receive a confirmation that the vote was received. In addition to the utilitarian functionalities, the app could be used to educate people using a system like ISideWith (link below). Of course this all sounds great before you consider the potential issues.
Security is one of the largest issues in technology today and would certainly be the largest when considering a voting application. The government has all our information already, so that's not really the main issue. The issue is that there is no supervision of the voting process itself. There is nothing stopping one with malicious intent from forcing another to enter their authentication and vote unwillingly. Then again, that is an extreme example, a few dozen votes ultimately don't matter, and I'm not certain we should blame the voting application for assault. What about candidates or lobbyists bribing people to vote a certain way? Well, I guess that probably happens under the table already. How about being able to see how other people vote? If keeping your vote private was that important, vote in a closet.
Actually, nevermind. Just stop the mass vote spoofing and DDoS. Then we're good.
ISideWith - http://www.isidewith.com/
The most convenient possible way for anyone to vote is for a notification to be pushed to phones with a voting application. Simply navigate to the application, input some sort of two-factor (at least) authentication, and the user selects their desired candidates. The vote goes out to the servers and the user should receive a confirmation that the vote was received. In addition to the utilitarian functionalities, the app could be used to educate people using a system like ISideWith (link below). Of course this all sounds great before you consider the potential issues.
Security is one of the largest issues in technology today and would certainly be the largest when considering a voting application. The government has all our information already, so that's not really the main issue. The issue is that there is no supervision of the voting process itself. There is nothing stopping one with malicious intent from forcing another to enter their authentication and vote unwillingly. Then again, that is an extreme example, a few dozen votes ultimately don't matter, and I'm not certain we should blame the voting application for assault. What about candidates or lobbyists bribing people to vote a certain way? Well, I guess that probably happens under the table already. How about being able to see how other people vote? If keeping your vote private was that important, vote in a closet.
Actually, nevermind. Just stop the mass vote spoofing and DDoS. Then we're good.
ISideWith - http://www.isidewith.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment