Mobile voting… Because we never have free time…

Since it’s primary season, I thought it might be fun to look at how emerging media may affect how people will soon participate as citizens. Online voting is slowly becoming accepted throughout the U.S. People can obtain credentials that allow them to cast their vote in city, county, and state elections. So far, online voting has been pretty secure. There have been some reports of software glitches, but almost no reports of people being able to log-in and vote more than once or hackers changing vote tallies.

But technology always moves forward. And we may soon see the first nation allow voting by mobile phone. In 2008, the small European country of Estonia announced that it should be able to allow people to vote with their cell phones in 2011. People can obtain an authorized chip for their phone that identifies who they are, their eligibility to vote, and allows them to vote one time on each race or issue.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28197990/

Even though I’m a skeptical blowhard, I actually think this is a good idea. It doesn’t really allow more people the ability to vote, but it does allow the voting process to be more accessible.

Think about all the terrible voting numbers in the U.S. We barely get 50% turnout for Presidential elections. Local and state elections are lucky to have 10-20% voter turnout. And that’s with online voting in some areas. But, as everyone knows (and I’ve lamented), people love their cell phones. Most can’t stop checking it at least once every five minutes. Perhaps if the U.S. makes it possible to be able to securely cast votes over cell phones, more people will become informed about the issues that affect their daily lives.

Aaron

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