Finding a better way to cast votes

Joshua Mimano
Published: November 5, 2008

It is amazing how the discussion on the merits or demerits of voting machines and whether they are going to be scrapped or replaced at great cost seems to take place outside the context of modern
technology and how we all live and function.

The arguments for dedicated voting machines, which are only used during the election cycles, go against the grain in the use and implementation of modern technology. It is as though the Internet did not
exist.

We carry out our banking online and submit our tax returns online and with great confidence in the security of the transactions. If we can carry out highly confidential transactions online every day, why do
we have to go to voting booths and use outdated machines or wait outside voting centers just to cast a vote?

The people in charge of the election process seem to be stuck in a time warp.

With modern Internet technology, it is possible for everyone in the country to have secure access to a voting system that requires user authentication from home, the office or any public place, such as
libraries and other social centers.

What is more, this access can be made available for a whole week, 24/7, during the election period, so that people without computer access or with disabilities can readily cast their vote without queuing.

Online Internet voting can be made as secure and confidential as any system and with security you would get system verification and audit trails to prevent any misuse.

It is time that Congress revisited the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (Drafted in part after the controversy of the 2000 U.S. presidential election) and added provisions that the denial of services or
bureaucratic delays in the registration and voting processes constitutes an infringement of the Act. The computerized statewide voter registration and the voting systems standards provisions of the Act
need to be reviewed in the light of modern computer usage, and the Department of Justice should initiate a nationwide review of the whole voting process to bring it in line with the use of modern
technology.

Some will argue that a statewide and federally approved online voting system will be too expensive to implement while ignoring the hours lost queuing nationwide and the subsequent cost and potential
inaccuracy of an inefficient system. The chaos of the 2000 presidential elections should remind everyone that voting requires the investment in the best possible processes.

JOSHUA MIMANO

Woodbridge