January 18, 2000

2:29 PM

If you're in Arizona, you'll be able to vote online for your Democratic Primary candidatethis year. Nuts! I can't wait to see how this works out. All I can think is that it will be a security nightmare and hell on server resources to do that many writes to a database in a short period of time. I hope it's a success, and spreads to my state, so I won't have to go through the trouble of finding my polling place, waiting in line, and getting to work on time. You want voter participation to go above 20%? Make it easier.
posted by mathowie (4 comments total)

Voting online....

I always did think it wasdangerous, and maybe a threat to democracy - imagine some hacker getting in and changing the vote to reflect the opposite of what it really is....

Not a good idea....

Then again you're sorta safe in the US - you're only gonna have the Democrats or the Republicans in power.


posted by tomcosgrave at 6:31 PM on January 18, 2000

some would say it's a threat to democracy even if the process were free of hackers. Would those voting online be less informed than those driving to the polls? Would it introduce a technical slant, since you need to know how to use a computer just to vote?
posted by mathowie at 6:49 PM on January 18, 2000

Well, I'd hope it would not totally replace the good old "check this box" method of voting...so hopefully that would not be a problem - but that's a point about being informed.

I doubt it'd take off where I am (Ireland). The majority of folks aren't online much at all, and of those who are, I don't think could be bothered. Mind you, not a lot of people are bothered to vote here nowadays, such is the lack of confidence in our politicians - but that's another story!
posted by tomcosgrave at 7:09 PM on January 18, 2000

I'd rather have more caring voters than simply more voters. I say, let's go in the other direction. Instead of making it easier to vote, make it harder. Specifically, write-in candidates only. And the names have to be spelled right, too. Do we want people voting if they don't know who they're voting for? Sure, maybe only 1 percent will turn out, but it will be the 1 percent that can name all three branches of government.
posted by luke at 9:40 PM on January 18, 2000