So here we are again on the first Tuesday after a Monday in November, and here I am again at my local public library branch/polling place after having sat for heaven knows how long waiting to use the single touch-screen electronic voting machine here. Well, at least the wait wasn't as long as it was a couple of years ago.
I suppose we're going to have to see another presidential election like 2000 before leaders in both parties get serious about nationwide electoral modernization. If astronauts can vote from orbit, why is it absolutely necessary for anyone to have to come in to a specific location only between 6 a. m. and 7 p. m. and suffer the twin ordeals of standing in line to have your registration checked, then waiting for the machine to become available? And if anyone has a good argument as to why Missouri can't set up early voting as has become commonplace across the line in Kansas, I'd like to hear it.
Here's an interim goal towards full online voting-you have to know that's where things are headed-we should perhaps work towards. Let voters come in and cast their ballots from their laptops or other wireless devices. No, I mean it-set up a hotspot at the polling place with a secure login page where the voter can self-verify his or her registration, then be presented with an online ballot similar to the one he or she gets on the current voting-machine touchscreen. Since voters will still have to physically come to the polls the potential some may see for fraud is reduced, and the effect should be the same as unwiring a library-voters without netbooks or Wi-Fi equipped smartphones shouldn't have to wait as long for a machine because those with such wireless devices won't need one.
Sure, it'll take a bit of work, but when has that ever been an excuse for not doing something worthwhile?
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