We can safely pay our bills, balance our bank accounts, and read confidential documents on our smartphones. But when it comes to elections, many polling places still revert back to the paper and pen. Perhaps, we only need to think back to the horrific Florida recount from 2000 and the hours-long lines during the last presidential election to consider that we really do need a makeover of the traditional voting system.
Now, a study from Rice University in Houston, Texas, has suggested that using a smartphone to cast your ballot might just be the smart change to the voting system that we need. After holding a mock election with 84 participants that included 48 smartphone users, the researchers discovered that those using devices actually made fewer mistakes on the mobile voting system compared to traditional voting methods of a electronic voting machine and the paper ballot.
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The study’s authors, professors Michael D. Byrne and Philip Kortum, and former students Bryan A. Campbell and Chad C. Tossell, also suggested that smartphones could increase voter participation. “Nobody likes to wait in line at the polling place, and so mobile voting offers the opportunity to cast votes when and where it is convenient for the voter,” Kortum said in a Rice news release.
Not surprisingly, the problem with smartphone voting is the issue of security and authentication. “Creating voting systems that retain the convenience of mobile phones while still ensuring the security and anonymity we enjoy with current voting technologies will be the biggest design challenge,” Kortum said.
But since America is full of inventors and problem-solvers, we have no doubt that a solution for that is on the horizon.
Tag: Voting
San Francisco to Let Residents Vote Online on How the City Spends Money
San Francisco is rolling out a new “participatory budgeting” initiative that would allow residents to choose how the city spends its tax dollars. The online voting process would be the first major U.S. city to use citizen crowdsourcing to make and improve policy decisions. According to a recent article in TechCrunch, “[The city’s plan] is for each city district to vote on $100,000 in expenditures. Citizens will get to choose how the money is spent from a list of options, similar to the way they already vote from a list of ballot propositions. Topical experts will help San Francisco residents deliberate online.” This is a great example of how the United States is starting to use online tools to engage people in a way that impacts their lives. If the model can work in San Francisco, the rest of the country could be well on its way to a truly democratic government.
[Image: Steve Jennings/Getty Images For Techfellows]