VOTE ONLINE ... Click the Rascals Out !
Democracy is not dead, but how we conduct it is obsolete.
|
While centralized bureaucracy is not about to disappear, its limitations are clear and it goes against all the trends.
In every progressive society, there is a shift away from large-scale
corporate economics to individual entrepreneurialism, from investing in
infrastructure to investing in human capital, from confrontation to
co-operation, from isolationism to global interdependence.
The Internet
will change politics in capitalist and socialist societies alike,
educating voters about the issues and providing for more intelligent
election outcomes and increased voter participation.
The Internet is fast creating an environment where citizens can comprehend more deeply
both the nature and the implications of any issue. The Web provides
independence from traditional media, bringing more information, at a
faster pace, to more people, who have an greater ability to understand
and analyze it.
It is astonishing in this day and age that people are even required to register to vote.
Database technology allows us to know who are eligible and where they
reside. They should be automatically registered and notified by mail or
e-mail when, where, and how to vote – preferably at home. That way,
there is no excuse for not voting.
| All truly democratic nations will eventually move to e-voting from home. In turn, disenchanted voters will be drawn back to participatory democracy, or “partocracy,”
and turnout will double.
This will go far beyond electronic town halls
to ultimately create a real-time process that replaces status-quo
parliaments and inconvenient ballots. In short, we have the power – and
the right – to install a new political system more suited to the
Internet era.
Since so many voters choose
to stay home on Election Day,
why not just let them vote there?Astronauts out in orbit can vote in Texas elections by e-mail using a secret password.
The first astronaut to do so voted in the 1997 election from the old
Russian space station Mir. Surely we don’t all have to go into orbit, on
a foreign spacecraft, before we can vote online?
If we can vote from space online,
then we should be able to vote on Earth online.
Rain or shine, none of us should need to
go out to a polling booth on Election Day 2020
because the system hopefully will be changed.
|
|