The Internet has revolutionized the way candidates run elections, from email to viral videos to raising money, the Internet is now a resource that modern candidates need to use.
The one place it hurts, for now, is the act of voting, which has a number of issues. First, is making sure people who are registered are voting, and those who vote are who they say they are. Wouldn't it be nice if people could bring in a laptop or pick up a special number and use that to vote?
This morning, I got up before dawn and made my way to the local Starbucks before I arrived at the polling place which was maybe 2 miles from where I live. I arrived just before 6:30, half an hour before the polls opened. I was probably, hmm, 50th to 80th in line, and it took me maybe half an hour to get in and then only a few minutes to vote.
It helped that the local party sends out fliers suggesting how to vote down ballot, that is for every other position past president and vice-president. I checked into this last night and happened to stumble on this flier and brought it in with me.
Half an hour still feels awfully slow when you are waiting to vote, but the whole process was pretty efficient. It was worth coming in early given the lines stretched out the door once I was done.
But imagine if we could all vote in parallel. There wouldn't be lines, and we wouldn't even have to take much time off work as long as we had access to a computer.
Well, I think I'm going to get a bit of a siesta before heading to work.
Hopefully, the news will be good this evening.
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It took L and I about 50 minutes or so to vote, after driving to the polling place. The line was pretty long; a lot more than 80 people, I think. I brought a book, and L was surfing the web on her phone for most of the time. (She lost her signal for a while in one part of the line.)
To select how to vote, we'd gone through the sample ballot that morning and used the internet to look up information on the candidates. Perhaps better than relying on the party info you get in the mail, but still prone to misinformation.
We voted on touch screens; mine worked well, but Lauren said that hers was misregistered, and she had to select slightly above her desired check box.
The Montgomery County election didn't have that many ballot initiatives and minor offices; there were only four pages of questions, this time. I remember having to answer many more when I lived in College Park.
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