Does it make sense to simplify our elections and allow smartphone voting? It seems like a good idea on the surface, but would it be safe from hackers? It seems like we have an app for everything these days, what about a voting app? Well, this topic recently came up on our Think Tank, and one thinker said;
“I have to admit that it is very hard to trust the government and it gets harder every day. So I can fully understand the complications of giving the government more freedoms, however I don’t think the voting app will continue to give away freedoms than just going to a physical vote. The app is just a faster way to do it and it saves the average American a couple of bucks on gas driving back and forth.”
Regarding a ‘voting app’ and misuse; well just a tool to improve efficiency though and see a voting app would just be a tool for a faster feedback loop for the government and politicians in one sense that would be a wonderful thing in another it allows the government move faster. One of the reasons I think we have checks and balances is to slow down government change, to prevent government from moving too fast and catching people off guard.
In a big, complex system, stability is important and if things change too fast and people aren’t sure, they stop spending and companies stop investing and we have problems. People who have done long-term planning can get caught up in quick changes and lose their savings, and politicians can push their agendas faster, which is also a problem.
I guess it depends on how it’s used, and we wouldn’t know until we tried it. There are poll apps and survey apps, but they are not used much, once they were sponsored by the government, they would be used all the time: how often they are used is important, how often they should be used, and for what kinds of things What if citizens want to opt out? Don’t you vote? Don’t want incessant texting?
Then, like our electoral apathy, it would set in. What happens when people vote and the government bureaucracy does something else anyway, which is often the case, even bills and laws in Washington DC are often the exact opposite of their name; There is nothing affordable about the “Affordable Care Act,” for example. Think about this.
