1065 iVote and GoogleChoose
First off, happy labor day to all my union brothers and sisters in Sagaftra, Nabet/CWA, the Wire Service Guild and the WGA. And to members of IATSE, IBEW, and the Newspaper Guild. Solidarity forever!
Now, to the business at hand.
Time to download the latest pad and phone app, the most important one since Solitaire for Android or Backpage Cruiser for iPhone. It’s the internet voting application, iVote for iPad and iPhone and GoogleChoose for the rest of us.
Since the latest mobile devices have front cams to go along with the back cams, all the states that are insisting on photo i.d.s can use live pictures and their facial recognition software to certify that you are not using a the name of a dead person stolen from a tombstone to vote twice or three times. (Voter fraud is more widespread than you think! Especially among poor and minority and illegal immigrant voters! Can’t have enough security.)
And think of the money everyone will save because there need be no absentee or military duty ballots. You can vote from your villa in Switzerland or from the battlefields of Pakistan, Iran and Syria at the same time as everyone else.
So you pass muster, the ballot opens up on the screen and there you are on the 6:35 to Seaford, doing your patriotic duty. No worries about finding a parking space at the polling place. No need to rub elbows with your moron neighbors. And best of all, no lines.
Of course right thinking Americans will try to blast this out of the 4Gsphere. Republicans fear big Democratic turnouts, you know -- something over 12 percent. So they’ll cluck about community and the importance of making a special effort. But they will lose -- both on the pollingPAD and in the various offices into which they are trying to lie their way.
But with the major players in the tech world behind this great leap forward, the Republicans have no chance of trashing it. They’ll need help from like minded Democrats.
Voila! Instant end to inter party gridlock. Everyone wins. Except the jerk behind you on line who insists on violating the laws that sane states have: no electioneering within 50 feet of the entrance to a polling place. Soon you’ll be rid of him, too.
Shrapnel:
--Why did the Republicans invite Clint Eastwood to speak? Because John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston and the other four conservative tough-guy actors are dead. And Fred Thompson is seen as soft on unions.
--We salute the recent push to buy local fruits, vegetables, meat and baked goods. It helps build community, neighbors helping neighbors in a grand kaleidoscope of warmth and a spirit of cooperation. And at no time worry about the work-downsized over the road trucker who kills his kidneys to bring in that icky outside stuff, even though he's somebody's local, too.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2012
1 comment:
For one thing, I'd want to be sure that internet voting could be done securely. That's no small concern.
For another, encouraging people who don't give a damn to vote by making it effortless is not necessarily good policy. When the indifferent and uninformed don't want to bother going outdoors to express themselves, the rest of us aren't afflicted by their poor judgment.
Voting should be eminently possible, with no unreasonable conditions such as the Republicult wants and ample time for everyone to get to the polls. The disabled and those who don't want to vote (say) in a church should be free to vote absentee.
But voting is a civic act that ought to include proudly presenting oneself somewhere to cast a ballot. It should be a special occasion. It should mean something. When it is no different from ordering toothpaste online, it becomes trivialized and so, believably, do the implications of citizenship.
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