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| Photo: Votonuevolaredo.com |
The rapid evolution of technology during
the past few decades has entailed a generational mindset shift. While the older
generations have been generally adverse to change, today’s youth is easily
adaptable to the fast-paced integration of ever more advanced tools into the
world. Young people are open to incorporating new technologies into different
aspects of their life, and this is reflected on the wide implementation of e-voting
in colleges.
On an earlier
post we had mentioned how the development of e-voting technology is in the
hands of the youth. It’s been only about a year since a couple of Indian
students invented an electronic solution to the absenteeism problem their
country was facing, and now automation is taking over student unions in
colleges all over the world. The use of electoral technology has become so
widespread that news
on the subject are no longer focused on automation as a novelty but as an
everyday fact that is accepted and championed by students all across the US and beyond.
The speed with which higher education
institutions have implemented automated elections is explained by a simple
fact: younger people embrace technological innovation much more readily than
their older counterparts. College students understand that electronic voting
represents a big advantage in terms of security, reliability, and speed.
Instead of complaining about how e-voting might not be safe—an attitude
typically associated with the older generations reluctant to change—, students
are looking for a way to shield their electoral processes without having to
lose a valuable tool.
In Johns Hopkins University, for example, the National
CyberWatch Center Mid-Atlantic Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition
was held on April 10-13 in an effort to promote cybersecurity awareness. In
this contest, students tested their skills and knowledge to defend a fictitious
electronic voting system from cyberattacks. This was accompanied by a symposium
on e-voting, a job fair for college students, and a high school exposition.
Note that the aim of this event was in no way to evaluate electoral technology
as a threat, but as an opportunity for future engineers, scientists and
politicians to improve on a promise for the advancement of democracy.
People who were born surrounded by
technology and who have watched it advance as they have grown up are much more
accepting of it than their parents. This generational shift is much welcome, as
it means that the gates are now wide open for electoral automation, and there
is no way back. Most certainly, the next generation will talk about manual
voting as a historical curiosity.
