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| Source: The Daily Caller |
In the United States, they talk about
having a government that is of the people, by the people and for the people.
That is why elections are held.
One of the challenges with this kind of
system is that the elected officials may not necessarily or accurately reflect
the views of their constituents. The United States of America is largely a
two-party system: Democrats and Republicans. However, even those who vote one
way or the other may not agree with all the opinions of their chosen candidate.
How can elected governments offer better
representation?
While it certainly would address the
problem completely on its own, e-voting can play a critical role in
facilitating a process that could allow for better and more diverse
representation of the population. With paper ballots, there is inherently
limited space on the ballot and only a limited number of candidates can be
listed. Furthermore, if there are any last minute additions, it can be nearly
impossible to add them to a paper ballot. However, using a direct recording
electronic (DRE) voting machine, this change can be made from a centralized
location and easily distributed among all the machines in time for an election.
What happens when a larger number of
parties or candidates want to make it onto a paper ballot? An extreme example
of this can be illustrated by the
Senate ballot paper by the Australian Electoral Commission. There are 46
parties registered for that election with 11 more still up for consideration as
of early July. The net result is a piece of paper that is 1.02 meters wide.
That's somewhat comical, to say the least,
but it is also unwieldy and could cause logistical issues when it comes time to
counting the ballots. Even if voting machines are not used, e-voting technology
to scan and tabulate the ballots would significantly improve this process. The
extra wide ballot could be fed into an appropriate optical scanning machine and
the vote counted in an electronic fashion. This is far more efficient and
expedient than a worker or volunteer unravelling the giant paper and looking
for the votes manually.
Voting machines have
evolved a great deal since the days of the original "ballot"
boxes with the depositing of balls into clay pots. An automated voting system
can improve the democratic process and allow for better representation of
constituents, because the technology is far more flexible and can allow for a
near infinite number of candidates and parties.
This way, a government of the people and by
the people can really be of the people and by the people, rather than having to
choose a candidate that you prefer only slightly more than his opponent.
