Why Aren’t We Voting Online Yet?

By JASON WALKER, Columnist

Now that the election is finally over and history has been made, blah, blah, blah, let’s get the voting process fixed up.

Why should we have to leave home or work early, drive out of our way and fight traffic getting to some random elementary school just to wait in line for hours to cast a vote where some near-sighted grandma with a clipboard is the last guardian protecting the so-called sanctity of our democracy?

It’s time we take voting online. Security may have been a concern in the past, but the strides we’ve made in online security and identity verification have made the possibility of voting online a much safer alternative.

Nothing is 100% secure, but I’ve been doing my taxes online for almost 10 years and I can barely clear security to view my own information. I have to change passwords every other week to log on to my computer at work. I have to type in two barely legible words compiled of random letters to buy tickets on Ticketmaster. I can access all my banking information and pay all my bills from my cell phone, but I’m still filling out a Scantron card in some dank firehouse to elect the new leader of the free world?

Can’t we get Apple to take a year off from creating a smaller iPod to create some new proprietary voting software? I can’t get any of the stuff I downloaded from iTunes to play on a non-Apple devise. They probably already have the technology to allow you to vote from a Nano iPod, so why should I have to leave my house?

There are already several companies specializing in online voting. It would probably create jobs and help stimulate the economy if the government outsourced the creation and maintenance of its online voting methods.

Any company with a fat government contract should be motivated enough to ensure the security of your vote. To be sure, you could have their systems and results audited by other contractors. Sic PricewaterhouseCoopers on them and I bet they’ll keep their affairs in check. Throw a little cash around and there will be more than enough checks and balances in place to assure an accurate election.

At this point the list of benefits far outweighs the negatives.

There would be fewer avenues for tampering or error. Your ballot can’t mysteriously end up in the trash. Some absent-minded yokel won’t be scanning your ballot upside down or incorrectly instructing hundreds of people how to fill out their ballots. Even the most competent volunteers with the best intentions can make mistakes after 10 hours of manning a polling station.

You could vote from anywhere in the world online, and participation would increase. More college students, military personnel and travelers would be voting since there would be fewer hoops to jump through. Registration would be much easier or even done away with completely. Slackers like me would have fewer excuses not to vote. Poll results would be gathered in a fraction of the time. Less traffic f’ing up my morning commute.

No more navigating through crowded municipal parking lots like it’s Christmas season at Garden State Plaza (big up Jersey), trying to find a spot and standing in miserable November weather for hours.

Around now maybe you’re thinking “What about the people who don’t have Internet access?”

1. They won’t be reading this so I don’t care.
2. Everyone at least knows one person with Internet access.
3. You can go to a café, a library, a church ― pretty much everywhere in civilization, you backwater Neanderthal, get a computer already!
4. If you’re old and all this new-fangled technology goes over your head, we’ll keep the polls open for you on Election Day or send someone to your nursing home with a laptop to walk you through it.

While we’re at it, we should move Election Day to the weekend. The whole reason we vote on Tuesday has become irrelevant. With early voting becoming more popular we’re already moving away from a single-day election. It could even go from Saturday through Tuesday if you’re really that attached to the first Tuesday tradition.

Other countries have shown that multi-day elections increase voter participation. Also, holding an election online over a period of time would not be as costly as the elections we run now. Actually, there would be more money to be made.

SNL can run specials for a week straight. The 24-hour up-to-the-minute polling results bonanza would have every anchor, reporter, politician and pundit on the edge of their seats for days. Live television coverage and YouTube videos of people submitting their votes would canvas every media outlet. Election-themed parties would happen all weekend! Drink specials would be available at bars and clubs without the burden of having to go to work the next day! Candidates would be crisscrossing the country as results came in trying to boost their numbers in various states, like a coach making in-game adjustments! Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes! The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together … mass hysteria!

Jason Walker may be reached at Jason_R_Walker@comcast.net.

Symbolism of an Obama Presidency Can’t be Denied

By MATT KENNARD, Columnist

I am caught in two minds by this election. I am fed up with the two-party system in the U.S., which has two wings of the same business party. If I was in a swing state I would vote for Ralph Nader. But there is something special in Barack Obama’s success. Not because of him per se, although the fact that his dad was a Kenyan farmer and he has now risen to the top is a great moment for the U.S. and the world.

I am talking about what he has come to symbolize – the anger and discontent he has co-opted. He will probably do what every other Democrat has done and sell out his constituency, but Obama has come to symbolize a fight back against the insanity of the Bush era, which has seen some of the most dogmatic and dangerous politicians in the history of this country, and their policies have been a disaster for Americans and world peace.

Obama is where he is because people are angry at the establishment, which has done them over again and again. Something must be said for his opposition to the war in Iraq as well, at a time when that was an unpopular position to take in this country, even though it was a completely insane second gambit in the war on terror.

I live in Harlem and there is a real buzz here which is very moving no matter what you think of the Democratic Party. This country used to be full of racism, but now the melting pot has won out. Obama is a testament, not to his own personality or talents, but to the hard work of the men, women and children who were killed, imprisoned and disdained when they were fighting for their civil rights decades ago.

This is a collective effort on behalf of many people. We should be glad that this symbol was electable, but the fight will continue so that he enacts some policies that will actually help people out, not, a la Clinton, oversee a widening of the gap between rich and poor and the bombing of more defenseless countries. The work is beginning now.

Matt Kennard can be reached at MattKennard@gmail.com.

There’s No Sunshine When You’re Voting

By CRYSTAL PROENZA, Managing Editor

This Sunday I witnessed democracy at its best. Or worst. I’ll leave that up to you to decide. I’ll only insert my very opinionated voice here and there to help sway you.

Hundreds of Floridians of all shapes and sizes stood (and sat) on line in the baking sun on a soggy library lawn to cast their early votes at a polling station in Broward County.

“We’re here to do our civic duty,” voters smiled under sun-shielding umbrellas while feasting on bag-fulls of snacks and drinks. After catching a glimpse of the local news, which promised long lines at early voting locations, thousands of voters came out to the polls prepared. Students read their homework; teachers graded papers; parents yapped on cell phones or looked over their kids’ shoulders as they level-uped on PS2s and DS Lites. One couple even brought along a box of Christmas cards to address.

I arrived unprepared. I personally didn’t believe the hype, thinking I’d wait an hour, tops. The longest I’ve ever waited to vote in my home state of New Jersey, in one of the most densely populated cities in the country, was about 10 minutes. Little did I know when I moved to the Sunshine State this year I’d be in for a six-hour frustrating waiting game just to practice my US-born given right to vote.

According to CNN, 24 million citizens voted early in the country as of Monday afternoon. “Why?” is what everyone is asking. “Why not vote on Nov. 4?” My fellow line formers told me it was because they didn’t want to get caught in long lines on Election Day. Many were afraid they’d get docked pay if they arrived at work late, or left early to vote before the polls closed. College students traveled home from elsewhere in the state to vote early because they had class on Tuesday. One woman said that she wanted to vote early because she had cast an absentee ballot in 2004, and found out later that her vote may have been lost with a number of ballots that went missing.

The Obama campaign had urged Floridians to vote early for weeks through phone calls, direct mail and home visits, and I assume some supporters had shown up for that reason. I hadn’t heard that anyone was asked to vote early by the McCain camp. After standing in line with about 600 people for six hours, it was pretty clear that most citizens showed up just to make sure their vote counted.

I have to admit, at first I was touched by the fact that so many of my neighbors and fellow Floridians cared about our government so much that they were willing to take hours out of their day to practice their “civic duty.” Then as the hour-three mark approached and we’d only moved around two sides of the library, with an entire parking lot loop to get through, I knew I wasn’t the only one who sat down in the grass and wondered, “What kind of country is this?”

Big bad America – we think we’re the epitome of democracy. The truth is, we can’t even run our own elections efficiently – never mind those of a country that we risk our own citizens’ lives to impose our voting processes on.

As voters turned sour, they broke the line, turning to each other to create conversation circles.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” was a frequently shared sentiment. These people were trying to avoid the chaos being promised on Nov. 4 and ended up right in the center of it. Slowly, the complaining turned into brainstorming about how the waiting issue could be resolved in the future. Some suggested more voting officials to make the process more efficient. Others suggested more machines. A large number of Broward County residents said they’d love to have online voting.

“If we can buy things with our credit cards online, why can’t we vote online?” a frustrated woman asked. Everyone agreed, there’s got to be a better way.

Whether Election Day voting goes smoothly or not, I know I won’t be the only angry American that spent a long Sunday learning how inefficiently our country’s democracy is being executed.

Crystal Proenza may be reached at proenza@gmail.com.

Problems with Voting “Pro-Race”

By JASON WALKER, Columnist

Be careful what you wish for.

The thing that bothers me the most about this election is the unapologetic “I’m voting for Obama because he’s black” sentiment that seems to be prominent among many African-Americans.

It’s not racist, it’s “pro-race.” If you’re going to accept that, then you can’t point the finger at anyone who says they’re voting for McCain because he’s white.

Caucasians still represent the majority in terms of those who vote. Even if 99% of registered black voters actually came out (stop laughing) and all voted for Obama, he probably would not win by a great margin, if he won at all.

Obama is smart enough not to be counting on black votes to win. He’s focusing his energy on getting votes for his ideas, not the color of his skin. He doesn’t need to pander to the black community. He knows no matter what he does his black constituency is not going anywhere.

Did you ever wonder about that 20-30% that still supports Bush? Those are the people who voted for him for their own biased reasons and make excuses for him no matter what mistakes he makes. Sound familiar?

So don’t say, “people in this country are racist,” if Obama loses. You can’t have it both ways.

Don’t get upset when you find out that he’s not looking out for you any more than any other politician. He isn’t going to win and start crip walking across the stage at his inauguration.

Don’t start feeling strong and getting too cocky either. Obama wouldn’t even be where he is if it wasn’t for the white people who are supporting him. If you alienate those people, you will see his popularity go down.

You may also be kissing goodbye to a big chunk of the “white guilt” that the many have been unwittingly benefiting from in this politically correct climate of ours. The pendulum, that has swung as far as to cost people their jobs for making remarks only a handful view as racist, can swing the other way very quickly.

Most of this country’s wealth is still owned by a small group that includes very few minorities, so it doesn’t have to stop at politics either. Affirmative action was established to counteract the same sentiment that is being expressed by many black voters. The other side of the coin is not very pretty. Skin color has as little to do with someone getting hired as ever, but if the field is even then it is always easy to side with your own, black or white. So when you eliminate the motivation to consciously make an unbiased decision you may end up losing much more than you bargained for whether Obama wins or not.

It’s also extremely hypocritical to participate in the same kind of thinking those in power have been admonished for using for so long. Nepotism, favoritism and preference are all in favor of the owners of the wealth. In times like these the ranks tend to close up tight, making it harder for anyone, especially minorities, to get higher paying jobs or even keep the jobs they have. It’s natural to rely on what you’re familiar with when times are tough, and when the wealthy turn to each other that will leave the rest of us out. But remember, it’s not racism, it’s just being “pro-race,” right?

It may be nearly impossible for Obama to improve the black image in this country. African-Americans are still suffering from a syndrome that associates them with every criminal on the evening news and none of the heroes that are profiled on the same programs. There are so many minority leaders at all levels of government and business that no one should need to point to Obama to say “I can make it.” If anything, the odds are more likely for someone to say “I told you so.”

Maybe that’s the real issue. Maybe before the country can be ready for a black president it needs to also be ready for a mediocre black president. I would like to think that successful or not an Obama term would provide evidence that we’ve ascended to a level of equality in this country that we will never relinquish; but that’s only a dream.

If Obama wins he needs to be successful or not only will the country not accept another minority candidate for a while, but African-Americans spirits will be diminished. Some will make the excuse that he was never given a fair chance. Some will bury their heads in the sand and not accept failure. But most will just be let down knowing that they would probably not see another minority-led administration for a long time.

It’s not an easy job. Many great men have had disappointing stints as the head of state. Given our current climate the odds are not very good. The outcome could have a vast effect on the world we live in.

So please, at least read a few articles and come up with a reasonable excuse to vote for Obama. Whether he wins or not, the future of the country may depend on it.

Jason Walker may be reached at Jason_R_Walker@comcast.net.