Estonia's Online Voting Would Solve A Lot Of Our Election Problems
Summary
From machines running versions of Windows that were discontinued half a decade ago to malfunctioning scanners and even missing power cords, not to mention lines snaking around the block, voting in America today can be a disaster. Imagine in the US, if instead of waiting an hour at a polling station for a half-broken machine using software that was discontinued half a decade ago, you could just pull up your web browser and vote from home. If voting in the US no longer required a physical trip to a polling station or requesting and mailing a paper ballot, imagine how much easier it would be to mobilize the legions of voters who have become accustomed to conducting their entire lives online. From born-digital millennials who prefer online services on through those who don’t have easy transportation to a polling station, offering web-based voting could dramatically reduce barriers to having our voices heard. Putting this all together, for more than a decade Estonia has proven the effortlessness and security of online voting, offering a model for the world that perhaps one day the US may embrace.