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How could the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement stand behind something that would give everyone a larger voice in politics today, while at the same time bringing our election system into the 21st century? Come out in full force behind a national movement to allow online voting for elections. Why online voting? How would the enactment of an online voting system for national elections change the way things operate in Washington D.C. today?
The answer to the first question, why online voting, is an easy one. Almost everything can be accomplished online today! Want to send an a letter to someone? Email. Want to pay your bills? Online payment. Want to order a pizza? Online ordering. Want to wire money from one bank account to another? Do it online. That's the point! Everything is done online these days so why not voting?
After doing a little research I was surprised to find out that we have had an online vote for a primary election in the United States. In 2000, the Arizona Democratic Party allowed online voting to take place for their primary election. This was the first time an election was allowed to happen online in the world! What I do not understand, is why that system has not caught on and moved to elections across the nation. With such an abysmal voter turnout rate in the United States, an online voting system would surely increase voter turnout just by virtue of it being easy to do as compared to the current system.
In the current system, you can either apply for an absentee ballot in which you can vote remotely via a mail ballot, or you can vote at the polling office assigned to you when you register to vote. Voting at the polls takes place in the middle of the workweek on a Tuesday for national elections, which means the typical person who works a 9-6 job has to rush to the polling office after work and stand in line to place their vote. With these limited options, it is no wonder why our voter turnout in the United States is so low. Who wants to do that? An online voting system would streamline the process immensely! Combine it with electronic voting machines at polling locations, and you could have elections results as soon as an hour after the last polling office closes.
How would the enactment of an online voting system for national elections change the way things operate in Washington D.C. today? The first thing it would do is change the percentage of voter turnout in a positive way. With the accessibility and ease that online voting would bring to national elections, not voting in elections would be hard to excuse. With an increase in voter turnout, more and more people could contribute to the national debate. In my mind, this means that big money, corporations, unions, and lobbyists would have less of an impact in elections because their influence has less of an impact of the demographic that is most likely to utilize online voting, the Millennials.
When it comes down to it, the main voice behind the OWS movement has been to get big money, corporations, unions, and lobbyists out of Washington! In my view an online voting system for national elections would go a long way to achieve this because the largest demographic that would use the system, Millennials, are less likely to be swayed by big money. Millennials also have a tendency to favor candidates that are more likely to work together with each other and solve the problems facing the country today, versus candidates that draw lines in the sand and stand on their principles while the country declines further and further. This is the exact change that needs to happen in order for the OWS movement to get what it wants! So what are they waiting for? Someone needs to get the word out!
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