Sidelines
We can now shop online, work online, bank online, go to college online and even have sex online. Surely, voting online has to be right around the corner, right? Wrong. Not in California, at least not yet.
While Arizona has proved to be the pioneer of Internet elections, conducting its Democratic primary online last March with no bugs detected and the highest voter turnout in recent history; California ranks a conservative 22nd in the race for e-government, according to a study by the Public Policy Institute.
Steve Nissen, director of innovation in government at the Governor’s Office, described Gov. Gray Davis’ position on electronic elections as “very cautious.”
“We don’t have confidence that technology is in place that can protect the sanctity and security of the vote. … The worst thing that could happen would be an electronic election riddled with deceit and fraud that would halt all our efforts toward electronic government,” he said.
Proponents of online voting tout its efficiency. Internet elections could provide instant ballot dissemination and vote tallying, as well as a reduction in the use of paper and staffing. Polls indicate that online voting appeals to young voters and the working class, who will not have to take time off to vote if they use computers at work or home, which may increase turnout in two typically non-voting segments of the population.
Despite these benefits, the government of the state that leads the world in technological innovation has no plans to undertake the development of online voting. This year’s budget for e-government development is slated entirely for the creation of online business license applications. Nissen did add that the government would observe the results of other state’s online election experiments, “to see how things go with them before we attempt anything statewide.”
Technology is still creeping into California’s democratic process, however. On Election Day 2000, Riverside County plans to make history by hosting the largest touch-screen election to date. The placement of touch-screen monitors in polling booths will make voting “easier, faster, more secure, more accurate and timely in terms of tallying election results,” said Michele Townsend, of the Registrar of Voters Office, in addition to cutting taxpayers’ election costs by $600,000 this year.
If such local experiments prove successful, we could see a change in statewide policy. Nissen says, "Online voting will come someday … very well by the next election." Just don’t expect the California government to lead the change.