Online Voting

For the most part, our generation is very informed about technology and we rely on it a lot of the time. There have been several advancements in the technology area and a lot of changes over the years. One issue that has been brought up for a while now is whether we should have online voting in the Presidential elections. I think that this would be a dangerous idea and that we shouldn’t progress in this area of technology.

According to the Washington Post, in October 2010, the D.C. Board of Elections wanted to see if an internet-based voting system would work. They opened up the system for a weeklong period and invited all computer hackers to attempt to get into the system. Within just a few days someone had already gotten into it. This example illustrates the dangers of having voting take place online in the future. The area of computer science is a growing field, and I think people will get more experience in computer systems and how to break into them. I don’t think we could ever make it 100% secure. Another concern I have with online voting is the fact that it is the “Worldwide Web”. Anyone from around the world could attack the American voting system and cause us problems in voting. There are other dangers of online voting, such as dependency. Avi Rubin of CNN stated,  "If you allow online voting and you're unable to detect any fraud, but it turns out later that many computers were compromised ... there's no way to audit or backtrack or recount or do anything to figure out what actually happened.” I think this is a very valid point that shows how unreliable the internet can be sometimes. 

With how often people are on their computers, I think that more of our generation would be willing to vote online. I agree that it would be a lot easier to hop on the computer and do it. However, part of me thinks that older individuals in our country would be against the online voting and wouldn’t want to change the way it’s always been. I think it makes more sense to be against it rather than for it just because of the safety reasons. Overall, I personally don't think online voting is the best idea and we should keeping doing what has worked for the past few centuries. I understand that America is trying to go green and utilize the technology we have and I’m supportive of these advancements, but some things are just better left unchanged.