Brutal honesty here: on
election day this past November, the entire Engadget staff (well, those of us with US passports) collectively agreed that casting our vote via SMS or some other incredibly simple method would be infinitely more awesome than trudging out in the streets and waiting in hour-long lines. Clearly, some higher-ups in
Estonia are on board with that concept, as its Parliament has approved a law that will likely make it the first nation on Planet Earth to give citizens the right to vote by phone in something that matters (American Idol notwithstanding). 'Course, those who choose to take advantage must first obtain a free authorization chip for their handset, which sort of kills the whole "not having to leave your house" aspect of all this. Ah well, at least we're moving in the right direction.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Patrick Joseph @ Dec 13th 2008 2:27AM
It will be an improvement when the people actually vote for the president, let's do away with the primitive electoral college system.
Remember 2000? the people voted for Gore and we got Bush.
carcomptoy @ Dec 13th 2008 2:41AM
Can we please not get into the whole debate of the Electoral College system here?
In any case, that's pretty cool the way they figured out how to do it. Because regular SMS would just be way too haphazard, so this at least has a provision for identifying the sender officially. Although, what exactly do you mean when you say "chip"?
diaspar @ Dec 13th 2008 9:36AM
Certificates are on a special SIM card, iirc.
usman @ Dec 14th 2008 4:27AM
I doubt how many users will be having mobile? senior citizens may not avail this oportunity how many phone can run application.
www.letmedefine.com
diaspar @ Dec 14th 2008 10:33AM
Well.. phone isn't the only possibility. There are still the traditional mark-your-vote-with-a-pen and already tested and functioning use-PC-and-IDcard voting. Mobile voting is just a neat bonus feature.
jason @ Dec 13th 2008 10:10PM
If you're edged 'cause I'm weazin all your grindage, just chill. 'Cause if I had the whole brady bunch thing happenin' at my pad, I'd go grind over there, so dont tax my gig so hard-core cruster.
galuple @ Dec 14th 2008 12:17AM
And naturally candidates with longer names will be at a disadvantage...
Richard Howell @ Dec 16th 2008 6:05AM
As you say, there's nothing about these proposals that will make voting any the easier, so turnout is unlikely to be boosted, and they may well turn out to be profoundly undemocratic: http://www.reviewsreviewed.co.uk/index.php/mobileblog/The-X-factor-Estonia-texts-the-end-of-the-secret-ballot.html