Using the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) as its fig leaf, Oregon elections officials are busy looking into the ‘next big thing’ to prevent people from ever having to go to the polls again.
Oregon officials have been using helping the disabled as the reason behind piloting the latest gadgets to make voting easier. Just recently we discovered the state was going to Vote By Phone here, here, and here for the disabled. Now they’re going to computerized voting for the disabled. See the story here (note the story did not appear in the Zero).
As we know, the state’s intent is to test drive the programs on the disabled to make the case for wholesale changes in voting.
Can you see that there might be some problems with the state having our personal email information at their fingertips? Anyone? Anyone?
If they’re so intent on changing the ways we vote, I suggest we go back to polling places, a privacy curtain, and the feeling of doing one’s civic duty.
By the way: did we ever have a report on the results of the vote by phone experiment?