EDITOR’S PICK--Technology is a wonderful thing. Think about all the things we can do online---you can buy practically anything. You can check out new vacation spots and you can register to vote.
You can do just about anything, except vote. (Video)
And when you talk to election experts, they will tell you that isn’t going to change in the near future. At the recent Future of California Elections conference in Los Angeles, California's Secretary of State Alex Padilla said there are “trust issues” that are preventing online voting from becoming a reality.
Two of his colleagues, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams and Oregon Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins said the idea is interesting, but the technology is not there yet. CA Fwd asked them why in the video above.
One piece of technology that is a reality--and was long overdue--went live last week.
A single, instantly updated database of registered voters in California was completed on Monday, as two final counties plugged in to an electronic database mandated by a federal law enacted in the wake of the contentious 2000 presidential campaign.
"It's been more than a decade in coming," Padilla said this week.
The $98-million project allows elections officials in each of California's 58 counties to easily track voters who move from one place to another and to quickly update their records in the event of a death or a voter deemed ineligible after conviction of a felony.
(Ed Coghlan is Contributing Editor and Special Correspondent for California Forward.)
-cw
