COVID-19 is impacting everything — even elections. I’ve always been genuinely puzzled why so many people are against online and mobile voting. We protect our money online and zip secure wire transfers around the world every day using online tools. We store super sensitive business information online. The census is conducted online. But for some reason we can’t have people vote online? In many cases, we make them stand in line for hours. How does that work during a pandemic? What are the arguments against mobile online voting? I wanted to understand this dynamic better, and what was really behind it.
For these reasons, I jumped at the opportunity to partner with Voatz (disclosure: Techstars is an investor in the company) to interview leading experts across the U.S. about the progress with online and mobile voting. Included were a former Director at the NSA, a County Clerk in Utah, a State Election Director in Oregon, and the first woman state treasurer and a former nominee for Governor in Massachusetts. It was a fun and personally enlightening discussion about making progress towards what I always thought of as an inevitable future, and also towards elections resilient against pandemics.
I hope you enjoy it, and I’d love to hear from you in the comments either way!
