Just say no to (e)democracy

Last week, Dazza Greenwood, a privacy expert at the MIT Media Lab, spoke to our Legal Studies class a great deal about his strides towards promoting internet privacy, and all the great things added privacy could bring. Among the things mentioned, Dazza emphasized the changing role of government. With added privacy, the government could become more and more digital. He gave the example of the changing format of renewing a driver’s license. No longer will one have to wait in line at the RMV, instead one can just go to a website, and fill out some forms quickly. He further added with a center ID verification process, “e-democracy’ could be a great benefit to society. No longer will people have to go to the local town hall or elementary school to vote in a national election. Voters can simply turn on a computer, enter in a username and password, and choose a candidate. Also, people’s voting decisions could be kept anonymous. I am highly skeptical of this development. I know the technology will one day be available so it could work. I doubt people will let it. History is filled with countless examples of leaders fixing elections. Anyone who has any computer experience knows data on a computer is highly manipulative, so it is not illogical to think election results could easily be manipulated. Information technology workers could swing an election one way or another if they were bribed. Safeguards could be installed, but how do you guarantee they are actually working. National elections are far too important not to consider these possibilities. Also, how is it possible to recount electronic votes and have confidence in the results? Less than 8 years ago, the nation watched as the results of the Presidential election were challenged. I saw this as a sign of how great our system of democracy is because actual votes could be confirmed. We would lose that if we switched to electronic democracy. I do not watch the democracy of these country to be trusted to administrators running a software program. Sure it might improve voter “turnout” but at a serious cost.