Why can’t we vote online?

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

I went to my local polling station at 7am this morning to vote in the general election, when I arrived my name wasn’t on the list. I was told to call the council electoral services where they would be able to help me. After a brief conversation with the lady (who was very pleasant) she said that I hadn’t registered in Birmingham so I wasn’t able to vote. I was expecting them to have a computer at the polling station where they could lookup my details and obtain my voting number.

I’ve been living in Cornwall for the last six years and recently moved back to Birmingham, after seeing an advert for aboutmyvote.gov.uk at the start of April I went and registered by filling in the form, printing out the PDF and sending it by snail mail. Because it was a little late (but within the deadline), I wasn’t expecting to get a polling card through. Its clear that the paperwork wasn’t done in time therefore I lost my vote.

This got me thinking why we can’t vote online. If we can manage our money on a daily basis online, why can’t we vote once every four years online? In an ideal world, this morning I could have woken up, logged on, input my governmentID and national insurance number and voted online. If computers counted the votes there would be less margin for error and it would be done a lot more quickly.

Whilst there are also arguments against this, in modern times where the Internet is used by billions of people on a daily basis, I don’t see why our government can’t create a secure system for us to handle this.

Feel free to add any opinions in the comments below.

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Eliss

Friday, March 13th, 2009

I just downloaded Eliss for iPhone and on first touch it’s very addictive and fun to play. I don’t mean it addictive in a tower defense kind of way, addictive in a way that I actually want to play it over and over.

Anyway… if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, download it now!

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NYC Subway Calendar

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

I recently received my heart shaped nyc subway map and year planner from zeroperzero. I stumbled on it from kottke just before christmas and made the purchase (despite the shipping costing more than the calendar).

(more…)

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New Year

Monday, January 5th, 2009

resolutions include…

…listen to more music. make music. expand knowledge. expand everything. grow a little. drink more coffee. move to nyc. take more photographs. buy a globe that lights up. be kind. put a shelf up. get a new job.

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Visual Movie Reviews

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

The way forward: Visual Movie Reviews

via (kottke)

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Photoshop: as real as it gets

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

(link)(via subtraction)

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