i saw this article: http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech....ap/index.html and i got to thinking.....

#1 - just how safe is the idea of electronic internet voting? i mean the idea is an interesting one, but how long till we would have an election where someone that the news will deem a hacker takes it upon him or herself to impose his feelings on who should win the current election.

#2 - how good of an idea is electronic voting. i mean, the current system does have it's benefits. it does weed out all the lazy people. if one is too lazy to go to the polling place then that person is most likely too lazy to have spent any time trying to understand the issues and would probably vote based on quality of hair and political party affiliation. this is not to say that most of the voters who make it to the polling place are well informed or have any better methods of picking a candidate. i figure i could throw a dart at a board to pick who i vote for and be just as informed about the person i picked as 60% of the voting populace (60% is actually a low estimate, but one of my new years resolutions is to be a little more optimistic.) but with electronic voting any idiot who can dial up the internet (and there are plenty of them) can vote. i understand that this is the idea of democracy, but when this idea was founded people were informed and actually cared about the fate of the nation and not wo had a better personality or "seemed to know what they were talking about." i can see it now.... a couple aol users voting on there lunch break who never heard of the candidates... or even better, some guy voting after shooting back his 5th scotch on the rocks, cause he can be drunk and vote since he never has to leave the house. and think even harder... do we really want people who picked aol as there isp picking who should run the country. but seriously.... the idea of democracy was a good one, but i think the sysem has become flawed as people started to care less. i think internet voting is going to just amplify a problem that is already existing. it will make voting even more random and hap hazard then it already is. and it won't really eliminate the idea of recounts and such. also... don't even get me started on if electronic voting becomes the standard over all... (ie polling places will just have computers set up for the people to vote on.) senior citizen's had enough time with old technology. (take florida for example) and if anyone here has ever seen a senior try to slide his or her debit card in one of the checkout card readers know that old people (as well as alot of younger ones) are going to hard times with the new technology.