Voting Technology: Brave New World

As national elections approach, the media is buzzing about new voting technology and whether our votes (for any candidate) will actually be counted. Anyone interested in the latest news about the voting equipment being adopted across the country, local election experiences, and assessments should check out the Caltech-MIT Voting Technology Project web site. The Project brings together technical and social science experts from both schools to evaluate how reliable and secure American voting systems currently are, and to suggest uniform standards going forward. I also recommend Vote: The Machinery of Democracy for an eye-opening look into America's past experience with ballots, voting methods and machines. This online Smithsonian Institution exhibit visually tracks how voting has evolved over the course of our history along with social and technological change.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat