Bring Back Democracy-- Internet Voting!


How better to bring American freedom and Democray into the 21st Century than the public to vote on every legislative bill that impacts this country. Our current economy rests on Internet security and Web communication is the 'gold standard' for proving the sources of information, which would be true for voting. Voter fraud would be most protected by voting via e-mail. Even if 1 in 300 vote, that is far more representation than we have now.

    Most of our wealthiest companies members vote on company decisions through the Internet. Many countries including England, and Australia have had limited Internet voting, which has been for political candidates, rather than on specific laws or the like.

     We are currently dependent on politicians to represent us. They ignore the publics demand for public health care and most other issues. We see bonus money going to failing CEOs, while we, as the public, have rejected this idea of bailout--before it was approved by our so called representatives. It is time for a complete change in our way of seeking Democracy. 

    Why not have voting the same way there are products sold on the Internet? There are descriptions, ratings, and records of people’s purchases of products. We can surely do the same for voting on each bill. The key is to keep blogging this issue, collect many ideas and then petition for Internet Voting to be put into law. Let the free market of ideas bring Internet Voting on Every Bill into reality. We can have our politicians write up the bills and we can be the deciders in a direct way; we can vote for or against ourselves.

    Currently, we have a government that ignores the US Constitution whenever it is convenient. For example, Congress voted for the President, meaning W to go to war, which is unconstitutional. Congress does not have the Constitutional right to vote for the President to send the US to war. The President may unilaterally send the US to war with a limit of 90 days when in unusual circumstances that apply to immediate danger to our country’s national security. Only Congress may vote, under the US Constitution, for the US to go to war. Ron Paul explains this part of the Constitution well. You may want to read up on Thomas Jefferson and other founders of this government, and the US Constitution.  

Past Comments and Responses from other site:
Criticism
"Right...........? Allow every poorly educated American a right to vote on some complex issues?"

Response:
"Dictators argue that the general public is too ill-informed to make decisions about their countries. Animal Farm, by Eric Arthur Blair, known as George Orwell by pen name, is the book that comes to mind about this issue." Orwell is all about showing how the public gets tricked into giving up their individual rights, freedom and representation. For the those who do not know Orwell, please google his name.

   There was once a time when votes were only called out, and then there was resistance to paper ballots. Given that Democracy is almost nonexistent in the US, I say let there be Democracy. Let there be Internet Voting!
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Poll

Should We Internet Vote?
Will it bring back Democracy to the US? 0%
Is it too much of a change to how the government is run? 100%

Votes: 1
Results | Other Polls
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...which we've never actually had anyway since our Constitution specifies that we be a federalist republic, are either to institute public campaign financing, or amend the constitution to say that money is not speech (as the right wing nutcases on the Supreme Court have ruled) and ban any organized entity other than individuals from soliciting or contributing campaign funds.

by EveningStarNM on 07/29/2009 12:29:21 AM EST

Democracy is rule of the mob and our Congress is ruled by the money.  I agree with an idea of internet voting to decide for the House, but we need the Senate to balance the mob. 

We should go back to having Senators picked by the State legislature and not elected.  This would reduce corporate influence.  Further we could increase the size of the house.  1 representative for every 250,000 people.  This would be more representative than today and more like the past.

Or, we could just appoint Cenk as President for life.

Don't waste your vote, vote Green or Independent in the next election.

by mcamelyne on 07/29/2009 02:01:13 AM EST

[ Parent ]
...if Cenk got elected.  I love the guy and agree with 80% of his ideas, but I'd be leading the riots.

But a House with 1200 members?  Interesting idea.

But having the legislatures select the Senators wouldn't cut privilege and influence peddling out of the equation.  That's why we got rid of that system.

The only thing that's going to start to fix our problems is dramatic campaign finance reform.

by EveningStarNM on 07/29/2009 02:40:36 AM EST

[ Parent ]
How about 100% paid for by the tax payers?  No outside money.  Level the playing field.

Don't waste your vote, vote Green or Independent in the next election.

by mcamelyne on 07/29/2009 04:51:51 AM EST

[ Parent ]
I wouldn't actually want to do that.  In order to qualify for public financing, a candidate would have to meet certain qualifications.  For instance, he might be required to show that he has the brains that God gave a rock and to show that he has a snowball's chance in hell of winning (just an example).

But what if someone really really really wants to run and thinks that he can win?  In that case, he should be allowed to use his own money.  If it happens that he is richer than God and could virtually buy the election, then his opposition would have to be given equal money by the financing authority in order to "level the playing field".

That way, no one can say that they were prohibited from running for office.

by EveningStarNM on 07/29/2009 05:36:08 AM EST

[ Parent ]

1.  Everyone knows Orwell here, or at least everyone who has any grasp of 20th Century literature or politics.  He is one of the 10 most referenced novelists of the last 100 years.

2.  There is a reason that our Congress is full of stupid people--we are stupid people.  Gullible, swayed by corporations, swayed by peer pressure, lazy, ignorant of much of the world, given to emotion and irrationality rather than clear logic, and often deluded into thinking that our positions cannot possibly be mistaken.  If the public could "vote resolutions into law," essentially, we would be lied to just as much as we are now, and (knowing knowing any better) we would vote for things that sounded good or were most convenient for us (like Congress does now), rather than necessarily voting for what is actually in our best interests.  77% of the public wanted to go into Iraq, at least according to the information we had in October, 2002.  Democracy a a concept might be strengthened, but that doesn't mean we'd get better decisions--just more popular ones (and who knows which difficult choices would be railroaded immediately out of the system via a majority rule vote.)

by Milltycoon on 07/28/2009 11:11:04 PM EST

I can think of several problems with internet voting. The Major would be security. Its very easy to have multiple accounts. To be honest I'm an IT guy and i can see it being a disaster. It would be extremely simple to produce a web server that would just create a massive amount of fake email accounts. Although if you had a goverment email account based on your social securty it would be a bit tough but not impossible. i remember hearing about someone able to gain access to your soccial security number by date and place of birth but not sure how accurate that information is. In a perfect world its entirely possible. But then again we wouldn't be dealing with the issues we currently have.

As far as it bringing back democracy i doubt it. If you want to bring back democracy take control of the media and make it your agenda. To do so i don't see it as a possibility. Oddly enough i think the people that are really pushing for democracy are the blog sites and especially this site the young turks.

by xhectorx on 07/28/2009 11:35:14 PM EST

1.  If you are too lazy to haul your ass down to the local school or library, maybe you don't need to vote. 

2. Look at the sockpuppets around you!  Who would trust their vote to the internet?

None of the above. 

by IraqVet on 07/29/2009 08:35:56 AM EST

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