Widespread use of online voting will create the potential for abuse that will make the problems inherent in e-voting pale in comparison.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The potential for the abuse of power through digital networks - upon which we the people now depend for nearly everything, including our politics - is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age.
Organizations worried about the potential for e-voting problems have long-advocated for audit procedures by which votes cast by e-voting machines could be verified through audit trails.
The Internet can be used to hurt many people.
Voting is fundamental in our democracy. It has yielded enormous returns.
It is important to distinguish between the power of the Internet to make the great change it can, and the limits and vulnerabilities of that change without real-time political mobilization deployed globally to protect those who venture out, especially in closed societies, into the heady new vistas it offers.
The constant abuse of online activity must stop.
The Internet has made us richer, freer, connected and informed in ways its founders could not have dreamt of. It has also become a vector of attack, espionage, crime and harm.
It is not inevitable that the Internet will evolve in a manner compatible with democracy.
It is time to stop debating whether the Internet is an effective tool for political expression and instead to address the much more urgent question of how digital technology can be structured, governed, and used to maximize the good and minimize the evil.
Eventually I foresee voting on the Internet, which will lead to much more direct democracy.