| In Lawrence K. Grossman’s essay, “The Shape of the Electronic Republic,” he talks about his feelings toward the internet and politics. He talks about how the two are related. He feels that by incorporating the internet with politics, people would feel more involved. He says that he thinks people would get more involved because they would feel like they are closer to government and making a difference in politics and elections. This concept would then develop the system of direct democracy. His reason for this is that people would not feel so overwhelmed with the idea of the majority and Electoral College. He says that he thinks that eventually voting will be done online, but there are a few problems with this idea. He suggests using some type of identification such as a social security number to be able to log in and vote, but there are hackers out there, and many believe that could possibly find ways to "hack" into this system and steal people’s "identities". Many websites, though, on the internet today use a social security number and a pin to be able to log in. For my banking, I have to enter my social and a four-digit pin. This method has worked perfectly so far so I believe it will work for online polling. The government could create a website where people would have to go to create an account and a pin. Another issue deals with age. Many older generations have no idea how to operate a computer. I believe that many of them will not want to learn either because they are so old anyways that they feel there is no point to learn when they have done okay without it so far. In order for online polling to work, this system will have to be held off until every generation knows how to operate a computer efficiently enough to be able to use the internet to vote. Another issue deals with social class. Some people in lower social economic classes do not own computers in order for them to vote. The way this issue could be solved is by letting them go to public places to access the internet such as the library. This solution would cause issues though because it would be just as much as hassle or even more for them to have to do this than being able to just go and vote at a place. In years to come, I feel that every household in America will have to own a computer and have the internet because it will be a necessity in order to survive in the world since everything is leaning towards computers and technology. This problem would then be taken care of. Grossman’s essay makes many good points, but many of the issues people are worrying about are solvable. I do feel that more people would vote because it would just take the click of a button. I feel that there are more risks with paper ballots than there are with voting online. Many times, they have been lost or miscounted. If the older generations are too old to own and use a computer, who is to say that they are too old or capable of driving to go vote. In addition, if lower social economic classes do not own computers, not all of them are going to own cars. After a couple more elections, these issues will have been resolved for the most part, and I feel everyone would benefit from online voting. |