newly ancient

Tomorrow is election day and I urge everyone to vote. Come on, express yourself! What do you have to lose? There are no costs associated with voting, you only need to fulfill the requirements below.

You can vote in Vermont ONLY if you:

• are a citizen of the United States
• Are a resident of Vermont and a resident of the town in which you apply to be added to the checklist
• take, or have previously taken, the Voter’s Oath (formerly called the “Freeman’s Oath”)
• are 18 years of age or older (or will be eighteen on or before the day of election)

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So, go to your local voting station. If you need help, just ask Google. Make the effort, register to vote and express your political values. Be a part of the American dream by exercising your right to vote; because if you don’t drive it, the machine of government will drive right over you.

Now, this whole entry is rather hypocritical of me since I won’t be voting tomorrow. However, if I was over 18 you can be sure I would be. But you might have some doubts about if your vote would be counted since voting machines are easily hacked (as told on HBO). Of course, with Vermont being the backwater it is, we don’t have to worry about touchscreen voting.

I support the idea of touchscreen and electronic voting. It has numerous benefits including increased accessibility, ease, and, with some changes, security. However, when one or two corporations manufacture all the voting machines and write all the proprietary code it is hard for good security to be developed. This is why I think that voting machines should be using open software. Open source, a grown technological trend, is where the code behind software is open for anyone to inspect and contribute to. In this way, thousands of programmers can ensure the security of voting machines instead of just a handful. With more eyes scrutinizing the code, potential flaws and breaches can easily be found. In order for voting machines to work in a modern democracy, they should be built upon open standards of security.