You may have the right to vote, but you don’t have the ability to verify that your vote was counted. The entire process is needlessly cumbersome, which further impedes the average American’s willingness to cast their vote in the first place. There are solutions to be found in technology, but there’s one technology in particular that may provide a more complete electronic solution for us (certainly, far better than what’s in place now). Here’s something called Universal Ballot Sampling:

The UBS protocol is designed to restore voter confidence in the electoral system. It achieves this purpose by marshalling the power of very basic statistics and ensuring that humans participate only in ways in which their partisanship can have little or no impact on the verification decision. Thus, whatever specific parameters are ultimately chosen for the sampling protocol, the verification decision itself is dictated by a fixed, pre-selected standard rather than the discretionary opinion of election officials or political appointees, as provided for by such legislative proposals as HR 811, currently pending.

You should read more about HR 811… as well as the EFF’s analysis.

• I’m Voting Today. Are you?
• When Politics and Technology Collide
• Hacking Democracy
• To Vote or Not to Vote
• Gnomedex Site Redesign

Let’s bring up another failed American war (the “war on drugs,” which has been hypocritical from the very start) to talk about marijuana in the courts. Our judges need to smoke more! No, just kidding – I’m not advocating that they inhale anything that can’t be regulated effectively by our government. Only a fool would suggest such a thing.

Stop freaking out, friends – this is actually going to be a TECH related post! Now you can go on with your illusion that I’m nothing more than a simple-minded geek who doesn’t have any right or ability to discuss more serious matters beyond which social network is leeching your identity more.

After reading this recent PC World article, I almost wish I could smoke a natural substance to take my mind off of what’s happening with our country…

The case points to the dangers of electronic voting systems, which make it harder to ensure fair elections, Luke said. Electronic voting machines have been widely adopted in the U.S. since the disputed presidential election of 2000. Laws in California and some other states now require paper records of all votes, but the California law wasn’t in place for the Berkeley election.

This isn’t a joke, people – it’s NOT A JOKE. It doesn’t matter who you want to vote for, there’s absolutely no “checks and balances” inherent in the system.

Governments are installing computerized voting systems with no paper record to verify accuracy. Elections will be controlled by companies that do not allow voters to inspect their software. If vote counting becomes privatized, there may be no way to get it back. Hightech vote fraud is already a reality. If you value your vote, you must get this information to your friends – and fast!

Yeah, I’m just a wacky conspiracy theorist… voter fraud couldn’t exist… that’s impossible… couldn’t ever happen… we must trust our government… we should do what we’re told… we should do what we’re told to do…

• Universal Electronic Ballot Sampling
• The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth
• Death from the Skies: the End of the World?
• I’m Voting Today. Are you?
• Can Physics be Fun?
• Is the Future of Science Research Open?
• Astronomers eat Kittens, Scientists are Assholes
• America Doesn’t Belong to Americans Anymore
• Hacking Democracy
• To Vote or Not to Vote