So the California recall election might be postponed due to problems with punchcard ballots in some districts. Punchcards are the “modern” equivalent of hieroglyphics. It’s been decades since anyone has seriously used a computer that needed punchcards, why are do we still have them to elect our officials?

Some districts aren’t even sure if they can manage a March election because they still haven’t figured out how to get 135 names on the ballot.

People are convinced that we should switch to slightly more modern methods of voting, like touch screens. Why stop there? It’s time for online voting.

Last week, I renewed my car registration online. I do all my banking online. I work for a site that handles billions of pageviews and handles complicated transactions. I heard today that most college applications are submitted online. (That’s probably a good thing as finding a typewriter to fill out those forms is getting pretty hard!) It’s time that we are allowed to vote online too.

What about fraud and “hacking” of the voting system? What about handling capacity? We already have systems that have solved this problem. eBay, Amazon and Yahoo are just a few of the sites who successfully deal with this problem everyday, not to mention all the financial institutions that are online. As long as the state goverment doesn’t try to build this system themselves,and gets some reputable consulting firm to build it, and someone else to audit the hell out of it, it should be fine.

Online voting would also be cheaper and increase voter turnout. We sent in our application for absentee ballots last week. We’re not actually going to be away, but it’s more convenient to vote by mail then than to find the nearest polling place, wait in line and try to figure out whatever hokey voting system they’ve implemented. The state of California spent 60 cents for each of us to send us our ballot. That doesn’t count the cost of the paper, processing or the original form they sent us so we could get our ballots. How much would it cost to process an online ballot? One cent, maybe 2?

Online ballots would also allow you to make an informed decision in the the voting booth. What if you could read as much as you wanted about each candidate before you decided to vote? Right now you get their age, hometown and occupation on the ballot. All that does is encourage people to vote down party lines.

With online voting you could even have voting more often. Why wait six months for referendum vote when you could have it next week?

What about people who don’t have computers or internet access? Most libraries have decent internet access these days. Polling places could still be set up which would just be a temporary computer lab. I think they’d be a lot less trafficed though as online voting is just so much more convenient. Heck, I’d rather get online at Kinko’s or a coffee shop and vote between checking email than go find a polling place.

Of course online voting doesn’t even need to be a requirement. We could allow both ways for a while.

It’s time for change in our antiquated voting system and while we’re doing it, we might as well use 21st century technology.