Government Technology - June 2008 - (Page 8)

the last mile A Vote for Sensible Elections Group Publisher: EDITORIAL Editor: Associate Editors: DON PEARSON dpearson@govtech.com BY C HA D VA NDER VEEN ASSOCIATE EDITOR STEVE TOWNS stowns@govtech.com EMILY MONTANDON emontandon@govtech.com CHAD VANDER VEEN cvanderveen@govtech.com MIRIAM JONES mjones@govtech.com KAREN STEWARTSON kstewartson@govtech.com JIM MCKAY jmckay@govtech.com ELAINE RUNDLE erundle@govtech.com ANDY OPSAHL aopsahl@govtech.com MATT WILLIAMS mwilliams@govtech.com HILTON COLLINS hcollins@govtech.com CORTNEY TOWNS ctowns@govtech.com TOD NEWCOMBE tnewcombe@govtech.com REID GOLDSBOROUGH, CHANDLER HARRIS, DAVID RATHS, JESSICA HUGHES, JESSICA JONES Chief Copy Editor: Managing Editor: Justice and Public Safety Editor: Copy Editor: Features Editor: Assistant Editor: Staff Writer: Editorial Assistant: Contributing Editor: Contributing Writers: DESIGN Creative Director: Graphic Designers: T he other day I was going through my morning ritual of visiting certain news sites — in a certain order — to get a quick sense of what’s going on in the world. One Washington Times headline, in particular, caught my attention: “Michigan primary revote chances diminish.” How is it that in 2008 this nation still can’t cobble together a decent, sensible system for electing people to office? Though the race for the White House is certainly historic, it’s also giving more Americans a good look at how dysfunctional our election process has become. The Democrats have gone out of their way to illustrate how cockamamie their system is. Florida, for Much of this year’s caucuses and primaries have proven themselves totally archaic, so too is the U.S. Electoral College. The time when representative democracy was needed has long since passed. Today direct democracy is socially, technically and logistically feasible, even with punch cards or paper ballots. Think about it this way: The Nielsen system for rating TV shows — in which viewers write down what shows they watch and send that data back to Nielsen — is outdated, inefficient and just plain sucks. But it still works better than the way we vote for president. Now I know we don’t technically live in a democracy. We live in a republic. And those Illustrator: Production Director: Production Manager: Internet Director: PUBLISHING VP Strategic Accounts: VP Bus. Development: KELLY MARTINELLI kmartinelli@govtech.com CRYSTAL HOPSON chopson@govtech.com MICHELLE HAMM mhamm@govtech.com JOE COLOMBO jcolombo@govtech.com TOM MCKEITH tmckeith@govtech.com STEPHAN WIDMAIER swidm@govtech.com JOEI HEART jheart@govtech.com JUDE HANSEN jhansen@govtech.com JON FYFFE jfyffe@govtech.com TIM KARNEY tkarney@govtech.com EAST PAM FYFFE pfyffe@govtech.com WEST, CENTRAL LESLIE HUNTER lhunter@govtech.com EAST SHELLEY BALLARD sballard@govtech.com WEST, CENTRAL KRISTA O’SULLIVAN kosullivan@govtech.com WEST, CENTRAL MELISSA CANO mcano@govtech.com EAST ERIN HUX ehux@govtech.com WEST, CENTRAL GLENN SWENSON gswenson@govtech.com SHANNON DURHAM sdurham@govtech.com SABRINA SHEWMAKE sshewmake@govtech.com ANDREA KLEINBARDT akleinbardt@govtech.com WHITNEY SWEET wsweet@govtech.com LANA HERRERA lherrera@govtech.com KARIN PRADO kprado@govtech.com STACEY TOLES stoles@govtech.com JIM MEYERS jmeyers@govtech.com VIKKI PALAZZARI vpalazzari@govtech.com PETER SIMEK psimek@govtech.com MICHELLE MROTEK mmrotek@govtech.com JULIE DEDEAUX jdedeaux@govtech.com GOSIA USTASZEWSKA subscriptions@govtech.com Sr. Director of Sales: Regional Sales Directors: Account Managers: “Today direct democracy is socially, technically and logistically feasible, even with punch cards or paper ballots.” example, moved up its primary to an earlier date, despite the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) threat to strip the state of its delegates if it did so. Florida did anyway, and as of press time, the delegates haven’t been awarded to either candidate, leading some party officials to call for a “do over.” But the DNC’s problem speaks to a larger issue in American elections. Now, I’m as pro-states’ rights as any person you’ll meet, but it’s high time this country seriously considers nationwide standards for electing candidates to national office. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a nationwide system of electronic voting or paper balloting — just that we design a simple process for casting a vote. JUNE_08 Business Development Dir.: National Sales Administrator: Regional Sales Administrator: Dir. of Marketing: Dir. of Custom Events: Custom Events Manager: Custom Events Coordinator: Dir. of Custom Publications: Custom Publications Writer: Dir. of Web Products and Services: Web Services Manager: Proj. Manager, Web Products and Services: Web Advertising Manager: Subscription Coordinator: CORPORATE CEO: Executive VP: Executive VP: CAO: CFO: VP of Events: Marketing Director: who defend the Electoral College say it’s the republic’s way of making sure less populous states don’t get left out of the process. Under a strictly popular vote system, Electoral College defenders claim large population centers, like Los Angeles and New York, would unfairly skew the state voting results in their favor. The solution, then, is to ignore state lines altogether. Let every eligible American cast a vote, then tally ’em up. The person who receives the most votes wins. Who cares about awarding states? States aren’t voting, Americans are. Sounds simple. But seeing as the DNC can’t even hold a simple election for itself, your vote for president may never actually count. DENNIS MCKENNA dmckenna@govtech.com DON PEARSON dpearson@govtech.com CATHILEA ROBINETT crobinet@centerdigitalgov.com LISA BERNARD lbernard@govtech.com PAUL HARNEY pharney@govtech.com ALAN COX acox@govtech.com DREW NOEL dnoel@govtech.com Government Technology is published by e.Republic Inc. Copyright 2008 by e.Republic Inc. All rights reserved. Government Technology is a registered trademark of e.Republic Inc. Opinions expressed by writers are not necessarily those of the publisher or editors. Article submissions should be sent to the attention of the Managing Editor. Reprints of all articles in this issue and past issues are available (500 minimum). Please direct inquiries to the YGS Group: Attn. Erik Eberz at (800) 290-5460 ext.150 or governmenttechnology@theygsgroup.com. Subscription Information: Requests for subscriptions may be directed to Circulation Director by phone or fax to the numbers below. You can also subscribe online at www.govtech.com. 100 Blue Ravine Rd. Folsom, CA 95630 Phone: (916) 932-1300 Fax: (916) 932-1470 www.govtech.com PRINTED IN THE USA 8 http://www.govtech.com http://www.govtech.com http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - June 2008

Government Technology - June 2008 Contents Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions For... 3 Technologies That May Change Your Job ...And Your Life Loosening Medicaid's Grip Better Living Through Technology Immersive Itineraries Help Yourself Taking the Bait Shared Connection Up Close Spectrum Products Personal Computing signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Digital Tactics for a U.S. Recession E-Dilemma Stifling Community Innovation Leadership Interview Estonia Becomes E-Stonia If It Were Up to Me …

Government Technology - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.