Maria Cantwell

It’s the day after the presidential election in the United States and the winner is… either Bush or Gore. The interesting thing in this is that part of the reason we have reached this outcome is that polling booth in the United States are still using antiquated technology. In Florida, the state that will decide who gets the election, the voting is done on punch cards. For years to come, this election will be scrutinized and people will ask questions as to what went wrong. Whether Bush or Gore wins, there will be about half of the people looking for some sort of reform. In the new age of computing, one is left to wonder whether there will be a change in the way election booth are shaped. Using technology could solve one of the problems: if the voting booth were more computerized, we might know who the next president is by now. Using basic client server technology, this could easily be changed. If the voting booth were to hold dumb terminals with touch screens connected to a server at every location, the servers could be brought in and the votes quickly tabulated. Other net-related votes However, a number of…