To Vote Online in New Jersey, Email Your Ballot to This Guy's Hotmail Account

Let’s get online voting, already, right? This is a 21st century democracy we’ve got here, and citizens shouldn’t stand in for 9 hour lines in the richest, most powerful nation in the world to ink ballots. We are technologically advanced, we are the future, and yet we vote with paper pads or crappy, oft-faulty voting tech.

So why aren’t we voting with our iPhones yet? In a word, security. The government is too concerned with hackers and with potential security breaches to put much effort into pursuing a good, forward-looking online voting system. But also, this.

New Jersey, in a bold move designed to aid civic-minded Sandy victims, officially allowed online ballot-casting. In theory, it’s a great idea, and makes perfect sense, especially considering how difficult it is for many of those struck by the hurricane to reach the polls. It’s our nation’s first experiment with online voting in a federal election. But it’s not exactly working out. Emails requesting ballots are bouncing, the system is swamped, and officials have resorted to telling voters to send completed ballots to their personal hotmail accounts.

Buzzfeed reports on the chaos, explaining that “the e-mail address listed on the website of the Morris County Clerk, asmith@co.morris.nj.us, is not receiving e-mail. Nor is the e-mail address, info@essexclerk.com, listed on the website of the Essex County Clerk, nor the County’s site.”

Fear not, however. Essex County Clerk Christopher J. Durkin stepped up to the plate. He posted this on the county’s Facebook page: “Displaced voters can email a request for a ballot at cj_durkin@hotmail.com or fax to 973-621-5178. Voters who are displaced due to hurricane disaster can apply for ballot by email or fax up until 5:00pm tuesday November 6.”

Yeah, that’s Durkin’s personal email addy. Just send your ballot on over, and he’ll take care of it. Or fax it. Is that still something that people do?

Also, the county he’s in charge of is home to half a million people. Morris County, owner of the other defunct email address, is the third largest in the state. Ars Technica reports that many of those trying to vote are indeed flustered: “‘I filled out the ballot and sent it in and I’ve been waiting for my email ballot which never came,’” reported one voter on Facebook. The voter also reported that the county’s phone lines were too busy to get through.

Another says that “I sent an email to the clerk yesterday at 2 pm and never heard back.” So, yeah. The virgin run for online voting in New Jersey is not going so smoothly; it may have been slightly overambitious. But I’m glad they took the plunge. It at least opens the conversation to the merits of internet voting, and the alluring prospect will contrast sharply with those who slogged it out for hours in Florida.

I wish I lived in #NJ. Never thought I’d say that, but allowing e-voting post #Sandy is brillianr. Thanks Gov bit.ly/TrF7cb

— Baratunde (@baratunde) November 4, 2012

Because online voting is on the horizon. Security concerns bog it down for now, but not for long. We bank online. We store our most private data online. Voting shouldn’t be much of a leap. Once the system is adequately transparent and high-functioning—why can’t we get online election monitors and hacktivists to track the digital polls?—the access and convenience it will grant citizens will more than eclipse anxieties over manipulation or voter fraud.

New Jersey’s trial effort may be hasty and error-prone, but it’s a step in the direction we’re pretty certain to head.