It’s voting season, which has us thinking.
Voting is essential to a democracy, the way in which your voice is heard. But at the heart of it, voting is also hard to accomplish at scale. How does any country make sure that every voice is heard fairly and equitably?
There are as many potential answers to that question as there are people asking. Some countries define who gets to vote through paperwork and proof of residence. Others make people prove their eligibility with a national identity. And, interestingly, over 50 countries (as of 2016) let their citizens prove they can vote using their fingerprints.
SureID has heard that possibility from interested customers and individuals – could fingerprints be used for voting in the US? They ask us, we think, because we have the only single-sourced national network that combines trusted professional locations with trained technicians. Imagine if you could show up at any SureID location, log in with your fingerprint, and just vote. On your own time, without having to take time off or go to a different polling place. Sounds kind of nice, doesn’t it?
Of course, this doesn’t happen in the United States, and we’re not even suggesting it should. That kind of question is exactly what the democracy as a whole should decide. Even when the technology is there, the people in a democracy should decide when, and if, it should be used to make their voices heard.
But, these questions about fingerprints and voting have got us thinking. We aren’t going to answer it today – so instead, we’ll turn the question to our blog readers.
What would you do to improve voting and identity? If you could design a system that would fairly represent all the eligible voters in the US, that would ensure that one person had one vote and that all the votes counted were valid, what would you design? We’re interested to hear your thoughts! Email us at support@sureid.com, and we’ll collate your answers to share. We’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions as we consider the future of our democracy.
And speaking of our democracy…
“On November 6 – next Tuesday – you have an opportunity in the US to express your faith in our country’s future,” says Ned Hayes, our General Manager. And because he believes in the democratic activity of voting, SureID is giving everyone at our company two hours off on Tuesday to make sure we have the chance to vote.
We hope you plan to vote on November 6 as well.
We’d love to hear more from our customers. Email support@sureid.com if you want to share your thoughts on the future of voting in this country!
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