The battle for the most powerful seat in the world has reached a crescendo. The verbal trade-offs, campaigns, and debates are a part of the democratic process that makes the presidential election one of the most beautiful and inclusive events on the planet. Since its birth in 508 B.C., democracy has evolved through the centuries to keep up with modern society. The electoral process, however, is yet to break away from traditional methods and embrace the future.
This article explores some of the different ways in which agility can be applied in the electoral process to make it a more efficient, safe, and pleasant experience for everyone.
Efficiency Through Technology
It is estimated that just around 14 million registered voters will cast their ballots using direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines in the 2020 US presidential elections. Considering the fact that in 2016, over 138 million Americans voted, the use of technology at such a small scale in a tech-savvy nation such as ours is appalling.
The paper ballot system is as old as democracy itself. For a nation that’s considered as one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, the usage of the paper ballot system doesn’t bode well in terms of ease and efficiency. A TIME report quotes the US Election Assistance Commission Chairman Tom Hicks saying that the “primary reasons” paper ballots are used in most states are “security and voter preference”. However, one needs only look east at the largest democracy on the planet to see how it can be done on the large scale.
India’s vibrant democracy has embraced EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) to streamline its electoral process significantly. They’ve gone a step further to secure their EVMS by including a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). It is a full-proof method of providing feedback to voters who use EVMs to assure them that their vote has been recorded as intended. Today, 542 out of 543 parliamentary constituencies in India use EVMs, a feat that should be easily achievable for the US with just a fifth of its population and a significant advantage in resources.
Like any agile organization that initially experiments with new technologies at a small scale, our attempt at implementing DREs is a great step towards efficiency. However, as the US Presidential Election occurs just once every 4 years, achieving total digitization of our electoral process quickly, must be our priority.
The Electoral College Conundrum
Agility is all about delivering customer satisfaction. In the electoral process, the people are the consumers who need to be satisfied. However, the electoral college defies this core principle of customer satisfaction by taking the power away from the “popular vote” and giving it to electors. There have been four instances in the history of the US Presidential Elections where the winner of the “popular vote” lost the presidency as they couldn’t win the electoral vote. The most recent instance being in 2016 when Hillary Clinton won the general election by over 2.8 million votes but lost the electoral college by 74 votes paving the way for Donald Trump to become the president.
While the founding fathers had their reasons for adding the electoral college to the general election process, it has outlived its usage in most ways and should be done away with to truly consider the will of the people as is supposed to be in a democracy.
Improving The Voting Experience
From declaring Election Day as a holiday and streamlining voter identification to reducing the significant waiting times in polling booths, the US Presidential Elections can be transformed in myriad ways to reflect the country by a united effort from the people and political parties. Focusing on the user experience of voters is essential to the greater participation and inclusion of the population in the general election process. The agile way of electing our leaders is a great step towards building a nation that is focused on being of the people, by the people, and for the people.
While there are many hurdles that such a disruption is bound to bring along, as the leader of the free world, it is our responsibility to evolve our ways, lead by example, and transform our approach to general elections.