Using Modern Technology to Legitimize Elections | Lori Steele Contorer | TEDxSanDiego
The speaker argues that modern technology can secure and increase participation in elections, citing examples from 2007 to 2011 where electronic voting proved superior to historically insecure paper methods. The core message is that dismissing technology's role in voting is repeating a dangerous "big lie," exemplified by the fragility of paper ballots in places like Haiti or Afghanistan. The call to action is for the audience to embrace technological solutions to ensure election integrity and participation, echoing the sentiment that *"people who know they matter they think bigger."*
## Speakers & Context
- An unnamed individual who became an investment manager, originally from a small town in Ohio.
- Presented at a United Nations conference on technology, taking advantage of the timing following the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California.
- The context involves responding to skepticism regarding technology's role in democracy and election security.
## Theses & Positions
- The most important business processes globally, including elections, are failing to utilize modern technology.
- Paper ballots are inherently unreliable, insecure, and vulnerable to mismanagement, political turmoil, and fraud.
- Technology can demonstrably increase both the security and the participation in elections.
- Dismissing technology's ability to secure elections is repeating a "big lie."
- The ability to vote reliably and accurately gives citizens the power to assert that they matter and to participate in shaping their future.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Big Lie:** A concept used to frame repeated, persistent falsehoods (analogized to past health scares regarding cigarettes or subprime mortgages).
- **Election Administration:** The process of organizing and conducting votes.
- **Public Key Infrastructure (PKI):** Technology used to encrypt ballots during the 2007 "Vote Anywhere" election.
- **Accessibility:** Paper ballots are noted as being inaccessible for individuals with disabilities.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **Electoral Failures (Paper Ballots):**
* In Haiti: Ballot box contents sometimes exceed the number of registered voters.
* In other parts of Afghanistan: More people claim to have voted than ballots counted.
* In Mexico: Ballots were reportedly set on fire, leaving no way to verify election legitimacy.
* In Kenya: Despite violent politics, people wait in line to ensure their votes are counted, even when people are massacred.
- **Technological Improvements:**
* **Vote by Mail:** Invented by Abraham Lincoln to allow Civil War soldiers to vote.
* **2007 "Vote Anywhere":** Allowed voting from home via phones or PCs anywhere, using PKI encryption.
* **2007 Australian Military Vote:** Allowed military personnel to vote privately and independently with electronic confirmation of count.
* **2009 Election:** First all-digital election, allowing voting via cell phone or PC.
* **2011 iPad Election:** Allowed mobile voting, increasing participation for people with disabilities by 1500%.
* **Modern Authentication:** South Dakota now uses military IDs for authentication of voters serving abroad.
## Named Entities
- **Afghanistan:** Jurisdiction where ballot counting issues were noted; soldiers there are required to vote by mail.
- **Haiti:** Country noted for paper ballot problems.
- **Mexico:** Country noted for burning ballot boxes.
- **Kenya:** Country noted for high stakes and physical danger during voting.
- **Abraham Lincoln:** Inventor of vote by mail.
- **Ohio:** Small town where the speaker was from.
- **United Nations:** Conference location where the speaker spoke.
- **Arnold Schwarzenegger:** Elected as Governor of California in a statewide recall election.
- **South Dakota:** State using military IDs to authenticate overseas voters.
## Numbers & Data
- **150 million miles:** Distance sent a robot to Mars.
- **10 years ago:** Timeframe when drones were available to individuals.
- **2000:** Year of the election decided by the Supreme Court.
- **2007:** Year of the "Vote Anywhere" election and the Australian military vote.
- **2009:** Year of the first all-digital election.
- **2011:** Year the iPad appeared, enabling mobile voting.
- **1500 percent:** Increase in participation for people with disabilities during the 2011 iPad election.
- **10,000 atm:** A pressure differential mentioned in the context of deep-sea technology (via analogy).
## Examples & Cases
- **The Mars Robot:** Sending a robot 150 million miles away that landed within a football field of the target location.
- **The Civil War Soldiers:** Abraham Lincoln's motivation for inventing vote by mail.
- **The Purple Fingers:** A period/event referencing women risking their lives to ensure their votes counted (linked to the first Iraq election).
- **The Lived Experience:** A woman recounting needing her sister to fill out her ballot due to her blindness, and the security of digital submission versus paper.
- **The Oscaries and Emmys:** Private sector organizations adopting secure digital voting methods after 85 years of vote by mail tradition.
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **DNA sequencing:** Technology capable of determining future illness risks.
- **Self-driving cars:** Modern technology cited as an example of innovation.
- **Drones:** Technology accessible to individuals, not just governments/military.
- **Robots:** Used to send missions to Mars.
- **Paper Ballots:** The insecure, outdated method of voting.
- **Public Key Infrastructure (PKI):** Technology used to encrypt ballots in 2007.
- **Cell Phones/PCs:** Devices used in 2007 and 2009 for voting.
- **iPad:** Device that facilitated the 2011 mobile revolution in voting.
## References Cited
- **Abraham Lincoln:** Inventor of vote by mail.
- **The Supreme Court of the United States:** Body that elected the President in 2000.
- **UN Conference:** Event where the speaker was speaking on technology in the context of the 2011 election.
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- Skepticism regarding technology's readiness for elections: *"people who tell you that technology that technology can't happen in elections."*
- The initial assumption that the election's integrity is solely based on the paper trail.
## Methodology
- Comparative analysis contrasting the technological capability of modern engineering feats (drones, Mars robots) with the administrative processes of voting.
- Historical tracing of electoral methods from 150 years ago (vote by mail) to current digital implementations (PKI, iPad).
- Utilizing observed political crises in various nations (Haiti, Mexico, Kenya) to demonstrate failure points in paper systems.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- The world must adopt modern technology to make the act of voting secure, accurate, and highly participatory.
- People have a choice to reject the "big lie" about paper ballot security and trust technology when it enables verifiable participation.
- The goal is to allow people to know that their vote *counts* and to maintain the ability to elect leaders legitimately.
## Implications & Consequences
- Failure to modernize voting infrastructure leads to vulnerable, illegitimate regimes and disenfranchisement.
- Successful technological integration (like PKI) allows for verifiable counting of votes, thereby empowering citizens to believe their voice matters.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"in fact that's not the case."*
- *"paper ballots are not a good idea."*
- *"there are more people who said that they voted then there are ballots that were counted in other parts of Afghanistan."*
- *"paper ballots are not a good idea."*
- *"it's called a big lie."*
- *"Vote by mail was invented by Abraham Lincoln yes that Abraham Lincoln and he did it because he wanted the Civil War soldiers to be able to vote."*
- *"Mr. online banking mr. defense miss online commerce what you do is a lot like voting it's authentication its data its security."*
- *"it's proven that you can increase accuracy and security and elections while increasing participation."*
- *"people with disabilities participation increased by fifteen hundred percent"*
- *"know that the reality is technology enables"*
- *"I'm not going to believe the big lie anymore because when technology enables it allows people to know that they matter to trust in the results and to do something very important with their lives"*