Paper Ballots Still Crucial To California's Voting Process, Despite Online Push
SACRAMENTO (KCBS) -- With the approach of Tuesday's primary, some voters are wondering why they can't cast their votes online.
People do their banking, and pay their bills online, saving them from a trip into the real world, but Stanford Computer Science Professor David Dill told KCBS that not requiring a paper ballot would be a bad idea.
"I think the problem is that people are so used to using the internet for things, that they don't think through the differences of elections and banking," Dill said.
While technology does have a role in the election process, Dill said it shouldn't be a replacement for the ballot box.
"It's different because of the secret ballot. With banking online, the name of everybody involved in the transaction is all over every record. You can't do that with ballots, because when the ballots are counted, we're not supposed to know who cast them," Dill said.
California laws require some form of paper ballot be used for voting, but there are two proposed ballot initiatives that could open the door to online voting.
