NY Online Voter Registration

New York unveiled an online voter registration system that allows residents to become voters from their own computers, and eventually from new electronic devices at Department of Motor Vehicles offices.

New voters can even cast ballots in next month’s primaries if they register and enroll in a party online by Sunday, said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. Today is the in-person registration deadline at DMV and Board of Elections offices.

Applicants need a driver’s license or a non-driver’s identification card number to register through the Web site, where they can also change their address and party enrollment.

The DMV will then transfer their information from their systems, including their signature, to the Board of Elections. The board will still have to do their due process to verify the information before they become registered voters. With the transferred signature the voter does not have to be in-person to register and the board will be able to print the poll books with the required signatures.

The board is looking into creating an electronic poll book. This will allow the poll worker to bring up the voter's signature and photo from the DMV database, plus the relevant data to verify the voter is in the right place and gets the correct ballot.

UPDATE
Some call this progress!

To start, when someone fills out a registration form, the DMV will print out the document and snail-mail the paper to the proper board, where clerks will type in the data by hand. This counts as progress because you can register from home.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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WA to offer voter registration on Facebook

Washington will become the first state to offer voter registration via Facebook with a new application to be launched as soon as next week, according to a state election official. Once online, the app will be accessible on the secretary of state's Facebook page, said Shane Hamlin, co-director of elections for the state.
Washington, which has approximately 3.7 million registered voters, conducts elections entirely by mail and enacted online registration in 2008. Since online registration started, Hamlin said close to 500,000 voter registrations or address changes have been processed.

Facebook, Washington state and Microsoft have teamed up to create an app that allows users to register on the social media site through the state's new "MyVote" app. The effort came about last fall when Microsoft approached Washington state after Facebook contacted the software giant with the idea.

When Facebook users download the application, they will have to agree to allow Facebook to access their information, including name and date of birth, which is pre-filled into the voter registration form. Users will still need to enter information from a driver's license or state ID card number to verify their identities in real-time through a state database. Once you "like" the app you can recommend your friends to like it and download it too.

When asked about concerns on whether Facebook will have access to voters' information, Hamlin reassured voters that "Washington state is collecting the voter information, not Facebook"

Besides registering to vote on Facebook, Washington residents will be able to update personal information, access customized voter guides with candidate info and ballot measures, as well as access replacement ballots.

While working in Washington from 1996 to 1999, I did consulting projects in 1997 for Microsoft on building the ability to purchase and download software over the Internet. My part was the authorization and security validation. I also worked on the E-Government projects in England and Denmark. In 2008, I produced the world review of E-Government projects for the United Nations.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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