Swiss voters to cast ballots by SMS
The idea of voting by SMS may seem like a PR stunt dreamed up by the reality TV industry, but one town in Switzerland has decided that text messaging can be used to settle a real election. Residents of the town of Bülach will vote on local speed limits in a test to determine the viability of SMS voting. The test will be extended to ballot issues in other towns next month. Voters can also submit ballots by web, mail and traditional voting booths. Each voter will receive a unique User ID that they will have to enter before their "ballot" is accepted, which local officials hopewill encourage more young people to rock the vote. We wouldn't mind a similar system in the US, though we're sure it would end up being managed by some company like Diebold, meaning it would be incredibly easy to hack and there'd be no way to audit or verify the results.
[Via textually.org]
