2ergo Calls for Mobile Voting

As anyone who has not been on Mars the past few days will know, the UK general election descended into farce on Thursday evening, when voters up and down the land found themselves being denied the right to cast their ballot because the queues wee so long it had reached 10pm and legally, the polling stations could no longer accept their vote. Mobile marketing and technology firm 2ergo says it’s a situation that could have, and should have, been easily avoided.

“The antiquated way we vote through the ballot box has been highlighted by images of voters being turned away from polling stations, the police dealing with agitated crowds and the prospect of legal challenges from some of the marginal constituencies,” says 2ergo’s head of mobile security, David Tranter. “In the tech-rich electronic media environment in which we live, this situation is absolutely crazy. The technology has been in place for a number of years now to securely and easily vote electronically. Such a system is essential in the fast moving, time-poor society in which we live, where the most sensible option would be to enable use of the internet and mobile devices as a voting medium.  

“Modern Britons need convenience and the ability to operate immediately, regardless of their location. The technology is there to allow simple registration and voting on mobile devices using forms or SMS-based applications that operate anywhere with a phone connection. This technology is highly secure through the use of PIN-protected and encrypted voting applications. These can be used for any governmental voting purpose (including referendums for example), with absolutely no danger of revealing votes or tampering.

“Using the appropriate mobile technologies would solve all of last week’s problems, whilst increasing voter turnout well beyond the 65% achieved, particularly among the crucial and eagerly-encouraged younger voter. So the possibility of Election 2.0 is staring us in the face. Lets hope in the not too distant future we just pick up our mobiles, tap in our unique voter number and press a button next to our desired candidate. Then come 10 past 10, the national result is declared and we can all get on with our lives.”