Inverse Daily: The future of voting
You may have seen the photos by now.
As part of this week’s Future Of series, today we’ll be talking a bit about the future of voting. (Read Monday's about the future of transportation here).
You may have seen the photos by now: the voters with masks on waiting in a long line to vote in Wisconsin’s primary last week. What you haven’t seen are people not photographed — those who were unwilling to risk voting and possibly contracting a deadly virus. So, they stayed home. The New York Times put it well: voters must choose between their health and their civic duty.
This is an adapted version of the Inverse Daily newsletter for April 14, 2020. Subscribe for free and earn rewards for reading every day in your inbox.
The coronavirus is shaping the 2020 election in profound ways. Already, 16 states have postponed their primaries, the Democratic National Convention has been pushed back to August, and holding large-scale campaign events is impossible. Now, there’s a growing talk, especially among Democrats, of transitioning to a mail-in system of voting. Already, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington conduct elections by mail. While President Donald Trump has already fired back (aka tweeted) against this idea, claiming it would lead to fraud, there’s no evidence of this.
Yet, as an article in Vox notes, “There are some voters, such as Native Americans without easy access to the postal service and people experiencing homelessness, who may struggle to vote if a mail-in ballot is their only option,” so it’s important to also have polls open.
The Brennan Center has shared a list of other key ways to secure voting rights during the coronavirus, from expanding online registration, to creating more “voter drop boxes” in inaccessible locations. Of course, these options will also expand voting rights, even if the coronavirus wasn’t reshaping the election. In the longer term, there are more ways to ensure voting is protected, like ending gerrymandering, restoring the Voting Rights Act, and restoring the right to vote to those formerly incarcerated.
I’m Greta Moran, your interstellar guide to all of Inverse’s latest science and technology stories at Inverse Daily.
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CONTACT TRACING —Apple and Google are developing a new system that could make contact tracing better than ever. The two California-based firms are teaming up to use Bluetooth to help coronavirus patients inform others if they have been in contact with them during the infection period.
It bears similarities to a previous project announced at MIT. The system could help fight the disease in a smarter way, but the limitations of Bluetooth have led experts to suggest it won’t be the silver bullet some may hope. Read up on this very important method for understanding the spread of the coronavirus →
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In addition to helping identify these outcomes earlier, this test is also designed to be administered at home and could help patients regain autonomy over their health. Read more →
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