Blog Stage 2

I would love to suggest this article to read in regards to our first particapation topic where we discussed an electronic direct democracy, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/us/politics/internet-and-federal-act-ease-overseas-us-voting.html?_r=0  this article has some very great points made that show some drastic effects internet voting can have according to a new study done by the Overseas Vote Foundation, a nonpartisan voter-assistance group. In this article a study was done on some of the issues that expatriot American voters face while oversees trying to vote, the article reports that half of the voters either didnt recieve a ballot to vote or recieved it too late in 2008, that figure declined to one-third for the 2010 election and to just one-fifth in last year’s presidential election according to the article. The article states that more than 80 percent of survey respondents had used the Internet last year to help register or request a ballot form and that for the first time in five election cycles, more than half received a blank ballot electronically (via e-mail attachment, fax or Internet download). This is a great article that discusses some benifits technology can play in a democracy, I believe that the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act of 2009 is a great act for our democracy and we can make this a much more user friendly and protected system and hope to see more acts like this passed in the forseable future, of course there can be many adjustments made to help better the system but great accomplishments start with small steps first.