Would You Vote From Your Phone?

Would You Vote From Your Phone? 1

Bradley Tusk really wants people to be able to vote on their phones. For the past few years, Tusk, a venture capitalist, political strategist, and philanthropist, has been building new software to revolutionize the way people vote in the United States. In his new book, Vote With Your Phone: Why Mobile Voting Is Our Final Shot at Saving Democracy, Tusk argues that mobile voting could completely change elections.

Back in 2018, Tusk bankrolled an effort allowing West Virginians serving overseas to cast their midterm ballots through a smartphone app. It was the first time US citizens ever voted online in a federal election. After the West Virginia pilot program, Tusk ran a handful of tests in different states; they went well, and he ended up developing his own open-source software to make mobile voting available to everyone in the US. Mobile voting has yet to be deployed outside of tests, but it would be like a virtual absentee ballot that voters could access via an app on their phones.

Tusk had spent years in the public sector serving as the deputy governor of Illinois and former campaign manager for NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg. It’s why he’s so interested in increasing voter turnout. And while there may never be an app for the presidential election, Tusk says his tech could really impact down-ballot races. But the hard part is selling people on it, especially legislators. That’s why he wrote the book we’re chatting about today.

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Posted in Society