Bernie Sanders criticized the voting process of the New York primary (which he lost big) on Wednesday https://t.co/iUVsqRBwMp

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 20, 2016

“Calls began flooding in early this morning to New York-based ABC affiliate WGRZ with reports of voting machines across the state switching votes entered for Democrat Bernie Sanders to his establishment counterpart Hillary Clinton. The station has spoken with multiple witnesses and is in the process of verifying statements from voters Upstate (districts 20, 21, 22 and 24) as well as two of the five boroughs (Bronx and Manhattan).”

– PoliticsForum

“Meanwhile, the state Attorney General’s office said its voter hotline received the most calls in its history Tuesday.

The hotline received 562 calls and about 140 emails from voters as of 5 p.m. The most common complaints were from voters who were told they weren’t registered to vote or that they couldn’t participate in a party’s presidential primaries. Other complaints ranged from lack of privacy, unclear instructions and accessibility issues.”

– Stefan Holt, NBC New York

Reports of voter fraud and purged voter rolls have led to an audit of New York City’s Board of Elections. More than 100,000 Democratic voters in Brooklyn (New York holds closed primaries) were purged from the voting roll. On top of that, some New Yorkers reported that poll workers attempted to coerce them into voting for Clinton over Sanders. Others simply complained of long lines and broken voting machines.

The New York Post reported similar issues in Brooklyn where thousands of people experienced trouble at their polling location. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Bertha Lewis, director of the Black Institute, have both called for an investigation. However, the Board of Elections Executive said this vanishing act is easily explained…

“Board of Elections Executive Director Michael Ryan said the mystery is easily explained: Because of retirements and staff illness, the voting list was not properly maintained in Brooklyn for six to eight months.”

– Yoav Gonen and Carl Campanile, New York Post

Regardless of what the investigation reveals, we can do so much better. In a city as vast and bustling as New York, citizens could reap the benefits of blockchain voting. New Yorkers could enjoy complete anonymity and follow the election in real-time. If the Democratic Party of New York would have used blockchain voting, any concerned voter could audit election results to ensure election fraud was eliminated.

At Follow My Vote, we envision an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. If you believe that blockchain voting can eliminate voter fraud and bring honest elections to the world, check out our crowdfunding campaign going on right now! Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post Election Fraud in New York Primary? appeared first on Follow My Vote.

Democratic Party

There were 247 new delegates up for grabs last night. Since New York is Clinton’s home territory, she unsurprisingly did very well. Clinton won 58 percent of the vote and collected 139 new delegates. Clinton’s pledged delegate total increased to 1,446 and her superdelegate count pushes her to a grand total of 1,948. Sanders did collect 106 new delegates and his total (including superdelegates) increased to 1,238. Increasingly, it appears that Clinton will go on to win the nomination as she has shown broad support throughout the country.

“Clinton, like Trump, should have a very good next few weeks with polling in Pennsylvania and Maryland showing her comfortably ahead. That’s not to say that Sanders won’t continue to win states here and there. He will. But with every large state that comes off the map, Sanders’s math to overcome Clinton in pledged delegates becomes that much more difficult.”

– Chris Cillizza, Washington Post

Republican Party

There were 95 new delegates at stake for Republican candidates last night, and Trump dominated his home state. Trump won 60 percent of the vote and collected 89 new delegates. His delegate total now sits at 844. Kasich picked up the remaining 4 delegates and Cruz took home none. This was a big blow for Cruz who in recent weeks appeared to be slowing Trump’s momentum. However, a contested convention is still a very real possibility for Republicans this summer.

“On Tuesday, Trump came close to sweeping New York’s 95 delegates — a development that could help the Manhattan real estate mogul win the GOP nomination outright and avoid what would be an explosive and messy contested convention in July.”

– MJ Lee, CNN

At Follow My Vote, we envision an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post New York Primaries Love the Front-Runners in the 2016 Election appeared first on Follow My Vote.

“The Millennial generation continues to grow as young immigrants expand their ranks. Boomers – a generation defined by the boom in U.S. births following World War II — are older and shrinking in size as the number of deaths exceed the number of older immigrants arriving in the country.”

– Richard Fry, Pew Research Center

What does this mean for voting?

In 2012, Baby Boomers accounted for 36 percent of the electorate. They consistently vote in large numbers. But as Boomers continue to shrink in size, will Millennials take the reigns?

According to a 2015 Boston Globe article, that does not appear to be the case. Less than 20 percent of 18-29 year olds voted in the 2014 midterm election. Millennials simply do not believe that exercising their vote is an effective medium for change.

“How did we get from fighting for the vote to dismissing it as meaningless?”

– Joanna Weiss, Boston Globe

It is not that Millennials don’t care about societal issues. In fact, they are more educated and more inclined to volunteer than previous generations. At Follow My Vote, we believe that we have found a way to boost Millennial participation and confidence in the voting process that will more accurately reflect their volunteerism. Millennials are disenfranchised with the traditional two-party system. By moving the election online, the platform allows third-party candidates to have a greater voice. Further, Millennials will already be more willing to participate because of their familiarity with the technology that accompanies an online election. Making the election blockhain-based assures citizens that their votes were counted correctly with end-to-end verifiability. Lastly, by making the vote trackable in real-time, elections will be much more exciting and dynamic.

At Follow My Vote, we envision an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post Millennial Generation Continues to Grow, While Their Voter Participation Remains Stagnant appeared first on Follow My Vote.

Democratic Party

There were 86 new delegates up for grabs on Tuesday night. Sanders took 47 of them and won 56 percent of the vote. This pushes his total delegate count to 1097. Breaking that number down, however, reveals that 1066 are pledged delegates (cannot change their vote), and only 31 are superdelegates. And that takes us to Clinton, who took home 36 new delegates, pushing her total to 1778. However, when breaking down her delegate count, only 1295 are pledged, while 483 are superdelegates. Taking away the superdelegate count, which can change their allegiance at any time, the race is becoming increasingly closer than many ever imagined. The candidates will head to Wyoming and then back east to New York in the coming weeks.

Republican Party

The biggest story of the night came out of the Republican primary. Once thought to be a long shot, a contested convention is no longer just an idea. If no candidate reaches the 1,237 delegate mark, that is exactly what will happen at the Republican convention in July. Cruz took Wisconsin with 48 percent of the vote, and gained 36 new delegates. Cruz’s delegate total is now at 510.  Trump did take home 6 new delegates, pushing his total to 743. Kasich still sits at 145 delegates, and faces a nearly impossible mathematical chance of picking up enough delegates. The candidates head east to New York, Trump’s home state, in the coming weeks.

“Trump needs to win 55 percent of the delegates that remain to be awarded. Cruz needs to win more than 80 percent of the remaining delegates up for grabs to secure the nomination – a difficult task even with momentum.”

– Steve Holland, Reuters

At Follow My Vote, we envision an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post Wisconsin Primary: Brokered Convention on the Horizon? appeared first on Follow My Vote.

Consider: 2012 primary had 300,000 voters and 200 polling places. 2016 primary has estimated 800,000 voters at 60 polling places. #12News

— JOE DANA (@JoeDanaReports) March 23, 2016

At PHX polling site. 7:30pm: line is 3K+ long. Voters at front been waiting for 4+ hrs. #AZPrimary #WesternTuesday pic.twitter.com/hVXUKhNmgo

— Dylan Roberts (@DRobCO) March 23, 2016

“We the people ask for a revote of the Arizona primary due to voter suppression. Many registered voters who registered Democrat/Republican before the cut off or who have been registered Democrat/Republican for many years are being turned down due to the mislabeling of their registered party for the primary. We ask that this immediately be corrected and fixed and allow the residents of Arizona to participate in a revote for honest Arizona primary voting results.”

– petitions.whitehouse.gov 

A recent article from IVN details the 1.2 million registered voters in Arizona who were not able to participate. These voters were barred from participating simply due to being registering as Independent. This bloc represents more than a third of all Arizona voters. Some Independent voters were not even aware of the participation ban, only to be turned away after hours of waiting in line. Others reported that they were registered as Democrats, only to be told that they were listed as ‘Independent’ or ‘No Party Listed’ in the voter database. There has even been a White House petition calling for a revote in the state due to the voter database discrepancies. At the time of writing this, the petition has 96,000 signatures.

The Arizona voting disaster is the most recent of a long list of voting discrepancies this election cycle. We should end the craziness and move to transparent, blockchain voting. At Follow My Vote, we are developing an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post Outcry Over Arizona Voter Suppression appeared first on Follow My Vote.

Follow My Vote’s CEO, Adam Ernest, recently met with Gary Johnson at the International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington, D.C. Johnson said he would be willing to give his support to what Follow My Vote is doing in the days ahead.

Unsurprisingly, it is rather difficult to find many major media publications discussing it. It is important to remember that Americans DO have alternative choices in the 2016 presidential election. We will certainly be tuning in tonight to see what all of the candidates have to say. Matt Welch from Reason will also be holding a post-debate critique.

At Follow My Vote, we are developing an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

UPDATE: Check out all the clips and highlights from the debate!

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post TONIGHT: First Nationally Televised Libertarian Debate appeared first on Follow My Vote.

“San Francisco is due for a new voting system. For years, we have relied on private vendor contracts with expensive licensing fees for software that is highly secretive. Instead of taking on another one of these “black box” contracts, San Francisco has an opportunity to lead the country and develop our own fully transparent voting system.”

Digital Paper Trail

The authors suggest, “It would be a paper-ballot system using open-source software running on commercial, off-the-shelf hardware.” Follow My Vote already uses open-source code. This is fundamental to having an end-to-end verifiable election. If people cannot view the code being used, voter privacy and security could be compromised. Further, San Francisco would not need to buy any commercial hardware. Since we are 100 percent online, voters can use their current devices. This would result in cost-savings for the city.

Costs

“San Francisco’s process for upgrading its voting machines has always been to purchase a proprietary system from one of a few voting machine companies.”

“Each year, we have to pay high licensing fees for software that is both outdated and completely secret.”

Elections cost money. There will never be a way to completely eliminate all costs. However, we can increase efficiency through the use of online voting. In a study we did at Follow My Vote, states are spending roughly $5 per ballot. There would be no more need for IT maintenance and scrapping for used parts when voting machines fail. Cost savings abound when we switch to online voting.

Transparency

The authors say they do not want to deal with any more “black box” contracts. Since we use blockchain technology, voters casts their vote which is stored on the blockchain. He or she can then audit their own ballot and all others. For more information, view the infographic below and visit our blockchain voting page.

Eco-Friendly

It is no surprise that conducting elections on paper, where millions participate, can have severe environmental impacts. In the U.S., roughly 126 million American voted in 2012. Many states even require that a paper ballot be printed for every registered voter. This leaves millions of unused ballots wasted.

Rough estimates indicate:

• 1,185 tons of wood used
• 10,950,000 gallons of water consumed
• 17,250 million BTUs of energy used
• 981,800 pounds of solid waste produced

If San Francisco really wants to take a stand for the environment, they should switch to online voting where electricity is already being used anyway.

At Follow My Vote, we are developing an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post San Francisco Ready for Voting Upgrade appeared first on Follow My Vote.

First, Utah is a closed caucus. This essentially means that you must be a registered party member to participate. The company contracted to establish the blockchain voting system for Utah’s GOP was Smartmatic. Strangely, we could not find a single mention or explanation of blockchain technology on Smartmatic’s website.

“Smartmatic will use a private blockchain along with end-to-end encryption, enabling registered Republicans in Utah to cast their vote online.”

– Samburaj Das, CCN.LA

With the Utah GOP using a closed caucus, does this mean that only Republican voters can audit their own vote? A WIRED article mentions that Smartmatic did create a bulletin board for each voter to verify that their vote was cast correctly…

It is a step in the right direction, but what about being able to audit the entire election?  If you wanted to independently audit the election results, Republican or not, would you have been able to do so yesterday, or even today for that matter? These are fundamental questions that need to be answered.

Adding insult to injury, it appears that online voters in Utah experienced multiple problems yesterday. Utah voters actually reached out to Follow My Vote yesterday for help with casting their vote. However, since we are not providing them with voting services, we were unable to help. Multiple outlets are reporting that many voters experienced error messages when casting their ballot, while some could not even verify their ID.

“As of Tuesday night, party officials said about 10,000 of the 40,000 Utahns who applied to vote online were rejected because their IDs couldn’t be verified.”

– Amber Phillips, Washington Post 

To ensure true transparency yesterday, Follow My Vote would have made sure that all of the code was open source.  To make things completely transparent, we would also have allowed anyone to audit the entire blockchain-based ballot box, while keeping each vote anonymous. By allowing complete transparency and end-to-end verifiability, there would be little left to question about election results.

Democratic Party

The Democratic Party had 128 delegates up for grabs in Arizona, Idaho and Utah yesterday. Arizona was a primary, while Utah and Idaho were caucuses. Bernie Sanders actually had the better night, with convincing victories over Hilary Clinton in Idaho and Utah. He carried around 80 percent of the vote in both states and collected 67 new delegates. Sanders’ total increased to 937, which still leaves him with quite a bit of work to do if he is to catch up to Clinton. However, more of these convincing victories are what he will need going forward.

Clinton won the Arizona primary and collected 51 new delegates. This puts her total at 1,681 and her lead seems as steady as it was before Tuesday’s results.

Next up: Democrats have 3 caucuses in Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii on March 26th.

Republican Party

Republicans had the Arizona Primary and Utah Caucus last night. 98 new delegates were up for grabs. Donald Trump was heavily favored to win Arizona, and met those expectations taking 47 percent of the vote. Trump’s delegate total increased by 58, putting him at 739. Ted Cruz won Utah with 69 percent of the vote and took 40 new delegates. Cruz’s total sits at 465. John Kasich collected no new delegates. His delegate total sits at 143. Much like Clinton, this continues to be Trump’s race to lose.

Next up: Republicans have the Wisconsin primary on April 5th.

At Follow My Vote, we are developing an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post Blockchain Voting in Utah? Pics or it Didn’t Happen appeared first on Follow My Vote.

“Eventually, I think, like everything else, we’ll lead our lives online, and online polling will be the standard. But people haven’t really figured out what the kind of gold-standard methodology is for online polling.”

– Nate Silver, CEO FiveThirtyEight

Silver insists that the bandwagon effect in polling is, in fact, real. Bandwagon effect essentially means that people will primarily do something because others are doing it. This is important in polling, because if 3 large polling sites are all reporting that candidate A is ahead by 5 points, then the rest of the smaller pollsters will report the same thing with no real research. This is the concept of herding, because the large pollsters are essentially influencing the rest of the pack to the point where they are presenting numbers that have not been properly analyzed. In other words, this type of polling practice can severely misrepresent what voters are actually thinking.

“So if you remember when then-Senator Clinton upset Senator Obama in the New Hampshire primary eight years ago in 2008, she had been down by 8 points. What was remarkable is that it wasn’t just that she was down in one or two polls. It was, like, the same margin in every poll – 8 points in this very, very volatile environment. And once one pollster weighs in, especially a good poll, then people say – you know, what? – I’m not quite sure what’s going on here, but I feel more comfortable in the pack.”

– Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight

Silver’s example perfectly explains the bandwagon effect and herding. Silver calls Clinton’s victory in New Hampshire an upset. However, it was really just a misrepresentation of the voters true thinking. This calls into question the accuracy of polls, especially when they are being used to help decide our next leaders. Silver expressed worry for the future of polling with cell phones and declining response rates. The current response rate in the United States is at 9 percent. Obviously 9 percent of respondents is not representative of the entire country.

Despite the inaccuracy of primary and caucus polling, one interesting point Silver made was the relative accuracy of polling in a general election. General election polling is typically closer to the election date and can accurately represent how a state will vote. So, the next time you hear a politician, pundit, or pollster quote the latest polls in your state’s primary or caucus, be wary of exactly what that means.

“And it’s kind of an exercise in humility in the primaries, whereas in the general election, they have a record of being pretty accurate. So basically, all that we do is we run around during the primaries telling people – be careful. Be careful. The polls are not that reliable. And then in the general election, people are trained to be very wary of the polls. They, historically, have turned out to be very accurate instead. So we kind of flip around and say, you know, actually, I know it’s only October, but the polls have been right nine out of 10 times by this point in the year.”

– Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight

Source: NPR

At Follow My Vote, we believe that we have found the standard that Silver discussed. We envision an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post Are Polls Still Reliable in 2016? appeared first on Follow My Vote.

Democratic Party

Clinton was heavily favored in southern states like North Carolina and Florida going into Tuesday, and by all means met and exceeded those expectations. Clinton took 64 percent of the vote in Florida and 55 percent in North Carolina. In a more tightly contested race, she also took Illinois with 50 percent of the vote. Perhaps the most surprising part of Tuesday’s Democratic primaries was how easily Clinton took Ohio. Many expected Clinton to have serious contention from Sanders in this key state, but she took one of her biggest wins of the night with 57 percent of the vote. Since the Democratic primary process does not award delegates in a winner-take-all format, Clinton still only came away with 364 delegates, as Missouri is still too close to call, pushing her total to 1,599.

Sanders had a very disappointing night as he did not win a single state. Again, Missouri has not been officially called yet. However, Sanders is truly running out of time if he wants to catch up with Clinton. Sanders still took home 264 delegates, but his total is only at 844. Essentially, Sanders will have to win often and decisively from here on out.

“Sanders will go on from this Tuesday of voting. He will continue to raise money. There will be states to come that Sanders will probably win. His movement will continue on. But, running a serious national campaign designed to influence the eventual nominee is a very different thing from running a serious national campaign to be the nominee.”

– Chris Cillizza, Washington Post

Republican Party

Trump continued his dominance on Tuesday night collecting Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina. His one disappointment? Ohio. Trump would all but have locked up the Republican nomination if he had taken Ohio last night. Like the Democratic primary, Missouri is still too close to call for Trump as he leads by a razor thin margin in Missouri. Nonetheless, he still sits in a strong position to become the party’s nominee after picking up 177 delegates, with a total of 646.

Then there were three. The biggest surprise of the night was Rubio’s poor showing in the field, and specifically in his home state of Florida. Rubio had promised that he would take his home state, but was beaten badly by Trump by a 46-27 percent margin. In his concession speech, Rubio suspended his campaign. Other than being locked in a tight battle for Missouri, Cruz did nothing to make up ground on Trump only collecting 27 new delegates. Kasich foiled Trump in his home state of Ohio, but faces a nearly impossible gap in delegates at this point in the race.

“The Republican Party, meanwhile, veered closer to a contested convention after Kasich held his own state and deprived Trump of its 66 delegates. That makes it more difficult for the billionaire to reach the 1,237 delegates he needs to capture the GOP prize.”

– Stephen Collinson, CNN Politics

Finally, there has been growing chatter about a contested convention, as the Republican establishment are no big fans of Trump. Essentially, if no candidate reaches the threshold of 1,237 delegates, a contested convention would occur in July. This means that despite Trump holding a delegate lead, the party could nominate a new candidate to represent the party in the 2016 race. There is much to happen still in the coming months, but right now this race is Trump’s to lose.

At Follow My Vote, we envision an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.

About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.

The post Clinton and Trump Continue to Pull Away in 2016 Race for the White House appeared first on Follow My Vote.