Yes, Politicon Was Amazing!
Politicon 2016 was an incredible event! Follow My Vote attended as an exhibitor, while CEO, Adam Ernest, spoke on a panel regarding rigged elections.
The non-partisan political conference took place in Pasadena, California, over June 25 and 26. Many well known politicians, tv hosts, and political thought leaders attended. Some of the most notable were Gov. Gary Johnson, Gov. Sarah Palin, Cenk Uygur, James Carville, John McAfee, Ann Coulter, and Ben Shapiro. See the full line up on politicon.com
Panel: Are U.S. Elections Rigged?
Follow My Vote CEO, Adam Ernest, participated in a panel hosted by the Free and Equal Elections foundation. Participants debated paper ballots vs. online voting, money in politics, gerrymandering, and alternative voting methods.
The room was packed to the gills. When the panel actually ended (due to time constraints), there were still people waiting to ask questions.
During the panel, Ernest educated attendees on the technology Follow My Vote uses to build secure and verifiable online voting software. He said:
“Blockchain technology has the ability to literally root out any potential for corruption in elections.
We are on a panel right now talking about if elections are rigged. I think an even better question would be: with the current processes and systems that are in place to conduct voting, the way we conduct voting today, is there a potential for things to be corrupted? And the answer to that question, in my opinion, would be yes.”
– Adam Ernest, Follow My Vote CEO.
Ernest went on to discuss procedural security which is the security controls needed to prevent fraud and inaccuracy. This involves following rules or certain steps to mitigate identified risks. Anytime humans are involved in counting votes, registering people, giving people ballots, procedural security is necessary.
“We no longer have to rely on procedural security to ensure that there is security within our elections. Using blockchain technology, we can literally develop an end-to-end verifiable voting system. If we have the opportunity to leverage technology to make that a reality, the question is, why not?”
The panel not only discussed ending paper ballots, but also ending paper voting guides. Did you know California spends $12-14 million dollars every election cycle on paper voting guides, which are mailed to 17 million registered voters?
Listeners of the panel heard from Cenk Uygur, of The Young Turks. Cenk had valuable input on the ways the mainstream media responds and reports on rigged elections. He also shared interesting information on instances like Rhode Island shutting down 2/3 of their ballot boxes, which could be considered a form of election rigging.
Frank Atwood, of Approval Voting shared information on why approval voting should be used. Approval voting is a method of voting that gives 3rd party candidates a chance and produces a winner that the majority of voters support. Follow My Vote plans to demonstrate approval voting in the Parallel Election of 2016!
Moderators:
Christina Tobin, Founder and Chair of the Free and Equal Elections Foundation
Cenk Uygur, Main host and co-founder of The Young Turks
Participants:
Adam Ernest, CEO of Follow My Vote
Frank Atwood, Approval Voting
Hunter Scarborough, Voter App (matchmaking for politics)
Nate Kaplan of SeePolitical
Kimberley Abels of HeadCount.
Exhibiting
The Follow My Vote Exhibitor booth was well received at Politicon! People were excited to hear that verifiable voting is in the near future.
We answered lots of questions regarding how our system works and how we maintain security.
Out of all the discussion and talking, the most resounding thing people were excited about was our Parallel Election. We are going to demonstrate our voting technology alongside the 2016 U.S Presidential Election.
We also have a Kickstarter to help fund the Parallel Election! You can help elections become more honest and transparent!
See all of our pictures from Politicon on Facebook!
About the author: Will Long is the Marketing Manager of Follow My Vote.
