Technology is a fantastic piece of the human puzzle, but that doesn’t mean that every aspect of our lives should be spent staring at a screen or attempting to make convenience our number one priority.
No one is having a heart-to-heart with their friends around a digital campfire, and you’re not getting your exercise by playing FIFA on Xbox.
At the same time, a great deal of the technology we utilize is making our lives more complicated. Digital banking has brought with it all new ways to be scammed. Digital advertising has become such an enormous part of the corporate world that social media companies are stealing and selling our personal browsing habits to the highest bidder.
And, worst of all, the sanctity of our very elections is now in jeopardy, as evidenced by the massive debacle at the Iowa caucuses on Monday after a smartphone app designed to count votes malfunctioned majorly.
With New Hampshire’s primary just a few days away, the northeastern state’s highest election authority is guaranteeing that there will be no repeat of the Iowa mess because, and I quote, “you can’t hack a pencil“.
The New Hampshire primary differs from Iowa caucuses in many regards, said Secretary of State Bill Gardner:
New Hampshire’s primary is an election run by municipal officials, as opposed to the political parties that run the Iowa caucuses.
New Hampshire voters fill out paper ballots in all 309 voting locations, from the most congested ward in Manchester to the most isolated of North Country towns.
The Accuvote machines used by most towns to count ballots can’t be hacked because they aren’t online.
And, as required by the state constitution, the moderator reads the results at each polling location while the clerk records them by hand.
In New Hampshire, “The voter marks the ballot with a pen or pencil. You can’t hack a pencil,” Gardner said.
He said he’s confident of no failures next Tuesday.
As it stands today, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is poised to easily win the New Hampshire contest, with the democratic socialist polling eight percentage points above his closest competitor, former Vice President Joe Biden.
