As part of my job I routinely track current and emerging technologies to answer questions posed by my customers, make my company more competitive, avoid violating intellectual property of others, and occasionally educating myself. Perhaps 50 to 400 technical articles a week might cross my desk, most of which I superficially scan, some I read in detail, and fewer still requiring action by me or my colleagues.

Today, while reading about how gas turbines could be used to adjust the trajectory of asteroids approaching Earth my mind wandered to the “billions and billions” of stars in the Universe, which then led me to think of a more practical, Earthbound situation:

We live in a country where every item that’s packaged and used, every part in every assembly, every bank account, credit / debit card, financial transaction, insurance policy and claim, medical device and procedure, nearly every piece of livestock and produce from farm to family, etc. is numbered, dated, tracked, verified, and documented…

…except, apparently, for our system of voting.

Our cellphones, cars, smart appliances, TV’s, electrical outlets, even our smart watches monitor our every movement and action, collecting information and making it available to companies, governments, and even enterprising hackers…

…but, apparently, not our voting system.

Huge companies have scores of computers and humans whose job it is every working minute of every day, to collect, review, verify, edit, process, and utilize data to ensure accuracy, and timeliness…

…but, apparently, not in our voting system.

In all these systems, various levels of safeguards are put in place to ensure all appropriate laws, rules, regulations, processes, and procedures are followed to the letter, whether to improve quality, provide customer satisfaction, increase profits, minimize losses, or avoid possible civil or criminal liabilities…

…but, apparently, not in our voting system.

And all of the above happens every second of every day, day after day, with about 26 million product sold on Amazon, 62 million financial transactions by the Federal Reserve, over 600 million Tweets, and over 40 million brokered equity trades just today alone. And, each and every one being documented, checked, tracked, and stored.

How is it our nationwide voting system – perhaps the most important system in our Nation, and only performed every couple of years – can’t or won’t be held to the same levels of documentation, tracking, and security?

Just wondering.

Thanks for Reading!