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Chapter 10
Voting in the Demos

The consensus of the electorate within the demos would not be achieved merely periodically by, say, voting every two or four years or so but would be continuously maintained at every moment. Every voter would have a confidential vote actively riding on every issue included in the demos. In an endless cycle of calculations, every few seconds everyone’s votes on a given issue would be electronically summed producing an ever current consensus on the issue. A voter would be able to change one or more votes at any time at his or her pleasure. It would be a requirement that the voter must recast his or her vote on each issue, either confirming each vote as is or changing one or more votes, at least once each calendar year.

Within the demos the notion of “getting the vote out” would be very different from the periodic crises that political and other groups suffer today. It would not be a process of getting people to register to vote or of physically hauling people to voting booths. Demos voting terminals would be virtually everywhere. A given voter could conveniently change any vote on any issue at any time that it pleased him or her to do so. “Getting the vote out” would be an endless process of trying to persuade members of the demos to change their already existing votes on one or more issues.

Several factors would combine to render one’s obligation to vote in the demos a very light task. The issues in the demos would remain only the same handful. They all would have been thoroughly studied while the voter was in high school. The voter would have become familiar with them throughout life. The voter would be well acquainted with the simple and convenient demos voting terminals and procedures. Voting terminals would be located everywhere, and the voter could alter votes at any convenient time or place. In all likelihood, the voter would alter a vote only occasionally. The minimal requirement of recasting one’s votes at least once a year could take as little as five or ten minutes. And, while voting on the twelve demos issues would be a civic obligation, participating in the deliberation of demos issues would be optional.

With a click or two of a button as little or as much additional information and debate relevant to each issue as the voter may want to delve into would be on hand. Although each of the demos issues would have its own simple page or screen, for convenience the entire handful of issues could also be displayed on a single page or screen. This would be convenient for the voter who already knew his or her mind and merely wanted to quickly alter one or more votes.

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Chapter 10 Voting in the Demos

Chapter 10
Voting in the Demos