There’s a lot of talk today about how the web will change things. How we’ll have a frictionless economy, operate entirely in cybercash, put retailers our of business, and so on. One thing I don’t hear a lot of talk about, however, and something that the web may have a really significatn impact on, is the state of our government.

Whene everyone can vote electronically, through their TV, computer, or telephone (all of which may indeed have merged to become virtually indistinguishable), we may come close to 100% voter "turnout." Let’s think for a moment what this would mean to our democracy.

First, what would it mean to the political parties? Well, right now the Republicans have a big advantage, in that they actually come out and vote much more than democrats, who in general represent less-affluent and less-mobile people, who also have less discretionary time. Democrats in general also frequently are not as well organized as Republicans, less-educated about the issues.

What a good thing then, to allow everyone to get educated thruogh their TV-PC-telephone, using, in addition, the latest edutainmennt methods, using colorful graphics, pictures, videos, interesting story lines. How good also, to see where the money for various ampaigns is coming from, to see the statements o those who upport an issue, to be able to pursue further those people who are strongly supporting it, to see what they’ve supported in the past, and what kind of person they are. How much better informed we’ll be, how much hrder to push across the interets of big business by hiding things in the fine print. In short, a political world of nearly perfect information. But we are really almost there. There is nothing technological in the way. it’s just a question of how long it takes us to put the relevent web sites for each isues, with all the right links to the supporters, details, and sub-links, and so on.

How will it change our country when we vote on the web? What will happen when everyone can vote very easily? What if everyone voted?

One possibility is that the democrats will win a lot more. The accepted wisdom is that low turnouts help the Republicans, because they are much more inclined to vote than democrats, and that high turnouts help the democrats.

So what are the consequences of that? The stock market will go down, our social programs will improve, we’ll get elected officials with a mandate to help everyone, not just the poor!

Add to this people being able to contact and communicate with their elected officials very easily, instead of having to write a letter or trying to call, in both cases not making an impact.