Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hey there,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. My name is Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: I'm a staff writer here at how Stuff Works, and
Speaker 1: with me is Chris Palette as her extraordinaire. Oh lah
Speaker 1: to you, Chris. Uh. We're here to talk to you
Speaker 1: about a really big event that's gonna happen in the
Speaker 1: United States November. Uh not Thanksgiving? No, I mean that
Speaker 1: was gonna happen in November, but that's not the one
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Is there something else happening? Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: talking about the elections here. That election, yes, and of
Speaker 1: course since we're the Tech channel, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: how the Internet relates to elections, particularly this election. That's true.
Speaker 1: You know, a few months ago when I was working
Speaker 1: with someone else, um that would be Josh Clark and
Speaker 1: you may know for stuff you should know, we actually
Speaker 1: put together a series of political articles on how Barack
Speaker 1: Obama works, how Hillary Clinton works, how John McCain works.
Speaker 1: They were, you know, the principles in the election, and
Speaker 1: one of the things I noticed from that was that
Speaker 1: there's just so much more interest in the elections. And
Speaker 1: we were talking about ideas for podcasts. Uh I told Jonathan,
Speaker 1: I thought that we should do one about how the
Speaker 1: Internet has really profoundly affected this election, because so many
Speaker 1: more people are involved in in the outcome of this.
Speaker 1: They're just really, you know, personally invested in there. They
Speaker 1: want to see what happens. Uh, you know, from both sides,
Speaker 1: from the conservative side and the liberal side, and you
Speaker 1: know everywhere in between. Um. And in fact, as I
Speaker 1: was doing research was I saw a report from the
Speaker 1: Pew Charitable trusts UM, which always makes me think of
Speaker 1: a certain cartoon Skunk. But aside from that, they didn't
Speaker 1: report in June and said that of adults are using
Speaker 1: the Internet or some kind of electronic means for political purposes,
Speaker 1: to share information, for fundraising, uh, to keep up with things.
Speaker 1: And that's that's amazing. I mean of the population, you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's a significant amount considering the number of people
Speaker 1: who are wired, because not everybody uses the internet. That's
Speaker 1: true even still and uh, I actually read in a
Speaker 1: in a report over from our friends across the pond,
Speaker 1: over over from the BBC News that people under twenty
Speaker 1: four trust online media more than they trust television as
Speaker 1: a source of political news. Seriously, Yeah, that's crazy. I
Speaker 1: mean it's crazy in the sense that, uh that that
Speaker 1: it shifted so quickly, right, I mean, comparatively speaking, the
Speaker 1: internet is still a pretty young thing, and the web
Speaker 1: is even more young than that. The web hit the
Speaker 1: hit the scene in the early nineties, uh, came available
Speaker 1: to the general public around then. The Internet has played
Speaker 1: a role in in earlier elections, but really, this year,
Speaker 1: two thousand eight, it really seems like this is the
Speaker 1: year the Internet has come into its own as a
Speaker 1: political vehicle. Um. Not just for the media reporting on
Speaker 1: this or or citizens who are blogging about it or
Speaker 1: reading about it, but also for the politicians themselves. Um.
Speaker 1: Barack Obama seems to have really grasped this. He has
Speaker 1: his own Twitter account. He's actually in the top ten
Speaker 1: Twitter users for people who follow Twitter. Um. And not
Speaker 1: only that, but his Twitter account follows back anyone who
Speaker 1: follows him. So if you follow Barack Obama, Barack Obama
Speaker 1: follows you. Know. We should probably mentioned that it's very
Speaker 1: unlikely that Obama himself is the one twittering you don't
Speaker 1: really see him at the Yeah, you don't really see
Speaker 1: him at debates, like with his you know, looking down
Speaker 1: below the podium with his thumbs going crazy as he's
Speaker 1: hitting his BlackBerry. Um, although that would be great. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: hold on, hold on, I'm not going to talk about
Speaker 1: the economy here. I got a Twitter to finish. Hold
Speaker 1: on one second, I'll be right with you. Right. But
Speaker 1: but whoever is on the staff who's doing this, is
Speaker 1: uh really keeping the followers up to date. I mean,
Speaker 1: every time that Obama is going to uh to speak
Speaker 1: live in front of an audience, there's a link in
Speaker 1: a in a tweet from Barack Obama saying, Hey, you
Speaker 1: could watch the speech right now as it happens. You
Speaker 1: don't have to wait for the news tonight. And uh.
Speaker 1: And that's a powerful tool, that's true. Uh. In fact,
Speaker 1: he's been so adapt at fundraising using his website that
Speaker 1: he's been able to you know, there was all over
Speaker 1: the news not too long ago that he was giving
Speaker 1: up public financing for his election campaign for the general
Speaker 1: election because he was able to raise money through private means.
Speaker 1: And of course, the McCain campaign hit back at him saying,
Speaker 1: you know, saying that he had flip flop that he
Speaker 1: had already agreed to use public money. UM. But you
Speaker 1: know he's He's not the only one because Ron Paul,
Speaker 1: the candidate for the in the Republican race, was able
Speaker 1: to uh fundraise substantial amounts using you know, grassroots internetwork
Speaker 1: and uh, you know they're they're basically all the campaigns
Speaker 1: this year used it as a fundamental part of their strategy.
Speaker 1: Now you know they're having various degrees of success with it, um,
Speaker 1: but you know that it's it's been a serious part
Speaker 1: in the campaign itself from the candidates and and one
Speaker 1: of the largest uh uh initiatives would have to be
Speaker 1: through email. Um. You see a lot of blogs, you
Speaker 1: see a lot of things like the neat little Twitter
Speaker 1: posts and stuff, but really email lists are where are
Speaker 1: emails still how the candidates are are getting their message
Speaker 1: across uh primarily when they're using the Internet as a vehicle. UM.
Speaker 1: I mean, they have their websites and everything like that,
Speaker 1: But if you have ever signed on to any any
Speaker 1: politics Asian's website, I guarantee you're receiving email from uh
Speaker 1: everyone connected to that campaign. Um, and you may be
Speaker 1: receiving multiple ones in a single day, and and most
Speaker 1: of the time it's for fundraising opportunities things of that nature. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's emails a big thing with candidates, which
Speaker 1: is interesting because I thought email was dead. That's why
Speaker 1: I keep hearing anyway. Yeah, yeah, well it's certainly not dead.
Speaker 1: When it comes to putting down candidates or trying to
Speaker 1: spread disinformation. There will be a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of people on again all sides of the campaign who
Speaker 1: are uh perfectly willing to spread rumors to anyone and everyone.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, not just about the candidates, but about their
Speaker 1: significant others as well. Despicable. Um. You know. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, it's gone so far that St. Petersburg
Speaker 1: Times and Congressional Quarterly have put together a website and
Speaker 1: an email but I subscribe to called PolitiFact. It's available
Speaker 1: at PolitiFact dot com. And it's kind of cool because
Speaker 1: they have a truth ometer. So what happens is that
Speaker 1: it's like one of those old needle gauges that you
Speaker 1: see on on audio recording equipment or in a TV studio.
Speaker 1: And basically what they'll do and they and they are
Speaker 1: very even handed about it. They take all the different
Speaker 1: candidates or even some of the uh, the third parties
Speaker 1: that make claims about things that they say in ads
Speaker 1: and they'll say, you know, uh, for example, Barack Obama
Speaker 1: is a Muslim, and they'll say, you know, they'll actually
Speaker 1: investigate the claim, break it out piece by piece, interview
Speaker 1: people and break it down, and they'll list it on
Speaker 1: the truth ometer as being anywhere from you know, patently
Speaker 1: true to pants on fire which actually has little flames
Speaker 1: in the in the gauge, which saying you know, this
Speaker 1: is absolutely not true and this is why. And they'll
Speaker 1: break it down in the different things. So it's kind
Speaker 1: of interesting because the email takes it and breaks it,
Speaker 1: each one of these claims down, and it takes you know,
Speaker 1: it plays no favorites, it takes all of them as
Speaker 1: they come. That's that's uh. That's pretty interesting because there's
Speaker 1: a lot of disinformation out there and and it might
Speaker 1: not even be intentional, but it's definitely there. And uh,
Speaker 1: Barack Obama too had to start a website of his
Speaker 1: own called fight the Smears dot com where he addresses
Speaker 1: each of those uh you know, basically, it's the email
Speaker 1: chain that's coming back and each of these claims he's
Speaker 1: taking and explaining you know why people say this about
Speaker 1: him and then why it's not true. So it's uh,
Speaker 1: you know when when you actually have to take a website,
Speaker 1: you know that just to do do that, it shows
Speaker 1: how prolific these emails have gotten. Right and and to
Speaker 1: go beyond the whole email realm, we can look at
Speaker 1: other aspects of the Internet that have been very important
Speaker 1: in this election process like YouTube. Um, the YouTube debates
Speaker 1: that were held during the primary season. Uh, that was huge,
Speaker 1: and it gave viewers the chance to actually ask questions
Speaker 1: of the candidates. It really set a new precedent for
Speaker 1: voter politician interact. I mean that. I think that's one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why the Internet is playing such a
Speaker 1: huge role in this election. It gives people more of
Speaker 1: a sense of connection to the people who are running
Speaker 1: for office. You're no longer looking at someone who's on
Speaker 1: the back of a train, you know, making a speech
Speaker 1: before the train goes off to its next destination destination.
Speaker 1: Now you're actually interacting with the people who may very
Speaker 1: well end up being president. I mean, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's a powerful tool. Yeah, and you think as
Speaker 1: powerful as it is, that it would allow us to uh,
Speaker 1: to not have to stand in lines on you know,
Speaker 1: the second Tuesday in November. Right, you know, at this point,
Speaker 1: E voting, you know, voting from the comfort or your
Speaker 1: own home where in your jammy's and your bunny slippers,
Speaker 1: doesn't look like it's going to be here anytime soon.
Speaker 1: You know, there's, um, there's some big problems with E voting. Uh.
Speaker 1: We have some aspects of the voting already. The chances
Speaker 1: are uh, most of us, i'm sure have have seen
Speaker 1: a direct recording electron voting machine d r E. That's
Speaker 1: one of those where you go in and it's a
Speaker 1: little computer monitor and you touch the screen and you
Speaker 1: make your choices and then at the end it says
Speaker 1: is this correct, shows you the ballot, and you say
Speaker 1: yes or no and um, and you move on from there. Uh.
Speaker 1: And there's been a lot of controversy about these machines,
Speaker 1: whether they're safe, whether people can hack into them, whether
Speaker 1: or not they have a paper trail, because without a
Speaker 1: paper trail, can you really trust the electronic trail. Basically
Speaker 1: that you take your card, you put it in your vote,
Speaker 1: and then you're supposed to put the smart card in
Speaker 1: a box and you don't know whether anything is being
Speaker 1: done with that, whether anything has been actually recorded on
Speaker 1: the card. I mean right, it's it's um, it's there's
Speaker 1: a whole can of worms there. And when you when
Speaker 1: you extend that to the internet, it gets even more complicated. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest problems is guaranteeing that your vote
Speaker 1: is counting. And the issue here is between privacy and accountability,
Speaker 1: because they can't. You you can't link of vote to
Speaker 1: a specific individual. That violates your whole right to privacy. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, some people they don't care if you know
Speaker 1: that they're voting for one person versus another. But that's
Speaker 1: you can't you can't make a judgment across the board
Speaker 1: based on those people. You have to ensure privacy. So
Speaker 1: if you're ensuring privacy, that means you can't necessarily link
Speaker 1: back one vote to one person. How can you then
Speaker 1: be sure that every vote that's in your electronic system
Speaker 1: is accurate and valid. What if someone has hacked in
Speaker 1: and has put in a thousand votes for someone and
Speaker 1: these people never even really existed. Is there really a
Speaker 1: way you can be sure that that has not happened. Well,
Speaker 1: the government's the US government has tried to experiment with this.
Speaker 1: In two thousand, the Federal Voting Assistance Program tried voting
Speaker 1: over the Internet UM initiative, and it was deemed successful.
Speaker 1: It had a very secure UH set in place. It
Speaker 1: was only a very small sample size though, so it's
Speaker 1: it really wasn't a true test of the Internet's capability
Speaker 1: of being a voting system. So in two thousand one,
Speaker 1: Congress UH gave the go ahead for an initiative called
Speaker 1: the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment or SERVE, and
Speaker 1: by two thousand four they canceled it because the the
Speaker 1: security concerns were so great there was no way to
Speaker 1: tell at that time whether or not such a system
Speaker 1: would ever be feasible based on the technology we had,
Speaker 1: and they said, we're pretty much gonna have to wait
Speaker 1: until we changed some standards and the technology catches up,
Speaker 1: and then we'll move on from there. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: it's funny to think that we went from you know,
Speaker 1: the uh, you know, possibility of ballot stuffing with paper
Speaker 1: ballots and hanging chads with butterfly ballots, to the bright
Speaker 1: new future of electronic voting, which is completely hackable and
Speaker 1: corruptible and nobody trusts right. Well, if you'd like to
Speaker 1: learn more about some of the topics we talked about,
Speaker 1: you can check out how Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or
Speaker 1: John McCaine work. Those are all individual articles, and we
Speaker 1: also have how e voting works and those are all
Speaker 1: online right now at how stuff works dot com. Vote early,
Speaker 1: vote often. Yes, Thanks for listening. For more on this
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com? Let us know what you think. Send an
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