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Why you should be able to vote on your phone | Bradley Tusk

TED Talks Daily

2025/07/15
TED Talks Daily

TED Talks Daily

2025/07/15
In a democracy where participation shapes power, low voter turnout has allowed extreme voices to dominate the political conversation. Bradley Tusk, a seasoned political strategist, believes the key to restoring balance lies in a tool nearly everyone already uses: the smartphone. By reimagining how we vote, he argues, we can reshape who gets heard.
Bradley Tusk advocates for secure, mobile voting as a transformative solution to America’s broken political system. With low turnout skewing elections toward extremists and special interests, mobile voting could broaden participation by making it as simple as using a banking app. Drawing from his experience with tech-driven campaigns like Uber’s expansion, Tusk highlights how accessible technology can drive civic engagement. A proposed open-source system would use multi-factor authentication and encryption to ensure security and transparency—addressing common concerns about fraud. While the technology exists and is used abroad, the main obstacle in the U.S. is political resistance, as current power structures benefit from low turnout. Tusk remains optimistic, arguing that when public demand reaches a tipping point, transformative change becomes inevitable. Mobile voting, he contends, could democratize democracy itself, bringing more moderate voices into the fold and realigning politics with the will of the majority.
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Mobile voting technology is nearly complete as a free, open-source platform for all voters
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The real obstacle to mobile voting is political will, not technology.
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Major rights are won when enough people demand them