Technology: Out of the voting booth, into the digital age

Some elections officials and voters have high expectations for how future technology could make voting easier, more accessible and appealing to tech-savvy young voters.

Amber McReynolds, Denver director of elections, sees expanding iPad use as ballots for more voters than the elderly and disabled.

“We might even be able to take it to the next level where a voter could access this from their home and do it on their own and print it out and send it in,” she said. “Voters that potentially have disabilities have difficulty getting out of their home or traveling to a site to go in person; this same app could be potentially be utilized on their home computer. That would be the next step in my mind.”

Stanley Tavenner, who used an iPad to vote at St. Paul Health Center in June, liked the device but said technology is always changing and being replaced.

“I believe in the future you’d be able to, like James Bond, you’d be able to talk on your watch and do your ballot from there,” said Tavenner, 55. “Every 10 or 12 years, these things become obsolete and something else comes on the market.”

By Alia Conley, News21