Virtual Polling Place: Estonia has allowed citizens to vote online through their smartphones or laptops in eight nationwide elections since 2005. In the most recent election, more than 30 percent of Estonians cast their votes online.
The United States has had more than 200 years to get its election process right, but it’s still far from perfect, and the country’s voter turnout is a global embarrassment. For the 2014 midterm election, just 36 percent of eligible voters showed up at the polls, the worst rate in 72 years. The showing was much better in 2012, when 58 percent of the U.S. electorate cast a ballot to choose their next president. But that still puts what is arguably the world’s oldest democracy toward the back of the pack for voter participation among developed countries.
When U.S. voters do make it to the polls, they may encounter long lines, be turned away for showing the wrong ID, or even find their names have been erroneously scrubbed from voter rolls. And special provisions meant to enable military personnel and expats to vote by mail are notoriously inefficient: About 2 percent [PDF] of postal ballots are thrown out because they arrive after the voting deadline.
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