Voting by phone is an unserious idea.
This past week Congressman Eric Swalwell pitched just that while discussing his candidacy for California Governor on CNN’s The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.
“I want us to be able to vote by phone,” the Bay Area Democrat said. “If we can do our taxes, make our healthcare appointments, make uh, essentially, do your banking online, you should be able to vote by phone.”
Elections (and governing) should be about fixing actual problems, and California has plenty that Swalwell could focus on, like cost of living, housing, homelessness, K-12 education, wildfires and droughts.
Unfortunately, with phone-call voting Swalwell is campaigning to fix non-existent problems.
Voting in California is easy. There are plenty of places to vote in person, and if that is too much effort, which it is for me and many others, a ballot comes to your house. Any barriers that do exist are things like: has a pen, can lick an envelope, knows the way back to the mailbox.
It’s not hard.
Swalwell is as guilty as too many other California lawmakers who are obsessed with California “leading the nation” or being “first” or whatever.
“I want us to be a blue state that doesn’t do just a little bit better than Georgia or Alabama when it comes to voting access, I want us to max out democracy,” Swalwell said.
California would be so much better off if our elected officials didn’t think and say buzzword nonsense like “max out democracy.” It doesn’t mean anything, really, and paves the way for even sillier ideas like compulsory voting, paying people to vote, voting by text, voting by email, door-to-door voting or opt-out voting (a scheme I invented for this column where the state automatically assigns you a vote by ballot order and then it’s up to the voter to change it if he or she wants).
Voting is a right, but also an immense responsibility. It’s ok that it requires a minimal amount of effort.
I’m not sure what it is about the California government’s history with technology that makes Swalwell think voting by phone is a good idea. The state began implementing an accounting system around two decades ago and it still runs into significant problems, while California’s high-speed rail project is billions over budget and years behind schedule and there’s no end in sight.
And it’s not just big projects. The state struggles with small stuff too. The Secretary of State’s office has been trying to update its campaign finance disclosure portal since 2016, and that’s just revamping a website.
But this is more of a “why” question than a “how.”
Voting by phone would be both an unnecessary challenge and cost (the state keeps running a deficit), when at best it would do nothing to improve access to voting, since access is already universal.
Broken promises about taxes and bonds are nothing new
LA’s governing disaster: Legal payouts, nepotism, and incompetence
Prop. 50 likely to stay intact no matter the fate of Texas gerrymandering
Industrial policy isn’t being done poorly. It’s just bad economics
A spate of new studies gives the lowdown on California’s sky-high living costs
This isn’t a serious idea; Swalwell is just playing to the progressive base by creating a phony argument about access. He seems to believe, or thinks voters he’s trying to court believe, that millions of people aren’t voting because of barriers, but at this point anyone in California who doesn’t vote abstains because it’s not a priority.
There are likely many reasons why it’s not a priority, but I’m sure a top reason is that the state has stopped solving real problems and politicians like Swalwell are too focused on corny ideas like voting by phone.
If Swalwell wants more people to vote, he should try inspiring them. Campaign on fixing real problems, not imaginary ones.
Matt Fleming is an opinion columnist for the Southern California News Group. Follow him on X at @flemingwords or email him at flemingwords@gmail.com.