Back in time at the polling place
While the election results may be fresh in your mind, the election process may have already slipped from memory.
On election day here in Minnesota, you may have woken up early to avoid a lengthy line, strode anxiously into the polling place, signed in at a fold-out table with a pen in a binder full of names, and after manually blacking out the dots on your ballot, approached the dated ballot scanner and crossed your fingers while it processed.
Both the registration and voting processes in America can be a tad…traditional. Outdated machines and systems for registering citizens, recording votes, sectioning districts and safely storing and evaluating information are straight out of the early 2000’s – literally.
Of the many things that are under construction in the United States, perhaps the process of voting should be one of them. Allowing one of the most important systems in our country to become modernized and simplified would encourage and streamline how citizen voices are heard.
We’ve seen how Microsoft Dynamics CRM functions for the public sector. It was built to nourish customer relationships with tools that:
- Report data in real time
- Organize relevant information
- Reduce resource and time costs
- Store content centrally and securely
- Unleash communication
- Provide visual components for analyzing data
- Improve the experience of the user
- Increase accessibility
Dynamics CRM working for democracy
So what could the use of a CRM in the voting process mean for this integral part of our government function?
Voters could have mobile access to pre-registration, easily locate their polling place, and, if we’re dreaming big, in the future they could take advantage of the possibility to skip the line completely and vote from home electronically.
For those who collect and evaluate the results of voting, Dynamics CRM enables employees to have a central space to collect data, visualize the districts for information dispersal, and safely store and analyze the results of an election. Where both voters and volunteers manually check in and carry out the vote today, there could be a modernized method built within Dynamics CRM that eliminates paper, clutter, and polling place lines.
The future of voting is not so far away
Cities, counties, and states have started to implement online and technology-hosted ways of voting through the use of computers and tablets. Obviously the safety and integrity of voting data is a primary concern, so a secure system is crucial in the decision to upgrade.
The auditing and security management capabilities in Dynamics could change the way we use our voices and protect our freedoms through voting. Implementing a CRM system could make voting; an important American right, even more available, simple, and convenient to citizens. All we need is some technological advancement, acceptance, and a little CRM.
