Cyber Beat

Political Activity In Cyberspace -Exploring The Next Frontier

Unless you are one to vote strictly down party lines, the decision for whom to vote sometimes can be tough, especially if you fall somewhere in the middle in your political beliefs. I've heard many of my friends and acquaintances comment that they vote for the lesser of the two evils. Of course I don't have to remind them that even the determination of who is the lesser of two evils depends upon your political beliefs. If you are a supporter of freedom of choice and the fight to keep abortion legal, you may or may not support government funding for abortions. Therefore, if you consistently vote Democratic, you may still find yourself up in arms over the issue of government funding of abortion. What about the issue of government control of the Internet? This issue is so new that the outcome of the next election may hold its future.

Sometimes the decision for whom to vote is difficult. What I find even more difficult, however, is the decision that many Americans make, that being the decision to not vote at all. I often wonder if those Americans who do not vote actually made the decision to not vote or if they just don't know how easy it really is. However, for those Americans that wake up on election day and say "I know it's election day, but I am not going to vote because my vote won't count anyway," I just have to roll my eyes in disgust. Apathy does not make a country. Action and involvement does.

Surf on over to the Democratic National Committee site (http://www.democrats.org) to brush up on your knowledge of the Democratic Party. This site includes a transcript of President Clinton's 1996 State of the Union Address. You can either read the transcript or listen to an audio version of it at this site. President Clinton's accomplishments while in office are also listed. There are also links to other sites of the Democratic Party, including a listing of organizations by state. Not interested in the Democratic Party? Surf on over to the Republican Web Central , GOP home page. (http://republicans.vt.com).

Both of these sites include many links to other political and election related sites. Unfortunately, the one site I would love to see that hasn't been added yet to the Internet is a site that would allow us to vote from the comfort of our own home. Let's see, if it were out there, what would it be called? The Cybervote Collection Connection? CyberPollster? CyberBooth? Maybe, instead of our government officials worrying about what shouldn't be on the Internet, perhaps there should be some serious talk about what should. I certainly would be the first "on line" to cast my vote for cyber voting. It would certainly save me time and gas. Think of all the money, and the trees, that would be saved by eliminating the need to print the millions of ballots needed for each election.

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