Digital Democracy’s Dilemma: Can Online Voting Survive Hackers, CEOs, and Big Tech
More than 130 million voters never cast a ballot. Why? Because gerrymandering, voter ID laws, and felon disenfranchisement turn democracy into a maze. Jerremy and Dave reveal how politicians redraw maps to lock in wins, why ID debates leave millions shut out, and how outdated rules and money in politics fuel distrust. The barriers aren’t glitches—they’re features of a system built to keep power in the right hands.
Timestamps:
(00:00) 130 Million Missing Voters: Who Got Ghosted?
(01:47) Voting Problem or Power Play?
(03:34) Gerrymandering’s Funhouse Maps
(11:13) ID Laws: Gym Cards vs Ballot Access
(19:35) Modernizing Democracy: Tech at the Polls
📢 Solving America’s Problems Podcast – Real Solutions For Real Issues
Transcript
"Your face unlocks your phone, your thumb pays for coffee—yet
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:we're marking ballots like pioneers.
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:Digital voting tempts with ease, but
Equifax hacks and TSA lines remind
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:us: convenience comes with risks.
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:Let's unpack if Silicon Valley
deserves our democratic trust."
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:Jerremy: The fact that 99% of the time
when a vote comes around and I get
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:to go, alright, where am I voting?
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:What random facility
do I have to drive to?
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:Is it a middle school this time?
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:Is it an elementary school?
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:Is it a library?
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:Like I'm looking for?
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:I don't know where I'm gonna go vote.
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:I have no idea.
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:I have to look it down, find it
out, go to a place I've never
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:been to before a church, right?
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:Like I'm going to some really random
location, which is, and everyone there
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:has always been extremely kind and
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:courteous.
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:And the process is very simple.
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:I have to show a license.
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:Oh my goodness.
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:An id that's crazy.
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:I know this ahead of time.
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:So it is not a gym, right?
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:So I bring my physical
license to this location.
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:They do the thing, they write some
things down and I go cast a vote.
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:Okay?
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:actually think that we
should make voting easier,
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:and I do think that it would be
with very simple scanning devices.
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:It, you do it through TSA right now.
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:So in TSAI actually
don't have to have my id.
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:I use it, but I could just
do a biometric scan on my
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:And give them my boarding pass.
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:And that's all I need.
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:We should be able to have a input
your social security number.
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:Everyone knows that.
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:Do a biometric face scan.
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:Got it.
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:Vote
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:done
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:on your phone.
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:What?
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:Every American has a phone,
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:Dave: yep.
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:Jerremy: right?
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:99.3%
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:of Americans have a cell phone.
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:So you can have a cell phone now
that you just instantly scan in
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:and go, yep, I'm, I am a person.
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:my social, here's my biometric scan.
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:You get to place one vote.
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:Dave: Yep.
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:Jerremy: That's, that seems very doable
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:Dave: So I think everybody
has a social right?
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:If you ever paid taxes, if you ever
got a utility bill, if you've ever
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:done anything, like at least you have
a social security card and number.
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:And if you are okay.
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:Here let's flip this around.
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:Jerremy: Flip it.
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:Dave: Non-citizen, you're not an American.
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:Let's, put aside any immigration
stuff that we've just been
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:talking about the last few weeks.
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:But you live in this society,
you live in this community,
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:you participate in this nation.
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:In some places you can vote
at least in local levels.
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:You still can't on the federal, but
should you be able to, I think people
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:have strong feelings on this one.
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:I'm like, I don't know.
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:It's you're here and you live here and
you do have some sort of vested interest.
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:Maybe not.
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:Jerremy: I think that's even easier.
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:Yeah, of course.
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:If you live somewhere and you
get to vote in a local election
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:pretending people actually
care 'cause they don't.
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:But let's pretend
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:Dave: Make.
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:Jerremy: care about their
school commissioner vote.
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:Or their mayor or something.
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:They don't, but let's pretend they do.
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:And again, you go to a
voting location again.
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:Let's remove my phone.
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:Biometric face scan idea.
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:'cause that's too easy.
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:Dave: I personally find
super creepy, but I hear you
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:Jerremy: Oh, it's creepy.
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:But we're already doing it.
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:We're already full creep to
do the thing is it's:
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:We already do
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:it.
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:Or, okay, look.
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:But if you don't wanna
do that, bring your id.
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:You know what I'm saying?
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:It's like you go to the church,
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:Dave: is already in a database, right?
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:Jerremy: Go to the thing and
do a scan and put in your Id if
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:you don't wanna do it on your
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:phone, but yeah, the local
level, absolutely easy.
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:Bring a utility bill, bring your id.
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:Oh, I don't have an id.
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:That's cool.
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:You don't have to have an ID here.
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:You don't have to have a social
because you're voting for local.
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:We get it.
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:It's smaller, it's efficient.
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:But again, having a centralized
location, having a building,
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:this is where everyone goes.
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:We could call it Voting
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:Dave: Voting.
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:Voting land.
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:Yeah,
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:Jerremy: voting Land.
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:And it has a carousel and popcorn.
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:And when you go to Voting Land,
you know what, it's there.
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:It's easy, it's simple, it's effective.
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:It's Hey, I have everything I need.
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:I know where I'm going.
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:Just if I told you, Hey man, let's go to
Cold Sum Creamery and get a milkshake.
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:You know where to cold.
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:Boom, let's go.
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:All right.
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:Hey, let's go vote
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:at our local for our local voting.
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:Pop in again.
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:Either an id, but now they realize,
all right, you don't have to be a
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:federal a, a US citizen to vote.
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:Okay, cool.
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:You don't have to be 'cause you live here.
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:So you're paying local taxes, local state
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:taxes, local income taxes, road
taxes, employment taxes, whatever
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:you're paying, all these things.
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:You know who your water
commissioner is or who your dis
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:you want to know these people.
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:Dave: have a physical
address and you live here.
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:Jerremy: gimme some evidence.
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:And that's relatively simple to
create evidence of physical, where
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:you live, like that's not that hard.
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:Dave: No, that's easy.
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:Yeah.
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:Okay.
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:So like, when we did our justice, uh,
and punishment series, we know that
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:I think we should talk about felons.
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:Uh, but also not everybody has a car.
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:Clearly.
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:If people don't have IDs, they don't,
they're not driving, or maybe they're
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:driving and they shouldn't be.
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:You know, I live in a hoity-toity part
of Miami and like, I literally walk
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:out my door and there's voting right.
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:I mean, I just walk to it.
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:I would want to ensure that also that.
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:Poor areas, like where people don't
have a lot of public transportation,
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:where they may not have cars.
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:They also can vote too, like they're
voting land, there's lots of voting lands.
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:Jerremy: I totally there's
gonna be more than one.
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:Just like gas stations, it's really not,
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:Dave: but what about
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:Jerremy: hard to
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:Dave: what about people
who can't get there?
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:Like maybe they're in a, an old
age home, maybe they're in the
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:hospital, maybe they're out of town.
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:How do you feel about mail-in
ballots and that kind of stuff?
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:Jerremy: a great question.
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:How do I feel about mail-in ballots?
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:I think they're old and antiquated,
and I think that we should
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:bring in 2025 plus technology.
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:Again, if you're old and can't travel
anywhere, you probably have a cell phone.
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:Dave: Yep.
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:Jerremy: And I think mail-in ballots
should be an opt-in, meaning like it's
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:a service that you probably pay for
and it has extremely high levels of.
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:Dave: So you're, you're down with
remote voting electronically, right?
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:Like, because you know, like if you're
using a credit card online, it's
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:like, that's you and, and that's that.
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:If you're you know, like I know if
we do a lot of investing in things,
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:it's like when you open up like an
investing account, like you have to
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:take a photo of yourself, you have
to submit your ID and all this stuff.
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:It's like, okay, this is you.
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:You know, like we're putting our face
and our fingerprints into our phone.
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:So that's you too.
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:So you're saying do that when it,
during the research there was also
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:like, yeah, there are people who
can't, leave, who can't, whatever.
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:And they actually send like
voting representatives, like
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:whatever they're called.
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:Ballot people.
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:They send them to like, like homes and to
hospitals and they, they will just like
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:go through, like, they'll go door to door
and be like, you know, gimme your vote.
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:Which I think is super cool.
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:Jerremy: So those are
called Ballad people.
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:Is that official
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:Dave: Dave's ballot people.
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:Jerremy: hi ballad person,
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:Yeah.
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:But
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:Dave: okay, so here's the other
side of this is that like millions
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:and millions of people actually
do vote remotely by paper ballots.
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:They're called US military and
they're also called expats.
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:Jerremy: They're
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:already doing
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:Dave: ballots.
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:But you're saying, okay,
do that electronically too.
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:absolutely right.
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:So due to electronically,
you already have a phone.
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:Every single person
military has a phone, right?
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:They have access to a
phone, they can scan you.
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:It has all your information.
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:That's easy.
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:I'm not saying that we get
rid of mail-in ballots.
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:I'm saying a mail-in ballot
is a higher level of business.
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:Like you have to have certain things
that do a mail-in ballot and so if
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:you're in, if you're serving in Iraq.
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:Or wherever and you have
to do a mail-in ballot.
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:'cause you're in the military.
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:That's the level of scrutiny.
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:Like you, you're gonna pass
that level of scrutiny.
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:I'm not worried about those guys you're
gonna pass that level of scrutiny.
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:But yeah, you come over into the states
and you have a mail-in ballot like there
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:needs, you should have a bunch of things
pretty much systematized down, right?
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:Social security number, copy of your
driver's license, a utility bill.
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:You can go down a pretty long list of
things that you definitely need to mail
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:in along with your mail-in ballot just
to verify and prove like that part, since
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:it is slightly archaic and relatively
easy to manipulate, like check fraud.
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:Check fraud of financial fraud.
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:That happens in the US because it's a
physical, tangible thing that can be
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:physically altered and manipulated.
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:Dave: Yeah,
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:Jerremy: And so same thing
with mail-in ballots.
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:Listen, I like them.
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:They're cool.
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:I get it.
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:I understand it.
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:Welcome to 1974.
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:They were really fantastic,
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:but as 2025, we can fly drones.
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:We can fly a Chipotle order
to your house via drone.
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:Dave: Oh.
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:Jerremy: Let's get some higher level
of scrutiny for mail-in ballots.
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:If you're going to want one or you
need one for whatever particular
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:reason, I'm down for all the reasons.
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:Yeah, you're gonna have to include
a lot of documentation in this
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:stuff because heaven forbid
you fail all of the verifiable.
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:Again, this is my belief.
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:You fail every single line,
every tier that needs to be
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:verified in order for you to vote.
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:You can't vote, homie.
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:I don't know what to tell you.
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:I
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:probably don't wanna
listen to your vote anyway,
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:Dave: you are not responsible enough to
run your life, much less the country.
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:If you can't get the 47 different
things that I'm asking of you to
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:just simply vote, I don't really
care for your opinion honestly.
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:I don't think most other
people are going to either.
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:Yes, you're a human, I'll give you human
rights, but just 'cause you're a human
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:doesn't mean you need to be able to vote.
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:Dave: I, so if I was to sum
up where we are right now.
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:You and I are totally aligned on
any big thing that disenfranchises
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:a lot of people because we want
more people to vote than not.
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:And right now there are some
issues that, you know should be
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:changed in order to make sure, like
gerrymandering, like making sure you
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:have an ID easily, like all of these
things would, would help the process.
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:And if we're managing to the exception,
then we might be actually making it
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:worse for the most of the people.
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:I don't know.
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:Man, that's pretty much I definitely
agree that we should make it
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:easier, not harder easier to access.
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:But essentially just if an individual
would say oh you're making voting
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:harder because you're adding more
requirements like physical id,
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:Dave: Let's look, can we swing
back by the e-voting real quick?
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:E-voting.
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:Dave: I think at least once every couple
of months, I get some sort of notice
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:from some service that says, Hey, we
lost all of your information again.
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:Hey, sorry uh, you know, like it's been
hacked and all of your stuff is out there.
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:Change your password.
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:And it's like, wow, it's
happened so many times.
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:I'm like, that's not good.
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:So cybersecurity is a thing and it,
it, like no system that's attached
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:to the internet is completely safe.
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:And like all of them are vulnerable.
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:So what do we say about that?
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:Is that still just the exception?
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:But that does happen.
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:That happens to you and me all.
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:It happens all the time where our
stuff is lost by these major companies.
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:It's not just small
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:Jerremy: it's not only lost, into,
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:Dave: Companies that spend, I don't
know, hundreds of millions of dollars
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:probably securing information.
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:They still lose our
information to some crazy,
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:Jerremy: you knew my favorite
one that was hacked was Equifax.
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:my favorite.
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:Oh, dude.
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:Yeah.
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:So Equifax got hacked.
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:Ah, man, this could have been six or seven
years ago, maybe a little bit longer,
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:but they get hacked and they had to send
everyone a message, a phone call, and
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:an email and a physical letter saying,
Hey, one out of every two Americans had
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:their identity stolen, and we're sorry.
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:Dave: sorry about that.
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:Just it's like you have two jobs.
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:One of 'em is to provide us
financial information to other
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:people and to keep it safe.
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:Jerremy: Unbelievable.
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:Who like that is just wild town Equifax.
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:Yeah.
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:Me, you, we definitely got our social
date of birth, all that stuff stolen.
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:Dave: Here's the thing, right?
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:This is what, I think is a serious
policy consideration for you going
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:forward, which is this keeps happening
because there is no punishment.
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:Like we are not perp walking the
CSO and the CEO and the board of
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:directors for Equifax, or, like insert
company put them in jail and make
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:sure that all of their information
is published widely on the internet.
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:Being like, okay, there you go guys.
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:If we make this like serious consequences,
then you have serious action acts.
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:You have serious action.
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:And right now there's nothing.
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:It's oh, just kidding.
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:Like a few years ago, more towards the
dawn or second round of internet stuff,
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:there were consequences where companies
had to pay to make sure that your credit
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:system, things were monitored, that
you would, be a part of this program to
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:sure that your identity isn't stolen.
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:Now, it's nothing.
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:They just give you a oh, hey, sorry.
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:Jerremy: Yeah.
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:Yeah, exactly.
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:My bad.
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:Dave: Yeah, sorry about that.
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:Go change your password,
which doesn't matter.
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:Here's.
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:Jerremy: To your point, yeah, there
should definitely be a little bit more.
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:Repercussions to some degree.
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:I wouldn't throw the CEO in jail, but
I'd probably fire them or find them.
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:Or someone, the company, like
someone should get fined.
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:But then also the people that did it, we
should actually, I don't know, have a task
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:force to hunt those people down and, yeah.
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:Dave: I don't know why every affected
person shouldn't get a check for,
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:$15,000 each to go fix your shit.
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:So if there's no pen, if there's
only a financial penalty, then I
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:think the financial penalty should
be able to put the company to death.
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:Like these companies can't just do
the math and be like, oh, we don't
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:have to spend money on cybersecurity
because we'll just pay this a
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:hundred dollars fine and be done.
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:It's no, make it serious.
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:It's a $10 billion fine.
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:It's a fine for every
person that lost their stuff
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:Jerremy: Come on, dude.
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:I like that.
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:Here's the thing, man so I know,
I'm sure you heard about this, but.
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:The US government just bought
10% of Nvidia sorry, Intel.
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:The US government just
bought 10% of Intel, right?
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:Because Trump and the CO are best buddies.
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:And so he goes, Hey, we now own 10%
of, so they bought 440 million shares
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:of Intel.
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:Now here's the reason I'm saying that.
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:Do you think the US government
could go, Hey Apple, hey Google,
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:here's what we need to do.
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:To, to your point, yes, absolutely.
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:Let's have some rules and regulations
and fines, but hey, go, we're gonna
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:pay, since you guys are the, the major
providers of all information here in the
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:us, we'll pay you annually, $10 billion.
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:Let's call it like the government
pays, apple pays Google 10 billion,
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:and everyone is gonna get on this
system and they're gonna be protected.
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:And the same way that you're
already protecting them now.
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:Me and you, bro.
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:We got our cell phones.
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:We have all of our credit cards on there.
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:All of our data, all of our photos.
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:You have so much stuff on our phone that
currently we trust Apple or Google to,
370
:meaning you trust Apple who trust Google.
371
:We trust Apple to keep
our stuff protected.
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:So if we're doing these again, e-voting,
biometric scan, op, face ID type of
373
:voting system, we can rely on a third
party to help us keep that safer.
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:Will it get hacked at some point?
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:Sure.
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:But again, we already faced that risk now,
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:so that risk doesn't change.
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:It's okay, could someone go in and
manipulate the system by adding a bunch
379
:of different votes electronically?
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:Sure.
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:But that could happen.
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:Now, I like if I knew how to hack,
which I don't, could I hack into
383
:the internet of a local high school
384
:or a church?
385
:Manipulate all the information that's
going through that system for all the
386
:voters that are showing up with their IDs.
387
:Of course I could I'm confident
that could happen somehow.
388
:So yeah, it can be daunted, but that
person would also go to jail for a long
389
:time if they did that, if they were found
out that they cracked into this code.
390
:So I think the government could easily
spend a little bit of money to an
391
:outside privatized company that makes
sure that aspect is either safer or
392
:faster or easier or more efficient
or more effective for all of it.
393
:Dave: But the CEO doesn't go to jail.
394
:If you're at a bank and they leave
the doors wide open and they're
395
:like, okay that's Jeremy's cash on
the table, but hey, don't touch it.
396
:That bank manager's no, they're fine.
397
:They, we'll give 'em a, like
whatever's in their wallet.
398
:That's the, that's their fine.
399
:Jerremy: Should definitely be penalized.
400
:The thing is, like CEOs
are oblivious, bro.
401
:They're dumb.
402
:99.9%
403
:of every CEO that runs a major
organization in this country is a moron.
404
:They don't know what's
going on in their internal
405
:world.
406
:Their goal is to be the
chief everything officer,
407
:Right.
408
:So they're just chatting with these
people and they're getting filled in.
409
:So they don't know the local teller like
410
:the j jp, none of these guys
know anyone who's working any
411
:of their banks or anyone else.
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:So it's like someone should get penalized
somewhere and I'm down for the CEO
413
:to get fined, sign me up for that.
414
:Jail's probably too much.
415
:I would think for someone who doesn't
really have any awareness of what's going
416
:on at all in that organization, however.
417
:I do definitely think that you should
have some stronger, stricter protocols in
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:place if something like that does happen.
419
:Yeah.
420
:Dave: All right.
421
:I would also be like, okay, if
your stuff does get compromised,
422
:it's super easy to fix it.
423
:Like, you're not responsible
for either financial stuff.
424
:You can get new social security
cards, you can get new.
425
:Like, everything's like, okay,
we'll just, you know, we'll
426
:send a new packet to your door.
427
:It'll be there tomorrow.
428
:Like, I, I think a lot of people have
had their credit card compromised.
429
:I have and.
430
:I dunno if it was compromise, but it was
like, like there were some funky charges
431
:on it that didn't seem, you know, like
and I was like, ah, this, this is su and
432
:they canceled it immediately and sent me a
brand new card and I had it the next day.
433
:And I, I don't know, as long as
you can make it really easy to be
434
:like, be able to fix your stuff.
435
:I did have a, a dear friend, uh,
get his identity stolen and I think
436
:he was dealing with it for years.
437
:You know, his credit, you know, like
his, his bank account, like every,
438
:like, there was, it was random stuff.
439
:Like he got a new cell phone and like
he, he had trouble getting it, uh,
440
:because the cell phone company was
like, do you live in this country?
441
:I'm like, no.
442
:Jerremy: Oh
443
:Dave: So like he, he had, yeah.
444
:So all of that should be super easy to
be like, okay, I did get compromised.
445
:Gimme my stuff.
446
:Jerremy: Yeah.
447
:No, I totally agree.
448
:I think that
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:Alex: "We've navigated tech's highs and
hacks—from TSA biometrics to those endless
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:breach emails shaking our confidence.
451
:But the biggest twist?
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:No constitutional right to vote exists.
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:Up next: Electoral College enigmas,
founder flaws, and reforms to empower
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:the 130 million silent voices."
