Tech Surge To Fix Healthcare Needed To Fix Our Broken Election Systems

As millions of Americans sign up for lifesaving healthcare, it is right that President Barack Obama ordered a "tech surge" to fix glitches in the healthcare.gov website. As the president said "we didn't fight this battle over as website" but as he knows, if the portal doesn't inspire confidence the policy can be attacked. I saw the same thing when I worked at HUD during the Clinton administration - computer glitches, especially for people across the digital divide, lowered confidence in government and allowed opportunistic opponents to cnflate the portal with the policy. For that reason among others,the sooner more Americans join the hundreds of thousands already enrolled in ObamaCare this month the better.

And while there's a bandwagon to build a more transparent healthcare website, today's movement to open source the American healthcare platform can be a moment to open source our country's elections platforms as well. Transparency, both healthcare and in the health of our democracy, can improve public trust and promote the common good.