Sharing: Could it Work in Elections?

[Image – and accompanying awwww …. – courtesy of pstracks]

Yesterday’s USA Today had a fascinating look at the proliferation of business based on sharing – apartments, cars, office space, even driveway parking spots – a business fueled by the explosion of social media and near ubiquity of technology which allows buyers and sellers to find one another.

The article made me wonder (and I honestly want to raise the question – don’t know the answer) if the same concept could work in the field of elections. Obviously, some things like ballots can’t be shared, but are there other items or services which could be?

The constraints are obvious: you couldn’t really share in a national election, when everybody needs everything on the same day; you’d want to be sure that the items or services being offered for sharing were reliable and safe; and transportation costs between jurisdictions would have to be reasonable for providers and clients alike.

Still, it’s an interesting idea; if nothing else, this article is going to push me to read that copy of The Mesh by Lisa Gansky that’s ben sharing space on my office bookshelf.

I’d love to hear what you think – feel free to share (see what I did there?) your thoughts in the comments.