10,000 votes by phone every 90 seconds

A new joint venture by American Express and ATT, 'Call Interactive', can present a complex menu of voting choices and can handle up to 10,000 calls every 90 seconds. The technology was used by CBS TV after the 1993 State of the Union speech to conduct real-time polling across the States, and there is no reason why an expanded system could not handle national voting for electoral offices.

You could dial a free number which would ask for your PIN code plus perhaps a voice signature of your name to avoid fraud. Once verified, the phone ballot could conceivably give you 30 second biographies from each of the candidates. People would then use their touchtone dialling to record their vote, pressing say 1 for Bush, 2 for Clinton, 3 for Perot.