The government today is so overreaching in the life of the governed citizen that it seldom feels like another workspace. Although it is admittedly difficult to make a point which would entail that governments are corporations, for the sake of the argument, let’s just say that it is possible to compare governing with running a business. By doing so, it is easier to notice the similarity of challenges that arise in the day-to-day workflow of both fields.
Nowadays, given the grim realities of the COVID-19 health crisis and its subsequent economic disruption, a consistent number of challenges are still establishing around the concept of working remotely. In the near past, the prospect of shifting from a 9-to-5 office environment to a flexible one (timewise and spacewise) seemed like a natural evolution of things-to-come. Back in 2018, Richard Branson wrote an article on his blog, entitled The way we all work is going to change. He was referring to the changes that still occur as a result of technological innovations that allow access to any data from anywhere, at any time.
That being said, no one could have possibly foreseen the major historical push that the entire area of working remotely took in 2020. During the pandemic, access to data from anywhere became crucial to many companies’ survival. Now, even though the government’s institutional and financial endurance is not at stake, its security and credibility became vulnerable points amidst the global crisis. In a year of rising social tensions and upcoming elections, managing and protecting governmental data is not just a matter of continuity, but of national security.
The New Challenges Greatly Vary in Complexity and Importance
On the local government level, there have been difficulties reported in regards to remote public proceedings. According to an article from govtech.com, because of the shallow digital experience of the local officials, those routine meetings can compromise the transparency of government and the ability of the public to participate. California Common Cause Executive Director, Jonathan Mehta Stein, outlined the severity of the problem:
“We recognize that government needs flexibility in this moment to respond to the crisis or the multiple crises going on in America today. But in order for government to act effectively, there has to be accountability, and there has to be transparency,” Stein said in an interview with Government Technology.
The fact is that, because of an unfortunate number of technical limitations, the authority moves further away from the general public. Imagine a group of citizens failing to get their complaints or comments across to those who politically represent them. Even if the failure in the example was caused by some minor network issues, it would be a political refusal to communicate in the public’s eye. In today’s context, when the government’s credibility is being questioned continuously, that is way more problematic than it may seem at a first glance.
Cybersecurity is another major concern, more so for the local governments that lack well-resourced IT infrastructures and/or in situations where lawmakers are permitted to participate from home using home internet systems, as Mr. Stein added.
The 2016 presidential elections have brought to light some essential cybersecurity risks that the highest levels of power face. Given the fact that this year’s elections are expected to be at their full digital potential, the risks of a possible hacker meddling are bigger than ever. Besides that, both the infrastructure and logistics are still not prepared for such a complex event. In-person voting is clearly a danger to public health, and some urgent changes need to be made towards a remote solution. According to an MIT Technology Review article, even state governments don’t have full control of what happens during the vote.
“Instead of one election authority, or even 50, there are more than 5,000 separate local jurisdictions that run the country’s elections. Preparing them all for rapid change will be overwhelming”.
Amber McReynolds, the head of the National Vote at Home Institute, offered an alternative:
“This is an emergency. Vote-by-mail is one of the only solutions we have right now to make sure all Americans can vote effectively, safely, and securely.”
Even so, an eventual vote-by-mail process is going to be one of the biggest challenges the elections have ever encountered. It’s not, of course, only a matter of technology, but rather of trust. In the following months, the government on all levels needs to improve its communication with the citizens as soon as institutionally possible for a smooth and, more importantly, politically conclusive democratic process.
