The United States trails other developed countries when it comes to participation in political elections. In the 2012 presidential election, U.S. turnout was 53.6 percent. And that participation rate falls even lower when it comes to federal Congressional elections – with just 40 percent of the voting-age population actually exercising that civil right. According to the President, we need to redesign our systems to that we improve those participation rates, and we need to be able to create a safe and secure system that will eventually enable people to vote online. Under Obama’s term, the relationship between the Federal government and the technology sector has grown tremendously, with initiatives like the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program and The U.S. Digital Service established to bring solutions to our country’s problems through uniquely tech- or digital-focused approaches. According to the President, he realized early on that there was this great potential in “build[ing] a SWAT team” made up of both people in tech and the people in Federal government to help solve some of our society’s major issues. President Obama is the first sitting U.S. president in history to make an appearance at SXSW.
