For anyone who can afford an iPhone, it makes perfect sense: a system, 100 percent secure, that would enable citizens to vote on their phones.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, in an interview with the New York Times, brought up that seemingly simple solution to all the troubles – and perceived troubles – with the U.S. voting system.

Cook is among the growing group of business leaders to have criticized Georgia’s new voting law.

In an Axios story, Cook said: “The right to vote is fundamental in a democracy. American history is the story of expanding the right to vote to all citizens, and Black people, in particular, have had to march, struggle and even give their lives for more than a century to defend that right.” 

The Times served this one up to Cook, asking him whether vote-by-phone is a viable alternative.

“I would dream of that, because I think that’s where we live,” Cook said. “We do our banking on phones. We have our health data on phones. We have more information on a phone about us than is in our houses. And so why not?”

Well, critics cite the negatives: security issues, the cost of iPhones, internet access, and voter identification.

For now, banking, commerce and healthcare are far, far ahead in terms of technology.

“It’s pretty arcane,” Cook said of America’s voting apparatus. “I think we’re probably all having the wrong conversation on voting rights. We should be talking about using technology.”

Cook pointed out that his new world would solve a good deal of voting troubles – most important being better access for most Americans.

But if the solution were so simple, it likely already would be in place. Plenty of study remains to be done.

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