In a strange turn of events, patent filings recently made public show that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is attempting to monopolize the use of blockchain technology in voting. Not only is it disheartening to see a federal entity attempting to run what amounts to a tech startup, but the patent itself is dangerously vague with the potential to threaten innovation in an emerging market. Intellectual property protections should never be used to prop up dying federal agencies or to establish new government monopolies.

President Obama correctly stated in a State of the Union speech, “Surely we can agree that the right to vote is sacred…” and he called for more opportunities for citizens to vote. Dr. Marshall Foster writes that voting has been considered sacred since the early puritans arrived in America and had a strong belief that voting was a mandate from God: