Voting is one of the most fundamental activities of a representative democracy, yet the issue of Internet voting continues to be a contentious one for governments in the USA and Europe. The issue of phone-based voting is not new , although its consideration by and large predates the development of VoiceXML. Most current discussions of phone-based voting involve the use of cell phones with WAP technologies or text messaging.
Telephone voting is currently used in England (as is voting by text message). Some interesting information on the use of phone voting in England can be found here. I have read in some places that Oregon is testing telephone voting for absentee voters, but I’ve found no hard information on this.
An argument could be made that phone-based voting – using VoiceXML and related technologies – could go a long way towards addressing the issues raised in the current Internet voting debate.