The Academy has announced that it plans to implement by 2013 an electronic voting system that could allow it to collect and tabulate Oscar votes much quicker, thereby making it theoretically possible to move the ceremony up to January or earlier in February, and at last become only the 15th or 16th film awards show of the year. The system was first hinted at in 2010, but there have been several stumbling blocks since—not least the potential threat of hackers who could stuff the Best Picture ballot box for LOLMEGABONERZZZ or the like, but also the Academy’s aged membership, who don’t use the Internet because they don’t want to catch one of those “viral videos” they’re always hearing about.


The latter factor seems to be resolving itself, at least, as the Academy reports they successfully got back 83 percent of cards they sent out requesting an email address, with the other 17 percent either still on the phone with their grandkids asking whether their email address was “Dell,” or dying on the way to the mailbox. They also seem pretty sure that they’ve taken care of the former, bragging that they’ve finally found in Everyone Counts a company who can create a foolproof, totally secure voting system that’s impenetrable to hackers. And in addition to Everyone Counts certainly having some impressive clients (including the U.S. Department of Defense), as we all know, nothing discourages hackers like bragging that something is totally secure.