Instant Electorate

Instant ElectorateThe idea that some electronic means might be found to take over Congress' job has been around for some time. Ten years ago, writing in a scholarly political-science journal, Congressman Emanuel Celler of Brooklyn, who already had been on the public's payroll for 35 years and made no secret of wanting to stay there for many years to come, worried that "science-fiction writers, undoubtedly, will soon envision an automatic legislator that will supplant the Congress, just as t...