Voting is a solved problem: fill in some box on paper. What is automating it ever going to solve?
“A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
71–80 of 377 posts
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#72If we think that not enough people are voting, the way to solve this is NOT through get-out-the-vote efforts, voter registration drives, and tools like this to make it easier to cast a vote. These are not the bottleneck. Voting may be a duty, but it's one that carries a lot of responsibility. Getting ignorant people to cast poorly-informed votes does not help our society. And I think that people realize this. So when…
Moving voting day from a Tuesday to a Sunday would also make a big difference. There are many people who have have informed opinions but can't afford to take off work (write-up for being late to work/take off early, lost income, transport issues). Also that would avoid removing a school day since most public schools are used for polling. Another option would be to switch to make mail-in ballots only.
That might be difficult as many churches are polling stations and they'd have services on that day. They could effectively be closed for 4-7 hrs that day. For many, their service would trump any political duties you might feel they are owed.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#73If we think that not enough people are voting, the way to solve this is NOT through get-out-the-vote efforts, voter registration drives, and tools like this to make it easier to cast a vote. These are not the bottleneck. Voting may be a duty, but it's one that carries a lot of responsibility. Getting ignorant people to cast poorly-informed votes does not help our society. And I think that people realize this. So when…
How about ending and prosecuting voter suppression?
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#74If we think that not enough people are voting, the way to solve this is NOT through get-out-the-vote efforts, voter registration drives, and tools like this to make it easier to cast a vote. These are not the bottleneck. Voting may be a duty, but it's one that carries a lot of responsibility. Getting ignorant people to cast poorly-informed votes does not help our society. And I think that people realize this. So when…
Moving voting day from a Tuesday to a Sunday would also make a big difference. There are many people who have have informed opinions but can't afford to take off work (write-up for being late to work/take off early, lost income, transport issues). Also that would avoid removing a school day since most public schools are used for polling. Another option would be to switch to make mail-in ballots only.
Well, for one, employers are legally REQUIRED to allow their employees time off to vote.
At least I thought that was the case. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#75If we think that not enough people are voting, the way to solve this is NOT through get-out-the-vote efforts, voter registration drives, and tools like this to make it easier to cast a vote. These are not the bottleneck. Voting may be a duty, but it's one that carries a lot of responsibility. Getting ignorant people to cast poorly-informed votes does not help our society. And I think that people realize this. So when…
Of course, you are not an ignorant so you can illuminate us with your vote.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Moving voting day from a Tuesday to a Sunday would also make a big difference. There are many people who have have informed opinions but can't afford to take off work (write-up for being late to work/take off early, lost income, transport issues). Also that would avoid removing a school day since most public schools are used for polling. Another option would be to switch to make mail-in ballots only.
That might be difficult as many churches are polling stations and they'd have services on that day. They could effectively be closed for 4-7 hrs that day. For many, their service would trump any political duties you might feel they are owed.
move the polling station then?
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
My $.10 proposal: change Veterans Day to be the 2nd Tuesday in November. Almost no cost, there's a strong “they served so you would have this right” angle, and it'd pair naturally with other civic events.
With all due respect, ideologically linking the military and democracy is a horrifically bad idea. The two systems embody completely opposite concepts.
Seems fitting for the US, as sad as it is... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationale_for_the_Iraq_War#Bri...
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#78If we think that not enough people are voting, the way to solve this is NOT through get-out-the-vote efforts, voter registration drives, and tools like this to make it easier to cast a vote. These are not the bottleneck. Voting may be a duty, but it's one that carries a lot of responsibility. Getting ignorant people to cast poorly-informed votes does not help our society. And I think that people realize this. So when…
I agree, but it's important to note that many people don't vote in the US because they simply don't have the time to leave work/school and go to a polling place, or won't get paid for it if they do [1]. More mail-in ballots could potentially alleviate this, but a lot of people prefer to vote in person. Also due to our two-party system, gerrymandering, and the way congress works, many people don't vote because they fe…
many people don't vote because they feel it doesn't make a difference
This is actually the case in many areas. For example, casting a vote for a Republican Presidential candidate in California is a pointless endeavor. This sentiment doesn’t arise from lack of voter education, but rather from voter education - people understand the political makeup of the areas in which they live, and in those that are overwhelmingly partisan, can correctly conclude that their vote won’t make a difference.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#79If we think that not enough people are voting, the way to solve this is NOT through get-out-the-vote efforts, voter registration drives, and tools like this to make it easier to cast a vote. These are not the bottleneck. Voting may be a duty, but it's one that carries a lot of responsibility. Getting ignorant people to cast poorly-informed votes does not help our society. And I think that people realize this. So when…
There are at least three groups of people who don't vote. One group is the lazy.
The second group is those for whom things are going reasonably well - the lights work, the roads get repaired, crime isn't too bad, their economic circumstances aren't terrible, and so why worry? No matter who gets elected, the lights are going to continue to work, and so on - it won't be a radical change either way. (This group may overlap with the first one.)
The third group is those in despair. They see the problems in society, and they see fifty years' worth of politicians who have promised to fix them, and the problems are still here. They've given up on politics as an answer to the problems of society.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#80I strongly oppose vote-by-mail and vote-by-phone, but for a different and underappreciated reason: the secret ballot is absolutely essential for escaping from preference falsification traps.
"Preference falsification" is a social phenomenon in which, between choices A and B, most people prefer thing A but believe that everyone else prefers B, making it socially unacceptable to express support for A. If votes are public, then everyone feels compelled, upon threat of ostracism, to vote for B, leading to enactment of policy that's actually extremely unpopular. Under a secret ballot system, people can profess support for B while secretly voting for A, and if everyone does so, policy A ends up being enacted, concordant with the true preferences of the population.
If you can vote by mail, or vote by smartphone, nothing stops people from supervising each other's votes. That there's currently a norm against doing in vote-by-mail jurisdictions is purely a cultural holdover from the days of the true secret ballot, and it's only a matter of time before this norm erodes.
We live in an age of moral panic and socially enforcement of beliefs that are both unpopular and, in many cases, scientifically incorrect. Let's not make the problem worse by making it even harder to escape from the preference falsification trap.