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“A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

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Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#191

Post by jancsika »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #3

If 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…

> If 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.

Are you saying that voters talking directly to candidates and the volunteers who work on their behalf and know their platforms is NOT a way to educate potential voters and get them to the polls? To me that seems like one of the most effective ways of telling people how to vote, why to vote, when to vote, and where to vote. Well, perhaps second to actually becoming a volunteer oneself.

> Today it's a big investment in time to get oneself up to speed, and so making that information more accessible and useful would lower the cost for a citizen to make an informed vote.

The generous interpretation here is that you're a software person and are just focusing on what you know, which is the potential for software to improve access to information for voters.

Even so, why are you claiming that your solution is an alternative and not a supplement to the current ways? Especially given that the current ways had an enormous measurable increase in voter turnout yesterday?

I get the urge to code something to help people, but not the urge to wholesale ignore the history of politicking in America.

Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#192

Post by IncRnd »

athenot wrote: post #12
CWuestefeld wrote: post #3

If 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.

> 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).

They don't need to take off work. Every state in the US lets people mail-in votes or vote early in person.

Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#193

Post by darawk »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #3

If 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…

That's really not how the bias shakes out. The bias ends up being that older people who are retired vote more than working people, because it's a hassle to get to the polls.

There are all sorts of weird biases that occur due to the way voting is conducted now. Smartphone voting would be great IMO, assuming it is implemented using a secure cryptographicly verifiable protocol.

Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#194

Post by wasdfff »

ctrl-j wrote: post #136
RankingMember wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in favor of ditching Columbus day and replacing it with November 6th as a national holiday for that reason.

I've never once worked a job where we got Columbus day off.

At my job, Columbus Day is officially observed on December 24.

Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#195

Post by bigtech »

I would be in favor of software that makes it easy to pre-vote. Then, when I go to my polling place I could quickly print, review and submit my votes. Where I vote the process is tediously manual. If we could get, say half the voters in and out quickly, there would be more time for the election commissioners to assist everyone else.

Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#196

Post by onychomys »

camgunz wrote: post #169

VBM and compulsory voting is basically the only way to get turnout > 90%. You can try to get people fired up about elections, but we're well past diminishing returns on that front. You can try to lower barriers to voting, but even in states like Oregon with auto-registration and VBM it's still lower than 70%. If you look at any place with > 90% turnout, they have compulsory voting. And once you have that you have a s…

Minnesota had 78% turnout this year (for votes cast in our governor race, anyway). We have VBM but you have to request an absentee ballot specifically, and we have some early voting in person but it's not super widespread yet. Instead, what we have up here is civic pride. We've been the top turnout state for years, and we're darn proud of that.

Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#197

Post by sunshinelackof »

Shivetya wrote: post #35
athenot wrote: post #12

Earlier 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.

how do you validate mail in ballots? I am more worried about votes where we have to verify an absent voter simply because the chance of fraud increases. Fraud not only in not knowing if it is the actual voter but also because we cannot insure their vote was not forced. my state had early voting for weeks so there really isn't a "voting day" issue here. (Georgia). Now I have not looked but how many other states offer…

> I am more worried about votes where we have to verify an absent voter simply because the chance of fraud increases How high are the chances really? The work required to fraudulently submit even a single absentee ballot would just not be worth it. It reads as tone-deaf to place concerns of voter fraud above voter engagement when voter turn out is consistently so low.

Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#198

Post by tomjakubowski »

Nav_Panel wrote: post #180
jermaustin1 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every company I've worked for in NY/NJ has had the day off... except my current gig for an Italian company. Go figure.

Markets are open on Columbus Day so most finance and fintech people don't get it off. I didn't.

Huh. The Merc used to have (still has?) a "bring your kid to work" type event on Columbus Day. They even brought us into one of the pits—back when they were still regularly open for business—to do a mock derivatives trading session. I guess it had never occurred to me before that those pits were being used for real trades on the same day—or maybe the brick and mortar exchanges were open, just "online-only", on Columbus Day.

Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming

#200

Post by pwg »

leetbulb wrote: post #177
athenot wrote: post #12

Earlier 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.

I attempted to vote in the wrong county. My buddy attempted to vote in the wrong district within his county. Luckily I am a telecommute worker with relaxed hours. He on the other hand was debating whether he should return to work or risk being late. The reasoning for such extremely strict geographic restrictions, I am unsure of, but surely it would also argue against mail-in ballots (and I would assume smartphone vot…

> The reasoning for such extremely strict geographic restrictions, I am unsure of, but surely it would also argue against mail-in ballots (and I would assume smartphone voting).

One reason is a holdover from the days when the eligible voter roles were physically printed on reams of paper to be lined through in pen as each eligible voter 'checked in' to be given a ballot.

If your system for preventing double voting is by a line drawn in pen across a voters entry in a paper printout, then you have to allocate voters to one, and only one, voting location (because you can't 'line through' in pen multiple geographically disperse paper printouts containing the same name quickly enough to avoid double voting risks).

> Side question: How are people temporarily living in distant areas from their registered county (working, attending school, etc) able to vote?

This is the purpose of the absentee ballot system. If you know you are "away" on election day, you apply for an absentee ballot and vote that way. Most of the recent "early vote" system has simply been an expansion of allowing voters to vote "absentee" by having them show up at the city/county offices before election day, fill out an "absentee" form (with less stringent requirements for proof of being "away"), get a ballot, vote, and drop it in the count box.

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