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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

#201

Post by wasdfff »

fallingfrog wrote: post #185
mnx wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, why do Americans always talk about making it a holiday, wouldn't moving it to a sunday create similar effect, while being much simpler? This is how we do it here in Poland.

That would work too, but most customer serving businesses are open all weekend, so moving it to the weekend would mostly help people working 9-to-5 jobs, but not the young frequently moving people you are trying to target, who are also the ones working weekends and late nights. Whereas on federal holidays like Christmas, only gas stations and hospitals are open.

People working minimum wage jobs will still be working Election Day unless it’s very strictly enforced. Plenty of places are open on federal holidays; McDonald’s does not close on christmas.

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

#202

Post by saltcured »

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 reason to vote within your registered precinct is partly because ballots may differ with local issues and partly just historical structure of how votes are tallied and reported hierarchically. The local officials are responsible for maintaining voter rolls just as they maintain other vital statistics.

You can vote by mail even as an expat living overseas. You register via the last address you had in the US and end up getting a more limited overseas ballot that only covers federal elections (and possibly state-wide elections if registered in some states?).

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

#203

Post by TylerE »

maxerickson wrote: post #87
TylerE wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State by state. Many do not. In most where it is offered the time is limited (2 hours typically), which with long lines and travel time may not be enough. It is also unpaid time.

I live in a tiny precinct and thus lack perspective, but the wait time is pretty solvable by spending money.

If we had fair elections, yes. When the republicans control the majority of local government they have no desire to make voting easier for the working class, or students.

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

#204

Post by lukifer »

logifail wrote: post #50
bilbo0s wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and “blockchain,” which it claims allows it to secure the voting process... (I'm rubbing my temples right now) I don't even have the words for how bad this would be for a democracy or republic. I will, however, make a curt but general comment on blockchain: Anytime you see that buzzword, be on your guard.

Question: Are there (m)any people other than those involved in the manufacture and sales of voting machines , or their lobbyists, that support increased automation in the voting process? I'm absolutely, 100% happy with putting a pencil mark onto a paper ballot, which I fold and place into a box (with people watching), which is later taken (with people watching) to a counting place, emptied out on a table (with people…

Pen and paper is the objectively superior technology for the job; it's the Minimum Viable Product that is auditable by the most number of people. You shouldn't need to be a crypto expert to be able to confirm that your vote was counted. Public trust should be an explicit design goal, and arguably the most important one.

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

#206

Post by devdas »

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…

There's also the huge problem of vote suppression in the US, either via gerrymandering or by demanding IDs which most minorities don't have and are inconvinient for them to get.

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

#207

Post by eiaoa »

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

I think it's twofold:

1. There are some hyperlocal elections, such as for school districts. Only your local polling station will have the correct ballots for those elections, and if you vote at the wrong polling location you could vote in an election you shouldn't.

2. Minimization of voter fraud using analog technology: if you're assigned a particular polling station, that station and no other will be given your name on a list to check off. You can't go to two polling locations and vote twice, because no other station will have your name. Human error makes it impractical to give each station a complete list and then cross-check to find people who voted twice: too many false positives.

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

#208

Post by macintux »

adrianN wrote: post #137
dforrestwilson wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do I even need to elect a Congressman/woman to make decisions for me? Just let me do it directly now that the technology is here. We should vote on issues in real time, or within a week or month-long window. It would incentivize people with time and interest to be more involved, and get rid of that pesky agency problem. At the very least we can marginalize the role of politicians and perhaps be less disappointed…

Jesus no. Even full time politicians don't have the time to read all the bills they vote on. You really don't want to reduce complex legislation to single sentence statements that casuals can vote on in between checking their Facebook feeds. See Brexit for an example how that would turn out.

Imagine the vast quantities of money that would be spent on advertising, on both sides of every single bill.

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

#209

Post by pbhjpbhj »

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…

I think we need to move on somewhat from voting for people, to voting for specific actions as much as is feasible.

You could even require specific items in a manifesto be implemented (at pain of losing office and opening up a new election).

So if it says in a manifesto +£n billion will be spent in 2019 on education and the independent audit officer find that it wasn't then an election is called and the PM + education minister are barred from re-election.

If referenda can be streamlined (eg by sampling) then manifestos would have a list of referenda and they would then legally be required.

Democracy seems flawed; maybe it's still the least flawed system though.

(This is not a great comment: I'm mixing lack of accountability/honour of representatives with poor decision making and poor ability at forward planning by the ignorant.)

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

#210

Post by tomjen3 »

adrianN wrote: post #137
dforrestwilson wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do I even need to elect a Congressman/woman to make decisions for me? Just let me do it directly now that the technology is here. We should vote on issues in real time, or within a week or month-long window. It would incentivize people with time and interest to be more involved, and get rid of that pesky agency problem. At the very least we can marginalize the role of politicians and perhaps be less disappointed…

Jesus no. Even full time politicians don't have the time to read all the bills they vote on. You really don't want to reduce complex legislation to single sentence statements that casuals can vote on in between checking their Facebook feeds. See Brexit for an example how that would turn out.

You don't need to read the bills, you just need somebody to check if there are any mines in them. You can find some who share your political views.
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