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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

#321

Post by slededit »

philwelch wrote: post #319
slededit wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange you don't consider Vietnam a major war. I won't blame you for forgetting Korea though as even contemporaries did so. For me the definition of "major war" is were civilians forcibly conscripted.

Total deaths of the Vietnam War, on all sides, were around 1.5 million. Korea was around 1.2 million. WWII was 50-90 million and WWI was 40 million. Vietnam and Korea (two conflicts that my father actually fought in) were wars, for sure, but not major wars compared to the World Wars.

US had 418,500 WWII deaths, and Korea had 128,650. Both within the same order of magnitude of each other. Vietnam surprisingly had only 60,000 US deaths - it is more notable for the resistance at home it spawned.

There's no reasonable way to conclude these were not "major" wars in the context of US history.

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

#322

Post by wu-ikkyu »

twtw wrote: post #120
wu-ikkyu wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. As someone who falls under this group, I've often suggested that we should allow more participation for the individual in the democratic process, seeing as how the fun…

I don't see how "the whole [assembling] to make laws" is any more possible now than in the 1700s. Are you thinking drafting laws by wiki, or what?

>I don't see how "the whole [assembling] to make laws" is any more possible now than in the 1700s

They didn't have instanteous global omnipresence that we have today.

We didn't have to travel vast physical distances to do what we are doing right now with eachother.

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

#323

Post by leetbulb »

pwg wrote: post #200
leetbulb wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thank you for this! I was not aware of the absentee ballot system.

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

#324

Post by justifier »

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 would argue you make it a mandatory piece of the curriculum for voting age, or to be, high schoolers

Researching and reading all of the supportive material for a ballot's fill of decisions is a skill and effort

Detailing how to develop that skill and establishing that effort as habit could affect students to continue to keep an interesting in voting

Take your time with each element of the next vote's ballot

let the students discuss multiple viewpoints and coach a civil fact based discourse

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

#325

Post by cwkoss »

kiallmacinnes wrote: post #250
mr_tristan wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oregon's had voting by mail exclusively, and, it _automatically_ registers voters in a number of places, so unless you are fully off the grid, you're pretty much gonna get a ballot. Consequently, Oregon has had consistently higher turnouts in most elections. Each vote gets the signature reviewed by a person, one at a time. I actually had my ballot put on hold this year because the signature wasn't quite close enough…

No two signatures I've ever written actually look the same. I do wonder how this might affect people like me!

A signature does not have to look similar to previous signatures to be legally effective.

You could start signing with an "X" and that first X would have legal force. Might confuse or annoy some bureaucrats though.

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

#326

Post by profalseidol »

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…

> 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.

And this is why Capitalism is not compatible with Democracy. Especially now that we even call it as 'investment' to be informed to choose who will control our lives. And then there's the fact that it is also an investment to campaign.

However, hopefully, sooner or later, technology will eventually help give the people more information as it did in the past. Pretty sure less centralized medium of information like Twitch or YouTube will eventually replace Fox News or CNN.

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

#327

Post by hcg »

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…

> my state had early voting for weeks so there really isn't a "voting day" issue here. (Georgia).

Except for the massive campaigns to disenfranchise voters.

Which you didn't bother to mention as a problem. You did mention the boogeyman of voter fraud though, good job.

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

#328

Post by hcg »

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.

Forcing people ot wait hours for voting is a tactic used to discourage voters and more effectively disenfranchise groups you don't want voting. White majority area has 15 minute lines, black majority has 2 hours.

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

#329

Post by hcg »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #252
aeturnum wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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. I think this understanding is common, but it's totally incorrect and is part of the larger project to get fewer people to vote. Voting does represent, in some sense, a decision of import for how society functions. A vote for a tyrant, for example, would be bad for…

> I think this understanding is common, but it's totally incorrect and is part of the larger project to get fewer people to vote. Which is what the Founding Fathers intended. The word “democracy” does not exist anywhere in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence. As Ben Franklin put it, we have a republic , if we can keep it. We have done a terrible job at that.

A republic which partially uses representative democracy, but mostly exists to ensure power to the landowning minority. Nowadays it's not about land of course, but it still exists to serve the wants of the powerful and only the powerful.

Even the one part that was supposed to be actually representative isn't.

Start over. No more senate. Elected president. Representative parliament.

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

#330

Post by hcg »

0x8BADF00D wrote: post #261
dragonwriter wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which is what the Founding Fathers intended. Even if that was true (and most generalizations about the Founding Father's aren't because they were a diverse group with often diametrically opposed intentions), “what the Founding Father's intended” (other than some role in the legal interpretation of text of laws written by them, including the Constitution) ought not have any special weight.

Fair enough. But you need only look to history for examples to see the ultimate outcome of populism or democracy. It leads either to tyranny or total societal collapse. So I don’t agree with the notion that everyone should vote.

But you should right?
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