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Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

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Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is getting a ticket for a rolling stop injustice?

The serious answer to this is a sort of echo of the root comment in this thread. Our legal system incorporates the understanding that laws can only be partially enforced. Imagine if robots in the sky automatically cited you for every single infraction . How often do you cross the street outside of a crosswalk? Exceed the speed limit by 1mph? Fail to signal a turn? Drive a block or two without fastening your seatbelt?…

An officer probably wouldn't have bothered to make the stop

If I had a dollar for every DUI story I've heard that involved getting pulled over "a block from home" after rolling through a stop sign..

I don't necessarily disagree with your point but I've seen and been on the receiving end of what could only described as "bored cop"

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#112

I am not sure that it can be considered doxxing if the personally identifying information is what used to be available in the phone book. Ma Bell was apparently doxxing us for decades before it was cool.

> the personally identifying information is what used to be available in the phone book

I think on HN we know well that changes in technology greatly affect the value and power of information.

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just got a $136 ticket from a stoplight camera for failing to Completely Stop at an intersection where there were no other cars for at least 1 mile in any direction, and made a right turn on red at about 3mph. It is serviced by a company 6 states away. Automated injustice is very alive today.

Why is getting a ticket for a rolling stop injustice?

Because it disregards common sense in favor of mindlessly adhering to the law simply for the sake of doing so, without any thought about context or why the law exists in the first place.

Assuming the OP is correct, and he could actually see there were no cars, pedestrians, or cyclists nearby.

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is getting a ticket for a rolling stop injustice?

The serious answer to this is a sort of echo of the root comment in this thread. Our legal system incorporates the understanding that laws can only be partially enforced. Imagine if robots in the sky automatically cited you for every single infraction . How often do you cross the street outside of a crosswalk? Exceed the speed limit by 1mph? Fail to signal a turn? Drive a block or two without fastening your seatbelt?…

Doesn't the root comment come to the opposite conclusion, though? From its last paragraph:

> Perhaps the real solution is to change the laws so that no one can legally take advantage of these loopholes, no matter how much money or resources they have.

i.e. if a law was created with the supposition that in practice it would only apply to a certain subset of cases to which it could in theory, then change the law so that it is universally applicable.

That being said, your "robots in the sky" scenario strikes me as a perfectly plausible example of a techno-dystopia we could create for ourselves far enough down that path.

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#115
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they had legitimate reasons many years ago. There is no such legitimate fear these days.

Far-right white supremacist militia groups specifically threatened to use force if Georgia's black female Governor candidate won the election. Also, the law enforcement community does recognize such far-right extremists as a legitimate threat. https://www.thedailybeast.com/militia-threatens-enemies-like... https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/magazine/FBI-charlottesvi...

Threatening a person(the possible governor) is different than threatening the entire black population. If white supremacists wanted to just kill random black people, they don't need a voter roll for that. If they wanted to kill just black people who voted for Abrams, the voter roll doesn't tell them that. If they wanted to kill anyone who would vote for Abrams, then expressing your support for her on facebook seems far more dangerous than actually casting a secret ballot.

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#116
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they had legitimate reasons many years ago. There is no such legitimate fear these days.

The Klan still exists, and I don't blame someone who lived through Jim Crow for retaining the fear, just as Depression-era folks often tend to scrimp and save despite nearly a century of relative economic stability.

Sure, fine, but most black people alive today did not live through the Jim Crow era. If the klan wants to terrorize black people, they don't need the voter rolls to do it. Go attack any random black family and the odds are good that you just attacked a family with at least one voter in it.

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just got a $136 ticket from a stoplight camera for failing to Completely Stop at an intersection where there were no other cars for at least 1 mile in any direction, and made a right turn on red at about 3mph. It is serviced by a company 6 states away. Automated injustice is very alive today.

So you ran a red light? Everyone has a justification for their own behavior

That's not quite the same as running a red light. In many places in the US, it is legal to make a right turn when the traffic light is right, provided that you slow down to a complete stop first. In practice, if there aren't any cars or pedestrians around, many people just slow down to ~3mph and keep going (a "rolling" stop, which is not quite legal).

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Choosing not to vote is a valid decision. Why shame people who do so?

I am not intending to shame anybody. I sent them a letter encouraging them. Many people thanked me. Some said I changed their minds about sitting out the election.

Why even encourage them? Assuming that most of them will vote Democrat?

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, Australia's preferential voting & proportional representation do a far better job of connecting politics and voters than any country with a FPTP system (including US & Canada). https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Depart...

It's not about what people do once they vote, it's about how to get people to vote. Compulsory voting is great if you are running a dictatorship, it is not a good idea if you want to create a functioning democracy because voter turnout is an excellent way to judge how engaged people are. That signal is lost when you force people to vote. Yes, proportional representation is better than first-past-the-post. But you can…

Do you know _anything_ about the Australian political system and public engagement with politics?

Australian here, if you want to actually find out. Your assumptions about how it works are definitely not true in practice, and it's an interesting application of game theory to explain why.

Re: Georgia’s secretary of state posts personal details of absentee voters online

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great comment. I think this is an underappreciated trend. Technology is enabling actions that were previously unfathomable, due to limited resources and circumstantial practicalities. Modern systems are much more powerful (in certain ways), enabling potential injustices that no one ever considered possible, and thus of course made no effort to protect against. We are only beginning to consider all of the ramification…

I just got a $136 ticket from a stoplight camera for failing to Completely Stop at an intersection where there were no other cars for at least 1 mile in any direction, and made a right turn on red at about 3mph. It is serviced by a company 6 states away. Automated injustice is very alive today.

This[1] was on the front page of hacker news the other day.

[1] https://newsmaven.io/pinacnews/courtroom-files/ny-man-arrest...

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