Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
71–80 of 197 posts
Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean it would work for me. I typically vote by mail but if my phone popped a notification that was like "It's election day!" and let me vote it would be done less than 5m after the ping.
Voting without the information packet seems mind boggling to me. But then I realize that's how 99% of the world votes and I understand so much more now.
I love the way WA votes. I've lived in a half dozen US states, and it is by far the best experience. It makes it extremely easy to vote thoughtfully.
No need for a smartphone. The information packet + drop box / postal vote is fantastic.
Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean it would work for me. I typically vote by mail but if my phone popped a notification that was like "It's election day!" and let me vote it would be done less than 5m after the ping.
Voting without the information packet seems mind boggling to me. But then I realize that's how 99% of the world votes and I understand so much more now.
What has candidly started to scare me, after a good # of years voting with the packet (and I assure you I _research_ far beyond what the packet contains) is the fact that I'm often Still Clueless at the end.
A toy example is a recent tax levy for some hospital funding. While the packet contained some thousand-foot information on what it was for and amount/etc, there was NO breakdown as far as I could tell, even online, (certainly no objective/in depth/expert sourced) that actually tried to answer "what are the pros and cons? (this sometimes exists in the packet but often not for some of the more technical decisions) Is this a normal tax? Is the argument for or against disingenous? Are there better ways to source this revenue? Is there proper accountability and controls on utilization, and is the underlying legislation solid?
Take the following not as tooting my horn but to give a point of perspective: I have multiple degrees (including advanced) in applied math and CS, and spend an inordinate amount of my time reading about politics, law, and history. I still feel ill-equipped to vote on many of these topics. It sometimes amazes me that the system is as functional as it is now, if even a portion of decisions are made in this fashion.
Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean it would work for me. I typically vote by mail but if my phone popped a notification that was like "It's election day!" and let me vote it would be done less than 5m after the ping.
Voting without the information packet seems mind boggling to me. But then I realize that's how 99% of the world votes and I understand so much more now.
Yeah, it’s always bothered me—after growing up in CA with information packets—that, now living in TN, there are no such packets mailed to voters. I still don’t understand how anyone feels comfortable voting on anything or anyone at local, county, and state levels here (myself included). Finding impartial information and analysis on measures is extremely difficult (I hesitate to say impossible, but it pretty much is for an average voter). Trying to talk with anyone about ballot measures usually results in blank stares.
Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#75Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Voting without the information packet seems mind boggling to me. But then I realize that's how 99% of the world votes and I understand so much more now.
What has candidly started to scare me, after a good # of years voting with the packet (and I assure you I _research_ far beyond what the packet contains) is the fact that I'm often Still Clueless at the end. A toy example is a recent tax levy for some hospital funding. While the packet contained some thousand-foot information on what it was for and amount/etc, there was NO breakdown as far as I could tell, even onlin…
This is why local news is incredibly important, their job is to decipher this for you. For national things like Presidential elections, I couldn't care less who my local newspaper endorses, but for local elections I care quite a lot. If you're in the Seattle area, try to support the Seattle Times or the Stranger; they have different political leanings and you may like one and hate the other, but they both do good work in researching candidates and ballot issues before coming up with endorsements.
Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even better: 11 day window for voting window, starting on a Friday and ending on a Monday. Two full weekends to vote, no excuses for not being able to make it. Some states already do this with "early voting" which starts up to two weeks before the actual election day. And if you could pre-print your completed ballot to be scanned (once your identity if verified per local requirements) then the process could be very,…
> And if you could pre-print your completed ballot Your printer will betray you by printing invisible identifying dots on your ballot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Identification_Code
How would that betray you? They're supposed to verify that this ballot belongs to you in the first place.
Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because casting votes online makes it easy to start voting market where you get perks for voting in desired direction.
I could just as easily start a system right now where I'll send you $15 to get a absentee ballot, vote how I want, and take a picture of it with some kind of unique identifier (post it note with your username on it, for example) before mailing it in. It's possible that a much lower price would even work too, since if you were going to vote my way anyway, you'd do it for free. So I only have to convince the voters on…
What you describe is considered election fraud and is illegal in the US.
see 18 U.S. Code § 597: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/597
Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Voting without the information packet seems mind boggling to me. But then I realize that's how 99% of the world votes and I understand so much more now.
What has candidly started to scare me, after a good # of years voting with the packet (and I assure you I _research_ far beyond what the packet contains) is the fact that I'm often Still Clueless at the end. A toy example is a recent tax levy for some hospital funding. While the packet contained some thousand-foot information on what it was for and amount/etc, there was NO breakdown as far as I could tell, even onlin…
Levies I don't mind so much (fire departments says they need more money? Sure, why not.). But yeah, even with the packet, it's amazing how often I go down the list and don't really care about any of the options (Both of these candidates seem well qualified and capable of representing my district? Does political party even matter for school board? Should we even be electing a Sheriff?)
Maybe it's actually a good thing? Our local elections do a good job of holding candidates accountable that they never err to far off the beaten path?
Re: Seattle-area voters to vote by smartphone in district election
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a citizen I think this is a REALLY bad idea because of the security implications surrounding it.
As a different citizen, I'm not too enthused about ballot secrecy. 100% of the security issues with online voting come from the ballot secrecy requirement, so it's hard to get worked up about this.
Um? if ballots aren't secret, then individual voters can be bribed to vote the "right" way or punished for voting the "wrong" way. Ballot secrecy is an absolute requirement.