One thing to note here is that it's not as if it's just coincidentally difficult for young people to vote, it's not just an unavoidable fact- it's part of an intentional strategy. For certain portions of the American ruling establishment, democracy itself is an enemy to be vanquished by any means necessary. Review the history of racial segregation and you will see obvious parallels to many forms of voter suppression today. This is the next big issue facing the USA, from my point of view.
“A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
161–170 of 377 posts
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#162Earlier 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.
Every company I've worked for in NY/NJ has had the day off... except my current gig for an Italian company. Go figure.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#163If 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…
> Getting ignorant people to cast poorly-informed votes does not help our society.
What makes you think this is not already happening? Why would phone voting make it worse?
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#164Earlier 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.
a Saturday or Sunday would have a much higher turnout. However, you would still be excluding a large number of lower income service workers that work on the weekend.
Presumably, they also work on Tuesdays, right?
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#165Democracy only works with a well informed voting base, and while you may disagree with the current state of politics, it has always been my belief that people that do not know the candidates or issues should abstain from voting. I will often vote in some races but abstain from others, simply because I don't know the issue or candidate well enough. I wish more people would do that.
Making voting easier for the highly ignorant is not a good path. If someone isn't willing to mail in a ballot, drive to the poll, etc I don't think they care enough to know the issues.
I know there are some circumstances where people can't get off of work, but those people generally just don't know their own rights. Most states legally obligate employers to give people 2-3 hours off to vote.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#166If 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…
"abstain" is an option on every ballot. You are conflating "being able to vote" from "voting for a choice"
Most people are not going to abstain if they can vote from their couch, they will vote straight ticket.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#167> The Boston-based company raised $2.2 million earlier this year, helped along by buzzwords such as “biometrics” and “blockchain,” which it claims allows it to secure the voting process. Its app reportedly requires voters to take and upload a picture of their government-issued I.D., along with a selfie-style video of their face, which facial-recognition technology then uses to ensure the person pictured in the I.D. a…
Honestly, I don’t think voting by app is inherently a “horrifically bad idea” – just that Voatz’ implementation is horrifically bad.
Biometrics are going to be almost impossible to do in a non-invasive and secure way for now, so cut that part of the pitch. Blockchain may not be an entirely round peg in this square hole, but there are other cryptographic architectures that probably make more sense (I am not a cryptographer, but maybe go talk to a competent one before just deciding on blockchain).
Obviously, without the two big buzzwords of blockchain and biometrics, you’re suddenly at a big disadvantage for VC money, but if mobile voting is ever going to be feasible, it’s going to need a considered, end-to-end approach that isn’t some MVP built from off-the-shelf components and off-the-shelf ideas.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
With all due respect, ideologically linking the military and democracy is a horrifically bad idea. The two systems embody completely opposite concepts.
I would like to know more.
If this was a subtle starship trooper reference, bravo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdrjzE1SE58 (depictions of violence, satire)
For those that don't know, Starship troopers is a scathing satire about how "war makes fascist of us all".
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#169VBM 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 strong impetus to make voting as easy as possible, so you get stuff like holidays, VBM, early voting, etc. The fixes are obvious, simple, and they'll save money; Republicans just want turnout to stay low so we won't get them. End of story.
Re: “A Horrifically Bad Idea”: Smartphone Voting Is Coming
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would like to know more.
If this was a subtle starship trooper reference, bravo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdrjzE1SE58 (depictions of violence, satire) For those that don't know, Starship troopers is a scathing satire about how "war makes fascist of us all".
I thought it was pretty blatant TBH.