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It really worries me for US democracy that they don't seem capable of running an election in a way that voters feel confident that their votes are counted corre
by maxxxxx 8y ago
It really worries me for US democracy that they don't seem capable of running an election in a way that voters feel confident that their votes are counted correctly. Bush v Gore in 2000 should have been a warning but nothing seems to have improved and now we even have a president who does everything he can to undermine trust in election results. Once people start losing trust in elections and other public institutions the door is wide open for a strongman who claims to clean up the mess by getting rid of the system. Trump is a start ("clean up the swamp") but things may get much worse.
- beat 8y agoBush vs Gore led directly to the idiotic touchscreen machines. Florida's paper ballot mechanism sucked, sure. But touchscreens are far, far worse. People fell for it.
- creaghpatr 8y agoThat particular system sucked (the 'hanging chads' come to mind), could have been easily remedied without going electronic though.
- mikeash 8y agoBush v. Gore was a warning, and the response was to roll out electronic voting everywhere. This solved the very specific problem that was most prominent in the 2000 election: ballots that could be ambiguously marked. Unfortunately, there are far bigger problems to worry about and this change made them far worse.