Venezuela's verification systems are interesting, giving me some hope that the counting or voting processes could be improved. > Dictators [...] can stay in p

Venezuela's verification systems are interesting, giving me some hope that the counting or voting processes could be improved. > Dictators [...] can stay in power without lying about the vote count by, say, deciding what makes it on the ballot in the first place. Reminds me of the situation in Hong Kong. Concerning the Chief Executive elections since 2017, there was a reform proposal in 2015 [1] to: 1. allow universal suffrage in Hong Kong, but 2. Beijing effectively could screen candidates. [1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-32397179 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-32397179 Strongly opposed as “fake democracy”, the proposal eventually did not go through (due to a very silly technical error from pro-Beijing side). The rest is history. After lots of subsequent development, just this week there was a mass arrest of pro-democracy lawmakers and activists [2], for otherwise the pro-democracy camp may have enough say in the election of the next Chief Executive, after the landslide victory in the district council election of 2019. [2]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55555299 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55555299