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Paper voting is vulnerable to basic sleight of hand, and your ability to effectively monitor the count is somewhat limited. Electronic voting can be much bette

by rosndo 5y ago

Paper voting is vulnerable to basic sleight of hand, and your ability to effectively monitor the count is somewhat limited. Electronic voting can be much better, but it is of course not a terribly easy problem to solve. For what it’s worth, I don’t believe that paper voting is particularly problematic. But I do think that electronic voting could make voting easier and more accessible.

gjulianm 5y ago
I don't know how vote counting is done in other places, but I've seen it in my country and it's not vulnerable to basic sleight of hand, at least not for more than one or two votes. Poll workers are all citizens randomly selected, the president of each table takes envelopes from a transparent box, opens them, shows them to the other three or four workers of the table (plus any observers that want to be there) and declares the content of the vote. > But I do think that electronic voting could make voting easier and more accessible. I don't think so. Think of all the people who have difficulty with basic computer/phone tasks, either because of knowledge or accessibility issues. Do you think all the steps to securely cast votes with an electronic system are going to be easier and more accessible for them?
- rosndo 5y ago
  > I don't think so. Think of all the people who have difficulty with basic computer/phone tasks, either because of knowledge or accessibility issues. Do you think all the steps to securely cast votes with an electronic system are going to be easier and more accessible for them? I don’t think an in-person electronic voting system needs to be any more difficult than current paper ballots.
  - gjulianm 5y ago
    Certificate management is more difficult than simply holding an ID card, going to a website/downloading a program is more difficult (and has more potential problems) than going to a polling station, and doing all the steps the program requires will hardly be as simple as "put paper in envelope".

by rosndo 5y ago

gjulianm 5y ago

I don't know how vote counting is done in other places, but I've seen it in my country and it's not vulnerable to basic sleight of hand, at least not for more than one or two votes. Poll workers are all citizens randomly selected, the president of each table takes envelopes from a transparent box, opens them, shows them to the other three or four workers of the table (plus any observers that want to be there) and declares the content of the vote. > But I do think that electronic voting could make voting easier and more accessible. I don't think so. Think of all the people who have difficulty with basic computer/phone tasks, either because of knowledge or accessibility issues. Do you think all the steps to securely cast votes with an electronic system are going to be easier and more accessible for them?

rosndo 5y ago
> I don't think so. Think of all the people who have difficulty with basic computer/phone tasks, either because of knowledge or accessibility issues. Do you think all the steps to securely cast votes with an electronic system are going to be easier and more accessible for them? I don’t think an in-person electronic voting system needs to be any more difficult than current paper ballots.
- gjulianm 5y ago
  Certificate management is more difficult than simply holding an ID card, going to a website/downloading a program is more difficult (and has more potential problems) than going to a polling station, and doing all the steps the program requires will hardly be as simple as "put paper in envelope".