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Arguably having a "correct" winner matters the least in tight elections. If the margin of victory is as-low as 1% then it hardly matters which candidate wins -
by colmmacc 14y ago
Arguably having a "correct" winner matters the least in tight elections. If the margin of victory is as-low as 1% then it hardly matters which candidate wins - that election is already subject to the influence of weather, chance, accident and human counting error.
There really is no supernatural magic to democracy that invests within the winner a moral or judgemental superiority. The ceremony and culture we surround democracy with can create that illusion. In an almost holy way, we anoint the winner and assign to them a minor god-like status. Their choice is said to reflect the will of the people, to be the personification of a mandate. But rationally, we should realise that a candidate who wins by 1% is about as likely to lose if the election was run the next day.
What's scary about e-voting is that democracy is really only very good at preventing complete tyranny. Potential tyrants are unlikely to gain enough votes. But with e-voting, errors of 50% are as easy and as likely as errors of 1%.
- zem 14y agoone problem is that when last-lousy-point fraud is used to tip a tight election one way rather than the other, the election has now provably gone to the party that was willing to win it by unethical means.