4 ms·

'the ballot is supposed to be secret' I'd give up my secrecy for the convenience of casting my vote online. If I had friends that would judge me for my politic

'the ballot is supposed to be secret' I'd give up my secrecy for the convenience of casting my vote online. If I had friends that would judge me for my political beliefs...well, they wouldn't be my friends very long anyways. :) This isn't the roaring 20's; Mobsters aren't going to come lean-on me to sway my vote. I will however, call the police on any who do. But in all reality, give my IP Address/Identifiable information to the government to be able to cast my vote online? Yes. In a heartbeat yes. The NSA & CIA probably already have everything on me anyway. Young, home-owner, broke as shit just like the rest of the country, average job, average family, average affiliations, I'm a boring dude-nothing to worry about. I do agree about security though, some big players would pay to have the election cracked...and the real stink is all it would take is a politician complaining about a suspected malfunction and the entire online process is review'd for WEEKS. Messy, but I'd still vote online if it was available.

icegreentea 14y ago
I think you hit it on the head. You are a perfectly down the middle, average, American. You have time to read and post on HackerNews. You are almost certainly not in the population to which the secret ballet is most beneficial. The moment a non-secret ballet becomes a large-scale option, then the most vulnerable will be targetted. One there is a way to confirm that someone infact did vote the way you wanted, then you're good to go buying the votes of those desperate enough. You might be 'broke as shit', but you're also average, which means you're not -really- broke as shit.
- RollAHardSix 14y ago
  I understand yours and Lukifer's point of view except 'buying votes' is already being done. We have billion of dollars at play into the elections. We have history on top of history to know which districts vote which way and we target the swing states to help decide the outcome of the election. Sure the money is going into mass mailing marketing campaigns, TV ads, community support, but it's the same result. Everyone talks about buying votes but does anyone have any concrete examples? (Not saying it doesn't happen, simply that I don't have any good examples to learn from atm.) All I'm getting back from Google are accusations against Obama (no surprise given the recent election) and a mention from Wikipedia about Vote Buying in 'ye old England'. I'd do a more detailed search except it's late and I'm off to bed. This discussion is getting interesting.
- jellicle 14y ago
  > The moment a non-secret ballet becomes a large-scale option, then the most vulnerable will be targetted. Since voting by mail is available in all 50 states to anyone, this threat you describe should have materialized, no? But it hasn't. At all. There are zero cases of it.
lukifer 14y ago
Coercion by threat is only part of the problem; the bigger risk is buying votes. The threat of prosecution can be dodged by taking offers "off-grid", farming it out to people on the street who have no official connection to the campaign. And to those who are cynical about politics and/or struggling to make ends meet, getting paid for your vote would be mighty tempting. I do believe secure and secret electronic voting is possible, but I have little faith in the current government-industrial complex to give a shit about getting it right. At least paper voting works, and has a lot of eyeballs on it to prevent fraud.

icegreentea 14y ago

I think you hit it on the head. You are a perfectly down the middle, average, American. You have time to read and post on HackerNews. You are almost certainly not in the population to which the secret ballet is most beneficial. The moment a non-secret ballet becomes a large-scale option, then the most vulnerable will be targetted. One there is a way to confirm that someone infact did vote the way you wanted, then you're good to go buying the votes of those desperate enough. You might be 'broke as shit', but you're also average, which means you're not -really- broke as shit.

RollAHardSix 14y ago
I understand yours and Lukifer's point of view except 'buying votes' is already being done. We have billion of dollars at play into the elections. We have history on top of history to know which districts vote which way and we target the swing states to help decide the outcome of the election. Sure the money is going into mass mailing marketing campaigns, TV ads, community support, but it's the same result. Everyone talks about buying votes but does anyone have any concrete examples? (Not saying it doesn't happen, simply that I don't have any good examples to learn from atm.) All I'm getting back from Google are accusations against Obama (no surprise given the recent election) and a mention from Wikipedia about Vote Buying in 'ye old England'. I'd do a more detailed search except it's late and I'm off to bed. This discussion is getting interesting.
jellicle 14y ago
> The moment a non-secret ballet becomes a large-scale option, then the most vulnerable will be targetted. Since voting by mail is available in all 50 states to anyone, this threat you describe should have materialized, no? But it hasn't. At all. There are zero cases of it.

lukifer 14y ago

Coercion by threat is only part of the problem; the bigger risk is buying votes. The threat of prosecution can be dodged by taking offers "off-grid", farming it out to people on the street who have no official connection to the campaign. And to those who are cynical about politics and/or struggling to make ends meet, getting paid for your vote would be mighty tempting. I do believe secure and secret electronic voting is possible, but I have little faith in the current government-industrial complex to give a shit about getting it right. At least paper voting works, and has a lot of eyeballs on it to prevent fraud.