Elections and voting (in general) ...

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

What happens to someone who does not vote?

They receive a fine. Just looked it up (as I’ve always voted I had no idea how much it is).
For federal elections it seems to be $20.
Not a lot really but it seems to work, voter turnout is always above 90%

 

[Vasr]

There are some really dumb legacy ideas floating around unchallenged:

1. There is no reason to have an election day where you try to fit in most people into voting one day with early voting as an exception. There should be an election voting deadline day with voting starting a month earlier. No last minute campaigning shenanigans and October surprises. More time to digest information and weed out fake information. This one-day affair is purely a media circus to drive up their ratings and advertising dollars for a day just like Superbowl. Wolf Blitzer types with his faux gravitas sportscaster-turned-used-car-salesman style broadcasts should become irrelevant and unnecessary.

2. In this day and age when we can send people to moon and now thinking of Mars, there has been no attempt to create a transparent, two-factor authenticated and permanently auditable trail with privacy for voting via multiple channels (in-person and online) that does not discriminate against rich or poor or whatever ...

3. In the US, trusting the local elected and likely partisan state and county governments to conduct the elections is banana republic level of stupidity. Especially with no national standards for integrity and robustness when electing national leaders. One of the dumbest ideas from the Founders to survive until now.

And people obsess about whether a test was conducted double-blind with exact level matching...

 

[MZKM]

2. In this day and age when we can send people to moon and now thinking of Mars, there has been no attempt to create a transparent, two-factor authenticated and permanently auditable trail with privacy for voting via multiple channels (in-person and online) that does not discriminate against rich or poor or whatever ...

 

[Vini darko]

I'm currently enjoying the Sargon election livestream (yes I know he's a smug git and it's very biased)

 

[Archaea]

Should the bar to vote be higher than the bar to be elected?

Please watch one of those videos I linked, and see if you think those people should be able to direct National politics with the luxury and privilege of a vote. Those people couldn't even pass a United States Citizenship test. (I hear most American's couldn't). Why should they be deciding who runs our country when they know literally nothing about platforms, positions, goals, and end game ideals for the person they are voting for?

 

[pozz]

I call FUD.

The basic message is correct, the application is not. Cybersecurity isn't a mysterious thing. It involves a lot of legwork and due diligence, multi-layer reviews and discipline.

Online systems are used all the time for very sensitive applications. In my industry, in the past five years, it went from being a routine matter to a CISO (chief information security officer) at every executive meeting.

 

[Archaea]

Study of the systems of government all around the world shows this to be a mistaken opinion.

Which studies,
What countries?

 

[RayDunzl]

The Telegraph's IT guy is not paying attention...

 

[RayDunzl]

Just a little blast from the past, to see how times have changed since I was seven years old.

The first televised presidential debate...

They look so young...

 

[RayDunzl]

The electorate being polarized is nothing new:

"Less than three weeks later, on November 8, Kennedy won 49.7 percent of the popular vote in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history, surpassing by a fraction the 49.6 percent received by his Republican opponent."

 

[RayDunzl]

Please watch one of those videos I linked, and see if you think those people should be able to direct National politics with the luxury and privilege of a vote. Those people couldn't even pass a United States Citizenship test.

I'm aware.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I guess a law making property ownership a prerequisite to being able to vote, would also include removal of all income taxes for those who do not own property? Because otherwise we run into that issue of "taxation without representation" about which we had a little difference of opinion with the Brits ... oh a while ago IIRC?

Edit: I guess we could go all Gattaca on this, and have different grades of citizenship, and one could buy one's way up if one were lacking the best genes.

I'd be okay with altering basic tax structure and having no income tax. Difficult to do, but I'd be for it. Also would include lots of cuts I'd imagine.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Would you then support the idea that "taker" states should have their Congressional input withdrawn, so that the "maker" states could run internal politics unimpeded? Would seem to be a logical extension, but a slippery slope.

No, I'd prefer keeping it at the individual level on this issue.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I call FUD.

The basic message is correct, the application is not. Cybersecurity isn't a mysterious thing. It involves a lot of legwork and due diligence, multi-layer reviews and discipline.

Online systems are used all the time for very sensitive applications. In my industry, in the past five years, it went from being a routine matter to a CISO (chief information security officer) at every executive meeting.

There have been many articles this year on the issue. And I would have thought cyber voting a good idea, but after reading them I agree. Paper counted electronically is probably good enough for now or among the more secure.

Does anyone remember the Carter-Reagan election. For the first time electronic counting of many ballots was widespread. The results were known very quickly so much so the winner was announced before west coast polling closed. Media agreed not to do that in the future. Somehow we've gone backward and can't get a result all in one night now depending up how things work out? Obviously things could be better, they used to be better. And this was with pretty much complete voting day voting.

 

[Universal Cereal Bus]

No, I'd prefer keeping it at the individual level on this issue.

Sounds a lot like a caste system.

 

[Wombat]

What happens to someone who does not vote?

Federal election: https://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/non-voters.htm


Non-compliance with the above can result in a court issued maximum fine of $180 plus Electoral Commission litigation costs ~$200. Aussie dollars.

I have a friend who doesn't vote. He says he gets away with it because never registered for the voter roll.

 

[Wombat]

So, a different question from the first two, but somewhat in the same thinking:

How about more public votes on things. Referendums if you will. Seeing how decisive it was in the UK last time and how many families and friendships broke down, what could go wrong having more of them, right?

I suppose, if there is a constant public voting nothing ever gets done and the cost has to be handled somewhere. "Hey folks, we were donna have a referendum on fixing potholes or building a bypass, but seeing as the cost of this referendum has eaten the funds, we're doing neither. Thanks for your interest".

Switzerland looks to have a few public votes quite often.

Like this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Rise_of_Michael_Rimmer

 

[HemiRick]

Yes to mandatory voting....The reason we have such corporate shill politicians is because averge joe blow candidates can't get elected is because most average joe blows have given up on voting.

 

[Wombat]

Pure capitalism: "Cash offers invited for my vote and my referrals. Subscription plans available".

 

[stunta]

With a ballot mailed to me, I walked over to a nearby dropbox last week and voted. So easy, no lines and I didn't mind that this was not online given how easy it was.

I always found it interesting that campaigning actually influences elections. If the population was informed and educated, people would be reviewing policy proposal documents (like reading audio equipment specs and looking to unbiased measurements for validation) instead of watching campaign ads to make decisions. Strange thing, this "democracy".