dUSt Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Would online voting ever work? My idea was that you register to vote online. Obviously, this would be tied in with your social security number and address, etc. Upon registering, you are sent a confirmation code in the mail (the real mail, not an email). You then have 48 hrs from the time you receive the letter to vote using your unique confirmation code. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisa Marie Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I feel like there might be issues with stealing someone's code or it not arriving...but then, Washington state does fine with sending everyone absentee ballots. They send them out a few weeks in advance, and you either drop them off at a "polling location" or you send them back in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arfink Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Oh, oh oh oh, you cannot imagine the kinds of abuse that would entail Mr. dUSt. Every self-respecting hacker, every freelancer, the white hats, every hired-gun black hat, and Anonymous would have their hands in that system so fast. In the end, the internet would elect a talking cat or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolmom Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 They should encode your polling district into your state issued picture ID. You'd go to your polling place and scan your card. The computer will print out a ballot for your home location. You vote. The computer reader reads your precinct and tallies the votes according to that precinct. If you are out of town, in the military, in a hospital, nursing home etc. you can vote wherever you happen to be (but for your home precinct). Mobile voting stations can visit the homebound. Since you can only get a ballot using your ID, you can only vote once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arfink Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 [quote name='homeschoolmom' timestamp='1352221584' post='2505167'] They should encode your polling district into your state issued picture ID. You'd go to your polling place and scan your card. The computer will print out a ballot for your home location. You vote. The computer reader reads your precinct and tallies the votes according to that precinct. If you are out of town, in the military, in a hospital, nursing home etc. you can vote wherever you happen to be (but for your home precinct). Mobile voting stations can visit the homebound. Since you can only get a ballot using your ID, you can only vote once. [/quote] The problem with the electronic systems is, can you secure it? Really really secure it? Maybe I'm paranoid from reading things like [url="http://krebsonsecurity.com/"]Krebs[/url] and all, but digital systems are nothing even approaching secure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisa Marie Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I like HSMom's idea...except I would rather everyone get a separate, free voter-id card. That way people don't have to pay to vote, and EVERYONE could have legal personal identification once they turned 18. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homeschoolmom Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 [quote name='Basilisa Marie' timestamp='1352226160' post='2505203'] I like HSMom's idea...except I would rather everyone get a separate, free voter-id card. That way people don't have to pay to vote, and EVERYONE could have legal personal identification once they turned 18. [/quote] That would be fine-- it would still be (in my mind) a government issued picture id. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisa Marie Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Hey look! A CNN article about online voting! [url="http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/06/technology/innovation/online-voting-election/index.html?hpt=hp_t2_6"]http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/06/technology/innovation/online-voting-election/index.html?hpt=hp_t2_6[/url] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 The Only way I could see this working is if you had a webcam, and holding up identification to the camera with a live person checking it at the other end. Even then there could be some flaws Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aloysius Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I don't think it's a good idea. Way too prone to hacking. Anyone unable to take the effort to go to the polling place in person or to take the necessary steps for an absentee ballot if they are unable to do so simply should not be voting anyway. There's actually, IMO, a certain threshold of technology beyond which we should never cross in voting; and actually, I think we've already crossed that line with the electronic voting machines that we have now. I think that every election should have to have a paper trail--using machines for counting purposes is all well and good and could actually open us up to voting possibilities that may have been too cumbersome before (ie the preferential voting idea I just posted about in another thread), but those machines should be reading votes that were cast on physical paper ballots, and keeping those paper ballots as the physical record, the physical paper trail, that is also counted by hand afterwards to ensure that no one had messed with the software of the machines to tamper with the results. The minute we stop having a paper trail, we surrender the vote to the uncertainty of a digital reality that's much more easily manipulated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmenchristi Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 [quote name='Aloysius' timestamp='1352231561' post='2505243'] I don't think it's a good idea. Way too prone to hacking. Anyone unable to take the effort to go to the polling place in person or to take the necessary steps for an absentee ballot if they are unable to do so simply should not be voting anyway. There's actually, IMO, a certain threshold of technology beyond which we should never cross in voting; and actually, I think we've already crossed that line with the electronic voting machines that we have now. I think that every election should have to have a paper trail--using machines for counting purposes is all well and good and could actually open us up to voting possibilities that may have been too cumbersome before (ie the preferential voting idea I just posted about in another thread), but those machines should be reading votes that were cast on physical paper ballots, and keeping those paper ballots as the physical record, the physical paper trail, that is also counted by hand afterwards to ensure that no one had messed with the software of the machines to tamper with the results. The minute we stop having a paper trail, we surrender the vote to the uncertainty of a digital reality that's much more easily manipulated. [/quote] Couldn't agree more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG45 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 I'm with Arfink. Anonymous hits the polls: "And the online vote is tallied. The next President of the United States of America is 'Adolph Hitler'." (Taken from how Mountain Dew pulled a promotion for their next big flavor after 4chan piledrived on the voting to get "Hitler Did Nothing Wrong" as the number one flavor.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 [quote name='BG45' timestamp='1352325124' post='2506024'] I'm with Arfink. Anonymous hits the polls: "And the online vote is tallied. The next President of the United States of America is 'Adolph Hitler'." (Taken from how Mountain Dew pulled a promotion for their next big flavor after 4chan piledrived on the voting to get "Hitler Did Nothing Wrong" as the number one flavor.) [/quote] His VP would be Carl Sagan, probably. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG45 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Or Neil Tyson deGrasse. Are we sure it wouldn't be Keyboard Cat, as was suggested before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 [quote name='BG45' timestamp='1352326123' post='2506050'] Or Neil Tyson deGrasse. Are we sure it wouldn't be Keyboard Cat, as was suggested before? [/quote] No, but they would mod the system such that every time you press a button, Keyboard Cat appears on the screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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