I WANT A RECIEPT FOR MY VOTE - So We Can All Compare Notes Later

You think it's too late to ask?

	I don't.  :)

Kenny wrote:

Why bother? All it will say is that you voted.

You can't ask for a receipt saying how you voted, for one very simple reason: what would stop somebody from forcing you to vote a certain way (and using that receipt you got as proof)?

-- Don

On Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:44:14 -0800, Don Del Grande wrote:

Are people really such cowards? Or are you merely projecting?

Have you ever noticed how some people like to brag about how tough and heroic they'd be in the face of hypothetical government oppression? I'm just saying, that's all.

Vic

Kenny wrote:

Some are, if you are referring to the voters as the cowards. Examples include: * Abused wives; * Children who want, say, a new car (or don't want their parents to turn their college fund into their "vacation to Europe while our child goes to junior college" fund); * Employees whose bosses might decide, "You don't need a bonus that badly," "You know, somebody else might be more qualified for that promotion," or even, "Your job performance has been approaching unacceptable levels, but I do reward loyalty."

The latter two also fall into vote buying - it's much easier to buy votes if the voter can prove that they did it.

If you want votes to be open, turn every election into a nationwide caucus - everybody will see how everybody else voted. Of course, if the "loser" claims victory and the voters try to rise up, they'll know who to arrest first.

There's a reason this country goes through the hassle of a secret ballot.

-- Don

On Sun, 03 Feb 2008 09:28:12 -0800, Don Del Grande wrote:

That sounds like fear-mongering.

Yes, I know.

Because fear and secrecy are corruption's best friends.

Kenny wrote...

I was amazed that the machine that ate my ballot didn't print out a receipt. It would be so nice to be able to log onto the election website and see the results for your personal ballot along with a scanned image so that everyone could check to see that their votes were accurately counted. This could be done anonymously by adding random serial numbers to ballots and letting people randomly choose which ballots to pick from the table.

dank wrote:

"Precinct X has a 100% vote for George W Bush!" "Not true - I voted for John Kerry!" "Prove it." "Here's the scan of my ballot." "Kerry-voter, eh? You're under arrest for treason and conspiracy to aid in terrorism, in accordance with the Hindering International Terrorism by Listing Election Results act."

That's another reason why the ability to make someone's vote - even your own - public is a bad idea. Then again, there does need to be some way to assign a particular "ballot" to a person, if for no other reason than there needs to be a way to "remove" a ballot cast by someone who, for example, cast a "provisional ballot" that eventually should be rejected.

-- Don

On Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:08:03 -0800, Don Del Grande wrote:

Secrecy promotes fraud.