Slashdot Mirror
How Would You Design the Voting Technology?
Bob Glickstein asks: "Punch-card ballot machines are now universally reviled, and we techies all know the perils of electronic ones. But I haven't seen anyone talk about a better solution. It's gotta be inexpensive, rugged, reliable, accurate, verifiable, tamper-resistant, simple to use, and secret. Verifying a vote tally should not result in TV news images of rooms full of election officials, squinting at ambiguous marks on a piece of paper. What contraption can possibly meet all these criteria?"
First of all, you can't let people complain about lack of candidates. You've got to pick a few when you do important elections. Those are the breaks.
Ideally, the system should allow voters to suggest candidates if they're feeling creative. There should be a warning message strongly suggesting reading past election results first, though.
Maybe put some disclaimers on it to keep expections down, like "This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane."
Or maybe not.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Who would you like to see the next US President?
George W. Bush
Howard Dean
Ralph Nader
I am Canadian, you insensitive clod.
CowboyNeal
First ask weather a person wants to vote. A simple yes and no will suffice. Next ask, if they really want to vote, again, make it a yes/no question. Then make them choose a randomly generated picture on the screen. Finally get take the MD5 of that picture and based on that calculate the probability of them choosing a certain candidate using genetic algorithm. If you are not familiar with genetic algorithms, a simple ini-mini-myni-mo algorthm will suffice.
Note that is how California does it and if it good enough for California, by god it is good enough for everyone.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
Just have the candidates fight it out in armed combat.
Robert Anton Wilson
... would be like Battlebots.
"Derp de derp."
OK, you get everybody in the whole country who is registered to vote, which I hear is about 25 people or something in America, and you put them all in a big room with only one way out and a big turnstile so once you're out you can't get back in and then I'm sure their is some room for electric cattle prods here and maybe a guy near the turnstile with a pencil and he can take notes on a piece of paper or the back of an old bus ticket or something and then as each voter tries to get through the turnstile to get away from the cattle prod guys this one guy with the pencil might say, 'Oh hey dude, who do you vote for?' and then the voter might say like, 'The Terminator' or 'That Wrestling Guy' or something like that and then the pencil guy could keep a tally right there on the bus ticket and then when everybody's gone except the cattle prod guy and the pencil guy then you could just add up the results and declare a winner. The only problem would be if the cattle prod guy or the pencil guy wanted to vote as well but I say those guys are barred from voting or even knowing who the candidates are because you can never trust some pencil using ludite I mean haven't you heard of biros and that cattle prod stuff is a little too kinky for me.
So there you have it. My New Voting System. Thank You.
Now wash your hands.
Just pick people at random from the population. You'll end up with a government which is just as incompetent, but a lot less corrupt. Also, it will be a good incentive to have a real education system.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
When I visited Florida as a teenager fourteen years ago, I saw one of USA Today's cover polls that asked five year-olds who they'd like to have as their president. Top of the poll (with over 50 percent of the votes, if I remember correctly) was Big Bird from Sesame Street. Then came another bunch of fictional figures with Bill Cosby being the highest ranked human being (with around 10 percent, again IIRC).
Now, fourteen years on, these kids are just becoming elligible to vote for real. I'd think that either of those two choices, Big Bird or Bill Cosby, would make great candidates. For one thing, they have tangible diplomatic skills that have been tested over the years by the most feisty allies (Mr. Snuf-a-lufagus, Dr. Huxtable's wife), adversaries (Oscar the Grouch, the younger Huxtable kids) and special interest groups (Count Dracula, the older Huxtable kids).
Personally, my vote would go to Big Bird. I'd like to see a cabinet with real weight and authority and I think that his staff, including Bert and Ernie, would bring a certain gravitas to the West Wing that's been missing for the last few decades.
So, please, if we're going to see a Slashdot poll, can we add these two candidates for the benefit of that generation? Oh, and perhaps Britney Spears too.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
How about a PEN and paper?
show of hands?