Voting Drops 83 Percent In All-Digital Election

For the first time ever, Oahu residents had to use their phones or computers to vote with some surprising results. 7,300 people voted this year, compared to 44,000 people the previous year, a drop of about 83 percent. "It is disappointing, compared to two years ago. This is the first time there is no paper ballot to speak of. So again, this is a huge change and I know that, and given the budget, this is a best that we could do," said Joan Manke of the city Neighborhood Commission. She added that voters obviously did not know about or did not embrace the changes.

Comments

Finally

[Suiggy]

We need more all-digital elections. I don't trust people who are not intelligent enough to use a computer to be informed enough to vote in my jurisdiction.

Re:Finally

[dov_0]

the vast majority of people (yes even old folk!) know how to fucking using a computer these days. it isnt 1988

But many otherwise very intelligent people find that they cannot understand them. Sometimes it's just that they have no confidence with computers or believe that they cannot use them. In other cases perhaps the need or the interest has never been there. Most people, even very intelligent people, have a 'blind spot' - a subject or activity they find difficult or even mind-numbingly overwhelming.

Eg. I can read and write in ancient Hebrew and Greek, was described as 'brilliant' while studying and am often asked for help in various areas due to my ability to just pick things up on the run and teach/explain/do whatever is required. When I started my own business however I ran into my nemesis. Accounting. It took me over a month to get my head around the basics. Longer still to start to understand my accounting software. Don't know if I'll ever get past the basics with it cos I seriously find it hard to understand.

So I don't give people who don't understand computers a hard time. Most people can send emails and write a text document. Surfing the web is also pretty common. Internet banking is a bonus. If that is all they need, that is all that most people will ever learn and that is ok. When they need something else, they ring me and pay me $60 an hour as a tech. I don't mind at all!

You're Doing It Wrong

[eldavojohn]

7,300 people voted this year, compared to 44,000 people the previous year, a drop of about 83 percent.

If all you're concerned about is number of votes, put each candidate on prime time television belting out the worst songs they can think of. Then instruct viewers to vote with their cell phones. Don't forget to charge them 99 cents a call and limit them to 10 votes ... the populace seems to love that.

Granted, they might not be the best candidate for the position, there will be 10 million votes and you'll have a $9.9 million surplus to decide what to do with. On top of that, your elected official will be able to sing "Oops, I Did It Again" by Britney Spears whenever they screw anything up.

Why bother when you know its hacked?

[icebike]

I suspect the feeling is that any election taking place over the net or the phone system is so easily hackable as to become laughable.

There is no changeable paper trail for this, contrary to the trend nationally to require same.

How long till botnets on the island (or elsewhere) start selling election stealing services?

Ok, now expect the defenders telling us this is all impossible and calling me a Luddite in 3, 2, 1...

digital ballot stuffing

[madbavarian]

Give them a couple of years and the digital ballot stuffing software will get better. The voter numbers should be waaaay up.

Engagement

[westlake]

Election Day is traditionally a social event - it brings a neighborhood, a community together. The girl scouts will have baked goods on sale. There will time to meet and talk with friends. Kids will get their first taste of "voting" on their own. For seniors it is a matter of pride that they still have the wit and will and strength to participate. These things are important in a democracy.

look, morons:

[circletimessquare]

paper voting: cheap
electronic voting: expensive

paper voting: 10x attack vectors to corrupt it
electronic voting: 1,000x attack vectors to corrupt it

the richest, most advanced, technophilic nation and the poorest most backwards nation should all vote the same way: paper ballot

anything else is simply paying more $ just for more ways to corrupt the vote. a democracy is based on legitimacy of the vote. if you cast doubt on that legitimacy, if there is any taint in the process of voting, and electronic voting allows for myriad more ways to do just that, then you destroy people's faith in their own government

this is not a joke, please stop with the electronic voting. its downright dangerous as it threatens the legitimacy of elected officials in the eyes of the people due to its black box nature: votes go in, leader comes out, who the fuck knows what kind of sausage is in the middle

yes, you can still fuck around with stacks of paper with checkmarks on them and mess with the vote thataways. but in a lot less ways, and a lot less opaquely, and you need a lot of cooperation and hard work. one well-placed hacker can change millions of votes in untraceable ways in milliseconds with electronic voting

in the case of close elections, you have ballots to fall back on that many human eyes can see and hold in their hands and tally for themselves. what do you have with electronic voting? a bunch of bits of doubtful provenance on a hard disk and some easily corruptible bureaucrat saying "trust me". fuck that. i'd rather a close vote take 3 months to tally on paper than a 3 second tally of votes of a black box nature

The worst news . . .

[hcetSJ]

was that those 7,300 votes were all cast by the same person.

Intelligence has nothing to do with it...

[msauve]

Why should someone have to pay for technology in order to vote?

I (and you, apparently) am fortunate enough to have both phone and Internet access, but there are many citizens who don't. Homeless people have the right to vote, too, without having to seek out some technological proxy.

If this ever hits my area, I'll look forward to writing off my Internet access and computer costs when I do my taxes.

Finally, if you're "intelligent" enough to hang around /., you should already be aware of all the security implications involved with voting-by-wire.