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Washington State To Allow Voter Registration Over Facebook
An anonymous reader writes "The Associated Press reports that the state of Washington will soon have an application available on its Facebook page that will let residents register to vote. Washington and other states already allow online registration, but this is the first time it will be allowed over Facebook. The state's co-director of elections, Shane Hamlin, said, 'In this age of social media and more people going online for services, this is a natural way to introduce people to online registration and leverage the power of friends on Facebook to get more people registered.' Facebook won't have access to the State's database, and Hamlin says Facebook won't collect any of the personal information with which it interacts."
Nah, no chance for vote fraud there.
Why make voting easy? Why not make it hard? That makes sure only people who care enough to at least truly believe in who they're voting for, instead of making elections a shallow beauty contest.
This seems like an incredibly bad idea, for several reasons:
1. People use bad passwords on Facebook
2. People get their Facebook accounts compromised all the time
3. Giving Facebook (the company) access to this kind of information scares the shit out of me.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
They support Farmville aid and voting by like button.
because it's usually associated with disenchantment, indifference or contentment. None of which is good. Also, a high turnout is generally perceived (globally) as an estimate legitimacy of the current voting system ... unless it's mandatory of course.
Hamlin says Facebook won't collect any of the personal information with which it interacts
Riiiight
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
There is a chance for voter *registration* fraud -- a notably different crime with a notably different detriment to society. Voter registration fraud is criminal, but it in no way changes the outcome of our democratic elections. Since people will not be voting on Facebook, people will not be committing voter fraud on Facebook.
Small "d" democracy is about everybody voting. Not the smartest, not the richest, not those who "care enough". Everybody. We require citizenship and adult age, reasonably. We (some states, not all) then tack on a whole host of other requirements which are, in my opinion, far less reasonable: you can't be in prison, you can't be on parole, you can't have been convicted of a felony, you must have a government issued ID with your current address on it, you can only vote absentee if you will be out of town [even if the polls are open during inconvenient hours], you must register to vote 17+ days before the election, and so forth.
Not happy with the way other folks are voting? You've got a few choices. In the short term, go convince 'em to vote based on reasons or issues which *you* think are important. In the longer term, fight for things like campaign finance reform, election reform, better journalism, and better education. All the while, have conversations about politics with friends, acquaintances, and foes alike; the more people talk about politics the more likely they'll pay closer attention to political facts, theory, and outcomes.
Facebook?
Really?
Are you fucking nuts?
I feel like watching a bad episode of the Flintstones where Fred gets one of his stupid ideas.
What is this, the 1600s again, every citizen (within reason) has a RIGHT to vote, it's not a PRIVILEGE reserved for those not disenchanted/disenfranchised. People have the RIGHT to vote based on nothing of substance. Personally, I think every citizen has a RESPONSIBILITY to vote.
Voting gives people a chance to feel that they have the power to make a difference in who makes decisions ... and that makes all the difference because it holds the elected accountable. Low voter turnout suggests to the elected that they need only cater to a smaller portion of their constituents to be re-elected. Low voter turnout, and having an outdated two-party system with a similarly outdated electoral college, has caused a lot of problems with the policy of the US government. For example, having a few Pirate Party members in Senate/House would prevent a lot of the "copyright-based" complaints on ./
I was thinking the Simpsons, personally, since Homer's ideas are WAY worse than Fred's ever were. But we're on the same page, I think.
Meh.
IMHO, every citizen has the responsibility to become educated about the choices and vote. I apologize as that's what I should have said at the beginning. It ensures that the you're doing your (minimal) part to keep the process running correctly.
John Bigboote, John Careful Walker, John Chief Crier, John Coyote, John Fish, John Fledgling, John Guardian, John Icicle Boy, John Jones, John Kim Chi, John Littlejohn, John Many Jars, John Mud Head, John Nephew, John O'Connor, John Omar, John Parrot, John Rajeesh, John Ready to Fly, John Repeat Dance, John Smallberries, John Take Cover, John Thorny Stick, John Two Horns, John Whorfin, John Ya Ya . . .
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Facebook won't have access to the State's database, and Hamlin says Facebook won't collect any of the personal information with which it interacts
Wa ha ha ha ho ho hee hee hee, ahhh, [wipes tears of laughter from corner of eyes]
Wait... What? That was supposed to be a serious statement? Oh, crap.... Sorry.
This has been a test. If this had been an actual Sig, you would have been amused.
All Facebook is doing is directing you to to the existing online voting registration system, and then transferring over your name and birthday. So an expansion of fraud on the part Facebook's involvement really isn't an issue here. The issue here is the norm of Facebook and other companies from data mining citizen's voting habits.
This is just a continuation of what we've seen regarding Google/FB. More and more concentration of data in fewer and fewer hands. It seems with each passing day FB becomes more of a "portal" for everything, and the sad/scary thing here is that the American populace is more than happy to acquiesce, without really thinking about the consequences.
Whats next: apply for Drivers Licenses, Passports, Loan Applications, etc via FB?
I don't have a FB account for several reasons, however two come to mind:
1. When someone told me "you have to be on Facebook".
2. When I started seeing the FB logo everywhere, including on the brand of yogurt I buy.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Zombie: "Hi, you called my number. I lost my license because I was doing 65 in a 25, but it wasn't my fault because I was almost out of liquor and the store closes at midnight. But I really need to get my license back because the liquor store near my house charges too much and I'm almost out of money, and if I run out of money I'll run out of liquor."
DMV: "Sir, your number is H376. The number we called is J."
Zombie: "But H is a lower number than J in the alphabet."
DMV: "Not at the DMV. The numbers go in whatever order the TV says they do. Please go sit down and we'll call you soon."
Zombie: "Really? You'll call me soon? Because I'm in a hurry."
DMV: "I don't know if it will be soon. I just do what the TV tells me."
(And we're back)... In fact, 72% of people visiting the DMV feel "strongly" that they could run it better than the idiots running the state, and if they could replace the idiots running the state, they would never have to ensure this again. Ergo, they are more likely to register to vote.
I assume Washington found that the DMV route wasn't working for them because the DMV experience is not as awful in Washington as it is here (there just aren't that many people, and that's really the key to a crummy DMV experience), so the closest approximation they could find was Facebook. This still incorporates the lack of choice and masses of brain dead people, but they're able to use technology to import them from the rest of the world.
The quality of comments on this thread is significantly degraded from what I expect of the Slashdot community. The actual process being followed here is that WA has created a web application to allow voter registration. Just a web application. They are then using oauth to allow people with facebook accounts to use the information from their facebook accounts on their site. This is NOT "on facebook" at all. Facebook never touches any data that they don't already have. In fact, this is really a non-issue and should be supported by a group of technology enthusiasts that the Slashdot community used to consist of.
I'm sorry your knees are all jerking.