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Ask Slashdot: Should I Fight Against Online Voting In Our Municipality?

Posted by Soulskill on from the let's-have-an-online-vote-to-find-out dept.

RobinH writes: Our small-ish municipality (between 10,000 to 15,000 in population) has recently decided to switch to online voting. I should note that they were previously doing voting-by-mail. I have significant reservations about online voting, particularly the possibility of vote-selling and the general lack of voter secrecy, not to mention the possible lack of computer security. However, it's only a municipal election, and apparently a lot of municipalities around here are already doing online voting. I'm not sure if the rank-and-file citizens care, or if they would listen to my concerns. Should I bother speaking up, or should I ignore it since municipal elections are not that important anyway?

7 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Yes by Sigvatr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes

  2. same as vote by mail by alen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    no secrecy? - check
    i can sell my vote? - check

  3. Speak up, or be silent forever. by Ardyvee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you have any reservations, then speak up. Even if it gets implemented, you can give input an steer it towards some middle ground that cover some of your concerns.

    --
    I don't care if I'm wrong. I only care about everyone obtaining something from the discussion.
  4. Get the concerns addresssed by jader3rd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Instead of fighting it, fix it.

  5. A chance to work for doing it right by Logic+Bomb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You have an opportunity to help make your town a case study for doing it rightâ"which might result in a decision to avoid online voting. You can advocate on security/vote integrity issues by raising awareness of the complexities. Make a strong push for requiring vendors that don't hide their products' inner workings from their customers. Talk about the importance of being able to audit the vote.

    The big questions everyone should answer before making a decision are "what do we gain?" and "what do we lose?" I think people often forget the latter.

  6. Re:How about no by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have it be as an Opt-In program then, where they send you a CD, containing a Live version of a modified Linux distro, putting it in your PC will make it boot to it and thus your viruses no longer matter, from there you can just connect to the voting site and enter your information.

    A bootable CD, what is this, 2004? The average person today is likely to want to person any network-based task from a device that doesn't have an optical media drive, such as a tablet or laptop.

  7. Municipal elections are *more* important by crow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Municipal elections aren't less important than the Presidential election. On a per-vote basis, they're much more important. Your vote makes much more difference in a local election. The choice you make are much more likely to have a real impact on your community.

    The problem with municipal elections is that it's much harder to learn who to vote for. You have to do real work to figure out who the candidates are and what they stand for.

    Note: I'm an elected municipal official, so my opinion is a bit biased here.