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Ask Slashdot: We've Had Online Voting; Why Not Continuous Voting? (iamnotanumber.org)

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-have-my-vote-for-the-moment dept.

periegetes writes: This idea has been bugging me for a while. It takes months to organize a physical election, and several days to count the results, so it makes sense that we don't organize elections every day. However, with the computing resources at our disposal, it would be child's play to setup a site where every citizen could vote for (or against) proposed laws themselves, and could even change their vote at all times, cutting out the middle man and restoring true democracy to the world. That last part may be a stretch, but I, for one, would feel more involved in my government if I didn't have to watch it screw up for years before getting another say in it. I've found precious few articles discussing the matter, which usually means I'm missing an obvious problem. Why, in the age of Big Data and petaflops, don't we consider continuous voting?

3 of 490 comments (clear)

  1. Bad Idea by jeepies · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Generally, the electorate isn't informed enough on issues to make good decisions. One of the reasons we have elected representatives in office for 2, 4, 6, etc. years is to provide some stability. People's views change on a whim. Watching one news special about a particular issue can swing views wildly.

    This kind of direct voting would result in utter chaos. Nothing's more fickle than public opinion, and it's impossible to get anything done when changing direction at the speed of the news cycle.

  2. Re:SIgh by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Aside from the many problems with identity and security and creating a huge cyber security target, the last thing we need is mob mentality reactionary voting and continuous campaign propaganda on every little thing that needs voted upon.

  3. Already have continuous voting... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's called social media's likes, follows and re-tweets.

    .
    I'm not sure applying such a concept to anything important is a good thing.