Ah, C'mon. The system is reliable? Maybe, but it is not trustworthy (and don't come with that UNICAMP evaluation crap).
Well, I didn't follow this much, but you just shot your whole speech with this line. If recognized researchers from UNICAMP say it's secure, it may not be perfect, it may even have a lot of problems, but I bet it's definitely not easy to break (for the non-brazilian, UNICAMP is one of the, say, five most important universities in Brazil).
the problem that the system is difficult to use to old people is not a people's problem, but a system's problem
That's true, but nobody is trying to convince anybody that the system is perfect; but it's better than the old system (old people and analphabets may have a hard time figuring out where to cross the "X" or where to write the name or number of their candidate). BTW, I worked as a "mesario" today too, so I know what you are talking about.
and then bringing all floppy discs (yeah, 1.4MB floppies! What happens if it gets CRC errors?!)
Please, cut the FUD. The ballot has a battery and keeps everything in memory; if it gets corrupted, the floppy functions as a backup. If it fails too, there are the printouts generated at the end of the election, everywhere*, and that the parties' representatives have copies of.
* - There are always printouts at the end of the day; what people are saying here about printouts only in some places is a test system where the printouts happen when the person votes, so that he can check if the vote got printed correctly.
Voting should not be mandatory. How can a democracy be a *real* democracy if people are required to vote?
There's a lot to say on the subject, but I'll just keep it simple: in Brazil, making voting mandatory is virtually the only viable way of guaranteeing the people's right to vote. Why? Because if it wasn't mandatory, a lot of people would be directly or indirectly stopped from voting.
What kind of penalties are there for non-compliance?
You have to pay a small tax and, until you do, you can't renew your passport, apply for a job in the public sector, get your diploma at graduation and some stuff like that. While it won't stop your life, it can be a PITA.
I'll post below why I believe the mandatory status is the lesser of two evils.
...and a paper ballot! The presence or absence of an 'X' or a check, in a human script, is fairly incontrovertible.
Yeah, right. Have you ever actually tried to inspect the process? I haven't but a close friend did when elections where stil on paper; believe me, in a country where a huge amount of people are analphabets, things are not nearly as clear as you think, specially for the legislative.
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Well, I didn't follow this much, but you just shot your whole speech with this line. If recognized researchers from UNICAMP say it's secure, it may not be perfect, it may even have a lot of problems, but I bet it's definitely not easy to break (for the non-brazilian, UNICAMP is one of the, say, five most important universities in Brazil).
That's true, but nobody is trying to convince anybody that the system is perfect; but it's better than the old system (old people and analphabets may have a hard time figuring out where to cross the "X" or where to write the name or number of their candidate). BTW, I worked as a "mesario" today too, so I know what you are talking about.
Please, cut the FUD. The ballot has a battery and keeps everything in memory; if it gets corrupted, the floppy functions as a backup. If it fails too, there are the printouts generated at the end of the election, everywhere*, and that the parties' representatives have copies of.
* - There are always printouts at the end of the day; what people are saying here about printouts only in some places is a test system where the printouts happen when the person votes, so that he can check if the vote got printed correctly.
There's a lot to say on the subject, but I'll just keep it simple: in Brazil, making voting mandatory is virtually the only viable way of guaranteeing the people's right to vote. Why? Because if it wasn't mandatory, a lot of people would be directly or indirectly stopped from voting.
You have to pay a small tax and, until you do, you can't renew your passport, apply for a job in the public sector, get your diploma at graduation and some stuff like that. While it won't stop your life, it can be a PITA.
I'll post below why I believe the mandatory status is the lesser of two evils.
Yeah, right. Have you ever actually tried to inspect the process? I haven't but a close friend did when elections where stil on paper; believe me, in a country where a huge amount of people are analphabets, things are not nearly as clear as you think, specially for the legislative.