Myfingershurt

Do you mean it turned the state red? The color normally associated with the conservative movement?

CincoDeMayo

“Since the earliest days of the current global monkeypox outbreak, scientists and public health authorities have been calling for the disease to be renamed, arguing that it has racist overtones and carries a stigma that will hinder efforts to stop its spread.”

God I hate what we have become. “Fog of Woke”

TransWorld

For many years, I grew up and was registered to vote in Missouri. I do not know requirements in Florida, but every time I voted absentee and mailed in my ballot for Missouri, I had to get my signature Notarized. That required me to present a photo ID to the Notary. My concern is not with mail-in voting (or drop boxes), it is rather not having to present a photo ID to cast that ballot, proving who I am.

rickair7777

But it's not a pure democracy, and that is a significant distinction.

rickair7777

After long and careful consideration of this issue...

The fundamental problem which everybody misses with regard to remote voting (mail in or digital) is the confidence of the people in the election system. It could be a perfectly airtight digital system, or a 99.9% accurate mail system... if the people don't trust it, it doesn't count. If it doesn't count, then elected officials are illegitimate, and so are their laws, policies, and the government itself. See where that's going?

1. Despite being quite savvy, educated, and professionally experienced with tech, there is no way that I could ever assure myself or anyone else that a digital voting system, which uses existing network infrastructure, is secure. If I can't be confidant, how can the 95%+ of the population who have less understanding than I do? They can't. You'll end up with 48% of the population (and about 20 state governors and legislatures) believing the election was stolen. And no way to prove otherwise in a manner which normal people would find plausible. At least with paper ballots you can count them all, and observers don't need a MS in CS to follow along.

2. Mail-in. Legit, but should be limited to those who actually need it. And you should be required to show up IN PERSON to register for mail balloting at least once every 5-10 years. Again it's very hard to argue the transparency of a system where everybody shows up in person. A wholesale mail system is not transparent, and will not be considered legit by many.

3. Voter ID. Need to have it. Again, even if no-ID voting doesn't lead to fraud, there's no way that 2/3 of the people will actually believe that. Whatever benefit you think The Party might get from no-ID voting, it will be erased when the people deem the gov illegitimate. At least offer a free voter ID.

4. Ease of voting. If you can't be bothered to take 20-30 minutes once a year, posses an ID, and register to vote once in your life you are catastrophically lazy and have no business electing people who intend to govern ME.

I'm all for making voting accessible, ie polling hours and locations. You can't make the election volunteers man a poll every day for a month or even a week, but you could do Sun and Mon voting, for those who can't get off work. Alternatively, you should be able to go to the county courthouse, etc in person for the month leading up to the election, I mean why the hell not??? You could even have mobile voter registration for elderly, disabled, etc. But it MUST remain a physical, paper process, simply to preserve the PERCEIVED legitimacy of the process. Don't believe me? Try it and see what happens. It won't be pretty.

CBreezy

You mean direct democracy. And I agree, it is important to differentiate. Just like it's important to correct people who say the US isn't a democracy. That's like saying the Airbus isn't an airplane. It is. And while it's different than a Boeing, their intended function is the same. There is just a different way that "we got people" decided to meet the intent of a democracy.

CBreezy

I don't have time to go point by point on what I disagree with in this post but there is a lot of information that is incorrect. I don't have a problem with paper back up voting machines. But I do have a problem saying that because people are ignorant of technology that it is inherently bad for the process. I vote for my ALPA rep and contracts in a government approved voting system and there has never been any indication that there is rampant fraud on that system. It arguably has far more an impact on my life than a national election ever will.

As far as voter ID, I agree with it in principle but it's incredibly poorly executed. It takes FAR longer than 20-30 minutes to get one. Some states have very onerous and relatively expensive processes to get a non-driver ID. Many places the offices that issue IDs are only open until 5P on weekdays and for many people, it's impossible to get an ID outside that window. For others, getting required documentation requires hours long drives to records offices. And a fairly steep fee to acquire. I've waited in line at my DMV for 2 hours to renew my license but I have that kind of time. The kinds of IDs that are accepted are also sometimes nonsensical. Plus, if I lost my ID in my state prior to the election, the temporary ID issued by state does not qualify.

I could go on but cannot.

9mikemike

it is far less important that you get to vote than it is to preserve the integrity of voting….Elections don’t just “suddenly happen”…A Constitutional Republic requires of its citizens that they participate….Lowering the bar for participation is not the same thing

Margaritaville

Good points, Rick, but as we saw after the 2020 election, even with in person paper voting, an absurdly large minority of the country will still think the election was fraudulent or "stolen" if their chosen candidate loses. The seal has been broken on that in our society, and I don't know how we come back from it. I voted for Trump and I'm not ashamed of it, but I can also admit that he lost fair and square. The tin foil hat crowd will just continue to come up with asinine explanations how ballots were moved in the middle of the night or whatever and Trump actually won. It's truly frightening how many people believe that. Last poll I saw was 30-40% of the country IIRC.

I agree that the internet is always ripe for hacking, especially from players like China, Russia, and N. Korea, and online votes are harder to track, but I'm thinking some sort of authenticated SSL system like the IRS uses would work. Frankly, I think paper is easier to manipulate, especially mailed or dropped paper.

Yes, ID needs to be shown to vote. In person, that's easy. Mail in should require a notary and a copy of one's ID. "Signature matching" is voodoo science. It kicks out legitimate votes, and lets in fraudulent votes. We also need a way to keep illegal immigrants from voting, especially in states like IL and CA that give them drivers licenses and welfare benefits and treat them like those here legally.

SonicFlyer

You are very confused. A republic and a democracy are effectively opposites.