The way I see it, the big problem with elections is that the moment you drop your ballot in the box or click “send” or whatever on the touchscreen, your vote is immediately disconnected from you. There’s no way to trace back a vote to a person to make sure of anyone’s intent.
Now, I’m no fan of anything that infringes on our right to privacy. But if there’s one thing I’d gladly do, it’s connect my vote to my name.
Think about it. What if we could have all the real election data completely transparent to anyone who wanted to see it? And what if there was a mechanism in place to allow someone to check exactly what vote was recorded for their name?
I believe voter registration lists are already not too hard to get a hold of. My wife volunteered with our local Democratic headquarters and obtained the list of registered Democrats in our town on election day so she could call people who hadn’t voted yet and entice them to do so.
My point is, any possible bad that could come of it, more junk mail or phone calls or whatever, can’t possibly outweigh the good of knowing and being able to verify that your vote really was counted.
So, let’s just scrap the anonymous method and put your vote out there for everyone to see! Who’s with me?
I’d be okay with it, but I can most definitely see where many folks would not. With the number of partisans (on all sides) running rampant in this country, just imagine the chaos that would ensue if, for example your potential (or current!) employers had the ability to check your voting record.
Also, others then have the ability to check out your future votes as well. Ultimatum City. Boss: vote for (X), or you’re fired. Professor: vote for (X), or you fail. Family: vote for (X), or I’ll never speak to you again. The list goes on and on.
Now, when it comes to me, everybody who’d care to know my views already does. Anybody who would punish me for my views can go to hell. Then again, I’m in a position where I can say that; I don’t have all that much to lose. That’s not the case for everybody. So, while I personally would have no problem with it, I’d have to say that having individual votes be a matter of public record would be a Very Bad Idea.
What Roland says is exactly why we have so much privacy regarding voting. There have been times in the past where companies have used blackmail to get their employees to vote against their desires.
That may no longer be practical for most companies to do in the case of presidential elections, but in more special interest elections it could still be a problem.
Even though workplace discrimination based on political orientation is clearly forbidden, I suppose we can assume that it might still happen. Fair enough. Allow me, though, to express a hearty F*** You, on behalf of the founding fathers, to any employer disgraceful enough to discriminate like this.
Let’s then break out the anonymous voting from the er… nonymous voting. I’ll bet a huge chunk, even a majority, has no problem taking responsibility for their vote, given the assurance that it will be verifiable and counted.
Also, you could restrict which races get linked to your name. Maybe just the Presidential race, for instance.
Well sure, you could do that, but what would be the point? I see two chief consequences of that system.
The first is that there is still a segment of the votes (call it an extremely conservative estimate of 5%) that are untraceable and aren’t linked to any specific people. Those votes are just as questionable as the votes under the current system, and the margin of victory is going to fall into that area (49-51, anybody?) a significant amount of the time. Ergo, you’re taking the focus of the controversy off of the nation as a whole, and putting it onto the “anonymous vote” sector. Doesn’t seem to solve anything.
The second is that a few naive people who make their votes public knowledge without thinking about the consequences wind up getting screwed. Now, normally I’m all for allowing stupid people to screw themselves over, but I see no reason to actively implement a system of doing so if there’s no benefit for anybody involved…and, as I’ve shown in the first point, there isn’t.
Besides, this system already exists to a point. People who wish to make their vote public knowledge can do so. Example: I voted for Kerry. Sure, they can lie, but I doubt if many do; why misrepresent your political leanings when you can simply hide them?
“The provisional vote of a mentally handicapped elector who works at a sheltered workshop in Ronan could change the results of Tuesday’s House District 12 race, where Constitution Party candidate Rick Jore now leads Democrat Jeanne Windham by a mere one vote.”
Instead of linking everyone’s name with their vote on some kind of database, which would have the potential for discrimination, why not have a system where everyone gets a watermarked, counterfeit-proof (as much as possible) receipt with their name, SSN, and who they voted for? That way, if there was a recount, everyone could bring their receipts to the voting centers. You would also be sure who you had voted for, and anyone who saw the wrong name on the receipt could do their vote over. A system like this would have prevented disasters like Florida 2000.
But no, I wouldn’t personally mind having my vote known. Heck, I sometimes even wear a Green Party pin, so I’m not shy about having my political affiliations known.
I would favor a traceable vote. I’m verified at my voting precinct through a comparison of my signature. I can also be challenged by another citizen which would mean I would have to prove my identity to the satisfaction of the precinct workers. I’m then handed a numbered ballot. It would be great if I could look up my vote on the Internet through the numbered ballot to verify it.
I would also favor a national voting card. You’d be required to prove your identity with a birth certificate to get one and you would sign in at the precinct to be able to vote. It would have nothing to do with your actual vote. It would just prove you were there (presumably to vote), thus preventing multiple votes.
In this vein I would mandate punch card ballots for everyone because they represent an actual vote (unlike electronic voting). I would also include card readers that print out the choices made (like a receipt).
But hey, what do I know. Verified voters casting verified votes that can be tracked by the individual. Stupid idea what?
No way. That way lies the ability of a party to threaten violence or other harm to people who vote a certain way. Yes, that could be made illegal, but anyone who’d do that would probably count on their getting into power enabling them to overcome any subsequent legal niceties.
The anonymous vote is an excellent way for people to make their true opinions known and felt without any fear for their personal well-being.
And nothing stops anyone who wants to broadcast how they voted from doing so. The anonymous vote prevents unwanted access to that information.
I’m not knocking your opinion but how do you know if your vote counted and how do you know if I didn’t vote 45 times.
I personally can’t imagine anyone exerting influence on me over my vote but that fear can be easily remedied by: a hefty fine, jail time, and the loss of voting privileges. I take the freedom to vote seriously and that includes the freedom of a legitimate election.
It’s also possible to verify your attendance at a voting event without linking it to a ballot. If the ballot is numbered so that a computer can read it then it is still an anonymous vote that is traceable BY you but not TO you.
If you are going to be careful about anonymity then you should also be careful about fraud. Just something to consider.
I was surprised by the number of people who didn’t seem to care if others saw their ballot after they voted. Voters are supposed to keep it in a privacy sleeve (and in fact, their ballot can be cancelled if they start waving it around) but a not-insubstantial number of people didn’t give a darn about what showed. Now, granted, it’s still somewhat “anonymous” because the average person in the polling place isn’t going to see your face and your ballot and know your name.
Why should I suspect it didn’t? The machines I voted on have been in use for decades, and I have yet to hear anyone in the press ever say that there are problems with them.
I don’t know where you live, but in my district in Queens, New York, they have a book of all registered voters at the proper polling place. When someone shows up to vote, someone makes the voter sign in the book under his name, and then hand him a card, which the voter then brings to the voting booth, hands to an attendant, and then the voter is allowed into the private booth to register his or her anonymous opinion. If you’ve already voted, your signature will already be there under your name, so you wouldn’t be able to vote again.
Ah, but unscrupulous people can twist the law, once they’re in power. In addition, let’s take the example of a boss who wants to make sure his employees vote “his” way. If the boss owns the business, then the threat of throwing him in jail or heavily fining him will make the workers MORE scared to report him, because if he goes down, he takes the business with him, and they lose their salaries anyway.
I suppose that might work…you get a numbered slip of paper on which you could track your numbered vote, but no one keeps a record of who gets which numbered paper. However, that’s not the sort of thing the OP sounded like he/she was talking about.
And who’s being careless about that? Furthermore, a coerced vote is just as bad as a fraudulent one.
Another aspect of non-anonymous voting that has yet to be mentioned… Vote buying. Just directly buying the vote would be cheaper than all the advertising, so you know someone would try it.
People have mentioned pressure to vote by employers and family. What no one’s mentioned is the fear of reprisals. Let’s say that a ticked-off kerry voter was able to get a list of the local people who voted for Bush. What’s to stop that person from making harrassing phone calls, torching their house, whatever. Or later on, if the country became a place where the government could imprison anyone who didn’t vote “the offical” party. You’d probably have even fewer voters because people didn’t want their vote known. Nope - I think privacy is important.
This is exactly why I don’t have Kerry/Edwards and/or Bush/Cheney bumper stickers, lawn placards, tattoos, etc, and I never will. I fear the crazy people, and I don’t doubt that some people (even a small percentage) get their windshield smashed out or their tires slashed because some psycho doesn’t like their opinions.
The threat of hefty fines and jail time doesn’t really comfort me much, either. People still kill people, right? People still drive drunk and beat their kids and rob banks, right? The kind of people who would use this type of system for nefarious purposes would do so without regard to punishment. Or they’d get away with it anyway, at least until it’s too late to do anything about it. No, I’m not ashamed of my vote. I am quite fond of my property though, as well as any jobs I might have and my future well-being.