OT: Get out there and vote!

Byron Desnoyers Winmill lists-Gb8Tj4xcA4YgsBAKwltoeQ at public.gmane.org
Tue Nov 11 21:13:54 UTC 2003


On Tue, Nov 11, 2003 at 02:53:54PM -0500, Max Blanco wrote:
> I think that the element of trust is a legacy of the British system.
> Thank God for the British

Thankfully, I'm not the only person who believes in the value of trust.

As for who gets to vote: I'm of the opinion that anybody who must deal
with the government should have input into the government.  Whether the
electoral process is the appropriate place is another question, but it
is all to easy for the interest of potential citizens to be ignored
otherwise.  (I'm from Alberta and have heard plenty of xenophobic
rhetoric, and it is exactly that.)  Besides, if voter turnout was ever
so low that they could override the interests of citizens ...

> I think that the voters' list is open to public scrutiny, as I think 
> that it should be.

There is a lot of public information which people are not aware of.
IMHO, it doesn't become an issue until that information can be harvested
for ill willed purposes.  The problem with a lot of records going online,
which is where at least some of my anxiety over privacy comes in, is that
accessing these records for bad purposes has become all too easy.

> I think that may be a violation of secrecy;

It is, but it was probably dropped in the name of progress.  AFAIK, the
clerks cannot even stuff your ballot into the box at the federal level.
As a general rule, I abhor electronic voting systems because it is
impossible for the voter to judge whether their ballot is secret.  If
you stuff a ballot into a box, it is effectively detached from you at the
end of the day (unless you were the only voter).

> Read <http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/DBLaws/Statutes/English/96m32_e.htm>.

Important enough to keep.

Byron.
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