Do you think a voting app would be useful?

[Daelak]

I feel it would be easily exploited. Which is why it likely will never happen.

Exploited like healthcare records online? Or maybe wiring money?

[Kathandira]

Exploited like healthcare records online? Or maybe wiring money?

How would you track how many times an individual voted? Voting is supposed to be anonymous. I can vote from my phone, my laptop at work, then at home on my PC, then again on my xbox.

How do you stop that without some sort of identification number tied to you?

[Daelak]

How would you track how many times an individual voted? Voting is supposed to be anonymous. I can vote from my phone, my laptop at work, then at home on my PC, then again on my xbox.

How do you stop that without some sort of identification number tied to you?

Voting isn't anonymous, have you ever voted?

[Lucetia]

So, ever voting period ppl take, or gloss about one issue in voting, not a lot of ppl can vote because work/school and as well the time limit to vote when in a large line so some just avoid voting in general. But what if there was a easier way to vote? And so what if voting was as easy as pulling out your phone out at certain points and picking those u want to elect, then u go about ur day.

I think this would work, and before speaking about voter fraud, there has constantly be beliefs that's is always a thing, there's already talks of that for this current campaign. I believe however that these methods would kind of help.

First get the app, duh.
Second, once u put in ur info that shows u are a legal citizen , the whole mambo jumbo.
You then go to your third and final step, go to your county,province,whatever where u register and have an official physically validate u are a human being and who u say u are, they'll then fully activate ur account and u can vote for everything from the smallest level of city council to president of the United States, of course at the designated times that is.

There are a lot of issues with this despite being convenient for a lot. Also, those excuses don't work as you can do a mail-in vote and/or most polling places close of a night after those people get off work. So there's plenty of time early morning or evening to go.

As for the issues you have in no particular order.

• Hackable; results can be fixed even more so than now
• There is no way to prove who you are, just that you used someone's identification to vote
• Apps can be spoofed easily
• Someone can create a fake app, confuse the ones who aren't paying attention and get data and such
• It would probably take more work to correctly categorize votes in every city, county, state in the correct order
• Would you want to be the one to program the app? If you are going to make a voting app go all the way and include all the voting questions for each state, county, city in that election
• For the two above you'd have to make sure that data is being properly sent to each user in that they get the correct choices for their area
• Something like this would need a few years to test to verify absolutely no bugs are in it otherwise it'll be a nightmare.

[Tijuana]

So, ever voting period ppl take, or gloss about one issue in voting, not a lot of ppl can vote because work/school and as well the time limit to vote when in a large line so some just avoid voting in general. But what if there was a easier way to vote? And so what if voting was as easy as pulling out your phone out at certain points and picking those u want to elect, then u go about ur day.

I think this would work, and before speaking about voter fraud, there has constantly be beliefs that's is always a thing, there's already talks of that for this current campaign. I believe however that these methods would kind of help.

First get the app, duh.
Second, once u put in ur info that shows u are a legal citizen , the whole mambo jumbo.
You then go to your third and final step, go to your county,province,whatever where u register and have an official physically validate u are a human being and who u say u are, they'll then fully activate ur account and u can vote for everything from the smallest level of city council to president of the United States, of course at the designated times that is.

So, you want to take the most important decisions we make, and open them up to hackers, fraud, and digital errors? No thanks. Have you been to a government website? You really want these people to make phone apps that you can trust to be safe from manipulation?

If you don't have time to vote, then don't vote. It's not the end of the world. If it's important to you, take time off for it. In the US, that is legally mandated as a right.

[Daelak]

There are a lot of issues with this despite being convenient for a lot. Also, those excuses don't work as you can do a mail-in vote and/or most polling places close of a night after those people get off work. So there's plenty of time early morning or evening to go.

As for the issues you have in no particular order.

• Hackable; results can be fixed even more so than now
• There is no way to prove who you are, just that you used someone's identification to vote
• Apps can be spoofed easily
• Someone can create a fake app, confuse the ones who aren't paying attention and get data and such
• It would probably take more work to correctly categorize votes in every city, county, state in the correct order
• Would you want to be the one to program the app? If you are going to make a voting app go all the way and include all the voting questions for each state, county, city in that election
• For the two above you'd have to make sure that data is being properly sent to each user in that they get the correct choices for their area
• Something like this would need a few years to test to verify absolutely no bugs are in it otherwise it'll be a nightmare.

Votes aren't fixed in any way, now, so there's no evidence to suggest that making online voting would enable a surge of super sophisticated hackers changing an election at the behest of a candidate.

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So, you want to take the most important decisions we make, and open them up to hackers, fraud, and digital errors? No thanks. Have you been to a government website? You really want these people to make phone apps that you can trust to be safe from manipulation?

If you don't have time to vote, then don't vote. It's not the end of the world. If it's important to you, take time off for it. In the US, that is legally mandated as a right.

Are you saying government websites are somehow less secure than, say, your bank's website, or your credit card?

[breadisfunny]

Votes aren't fixed in any way, now, so there's no evidence to suggest that making online voting would enable a surge of super sophisticated hackers changing an election at the behest of a candidate.

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Are you saying government websites are somehow less secure than, say, your bank's website, or your credit card?

because as we all know politicians would never EVER try and undermine the voting process EVER....oh wait they already do that via gerrymandering,voter id, and creating bullshit laws targeted towards surpressing minority votes but let's just ignore that and assume they would NEVER hire hackers to create fake apps to misdirect and confuse voters. because as we all know politicians are completely trustworthy and would NEVER do anything to stay in power. nope. that has never EVER happened.

that doesn't even address the fact that foreign nations might try and do the same thing to influence the u.s. voting process by creating similar malicious apps or viruses that direct to said apps,etc.

[Daelak]

because as we all know politicians would never EVER try and undermine the voting process EVER....oh wait they already do that via gerrymandering,voter id, and creating bullshit laws targeted towards surpressing minority votes but let's just ignore that and assume they would NEVER hire hackers to create fake apps to misdirect and confuse voters. because as we all know politicians are completely trustworthy and would NEVER do anything to stay in power. nope. that has never EVER happened.

that doesn't even address the fact that foreign nations might try and do the same thing to influence the u.s. voting process by creating similar malicious apps or viruses that direct to said apps,etc.

So you are just going to resign to the fact that this is the zenith of participatory democracy? Punch cards, 8 hour lines?

[Felya]

than i wouldn't vote. call me old fashioned but i like walking to a place and voting.

If you are in Seattle area, I can give you some errands to run, while you fill out and mail it.

[Tyrianth]

There are a lot of issues with this despite being convenient for a lot. Also, those excuses don't work as you can do a mail-in vote and/or most polling places close of a night after those people get off work. So there's plenty of time early morning or evening to go.

As for the issues you have in no particular order.

• Hackable; results can be fixed even more so than now
• There is no way to prove who you are, just that you used someone's identification to vote
• Apps can be spoofed easily
• Someone can create a fake app, confuse the ones who aren't paying attention and get data and such
• It would probably take more work to correctly categorize votes in every city, county, state in the correct order
• Would you want to be the one to program the app? If you are going to make a voting app go all the way and include all the voting questions for each state, county, city in that election
• For the two above you'd have to make sure that data is being properly sent to each user in that they get the correct choices for their area
• Something like this would need a few years to test to verify absolutely no bugs are in it otherwise it'll be a nightmare.

While I agree electronic voting is a bad idea, most of those are easily mitigated or non-issues all together.

[Masark]

So you are just going to resign to the fact that this is the zenith of participatory democracy? Punch cards, 8 hour lines?

The American clusterfuck certainly isn't, both due to incompetence and deliberate sabotage.

Punch cards are simply dumb. Just use a damn pen.

And 8 hour lines fall under the latter cause. At the elections I've worked up here, waits were 15 minutes at most. And that was with roughly 80% turnout.

[Tyrianth]

So you are just going to resign to the fact that this is the zenith of participatory democracy? Punch cards, 8 hour lines?

8 hour line sounds like incompetence more than anything else. I've voted in every municipal, provincial, and federal election since coming of age and have never waited more than half an hour. And that's by voting with pen and paper, behind a cardboard barrier.

[Damajin]

No let's not encourage more voter hacking/vote fraud than we already have, thanks.

[zenkai]

So, ever voting period ppl take, or gloss about one issue in voting, not a lot of ppl can vote because work/school and as well the time limit to vote when in a large line so some just avoid voting in general. But what if there was a easier way to vote? And so what if voting was as easy as pulling out your phone out at certain points and picking those u want to elect, then u go about ur day.

I think this would work, and before speaking about voter fraud, there has constantly be beliefs that's is always a thing, there's already talks of that for this current campaign. I believe however that these methods would kind of help.

First get the app, duh.
Second, once u put in ur info that shows u are a legal citizen , the whole mambo jumbo.
You then go to your third and final step, go to your county,province,whatever where u register and have an official physically validate u are a human being and who u say u are, they'll then fully activate ur account and u can vote for everything from the smallest level of city council to president of the United States, of course at the designated times that is.

If it comes in Spanish I am sure Democrats will be on board.

[jimboa24]

Dude, if we start using a voting app, expect fully for 4chan to somehow dig its claws into it, and come to be the day after election day, we'll wake up to find out our next president is Leeroy Jenkins or Boaty McBoatface or something like that.

[Stormdash]

I take it you don't use online banking, pay your bills online, send money over the internet?

Sure I do -- but the safeguards are considerable to the security, and the entity that is responsible faces fines and prison if they are sufficiently negligent or reckless with that responsibility. The government can half destroy the Colorado river and nobody even get fired, let alone prosecuted, there is no incentive for them to be even competent, let alone exceptional, in securing any online service. The ACA website's security was a sick joke, for instance.

[Felya]

The harder it is to vote, the better imo. The more effort people put into voting the more they care, obviously. Up next--- Tough Mudder voter registration.

The thing is, in person voting weeds out the hardest working, in favor of those who have a lot free time. The less free time you have, the less likely you are to vote in person.

[Tijuana]

Votes aren't fixed in any way, now, so there's no evidence to suggest that making online voting would enable a surge of super sophisticated hackers changing an election at the behest of a candidate.

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Are you saying government websites are somehow less secure than, say, your bank's website, or your credit card?

Yes, depending on the department or what is being protected. However, even if they had the same protection as bank websites, do you find them to be secure? Is there not an "incident" with their security in the news every day? I fail to see how anyone would think this is a good idea. If your life is too busy to take the time to vote, there are absentee ballots or you can just not vote. The integrity of the voting is FAR more important than ensuring every last person can vote with zero inconvenience.

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The thing is, in person voting weeds out the hardest working, in favor of those who have a lot free time. The less free time you have, the less likely you are to vote in person.

It's federal law that you must be allowed to miss work to vote. What are you on about?

[anyaka21]

While it's an interesting idea, I don't think it can work because there really isn't a way to conclusively prove that the person voting is the person that it is supposed to be.

1 legal person, 1 vote. With an app, there is no way to ensure that. And to go further, esp when dealing with things internet related, hackable, thus making itself wide open to fraud.

[cubby]

I think that voting is one of the few things that should still be counted by hand. Old fashioned, for sure - but a paper trail is much better than a hackable digital footprint.