WARNING: Your US Voting Record may be PUBLIC knowledge (FL, OH, PA)

[NineSpine]

Which could likely be easily found online anyway. Someone can see my name, who I voted for, and my address, I still fail to see how this matters. Do you think someone is going to go down the list of all people who voted for a certain party and vandalize their houses? The Second Amendment solves that issue.


Meaning?


^

In local elections where only a few dozen people vote for certain positions, intimidation is a genuine possibility. But more than that, transparency can cause people to vote differently. For example, after an election the voters always poll as having voted for the winner at a higher rate than they actually did, indicating that a lot of people vote differently than they would prefer the public know.

---------- Post added 2012-09-01 at 11:38 PM ----------

1. The reason people vote anonymously is to make it less likely they are coerced.
2. Some people in the forum may not know that this stuff becomes public knowledge.

1. If who you vote for is private, the coercion is a moot point.
2. Whether they know or not doesn't matter, because none of this matters.

[kritisk]

What a canard! This is public information now and has ALWAYS been public information in the US. This is just like tax records! Hint: I can go look up the cars and houses you own anywhere in the US and how much value they hold for tax purposes. Those who get concealed weapons permits are also public knowledge.

No need to try to scare people like you are doing. This is nothing new, having been this way since the country was founded. It's simply more convenient than calling or getting the horse to the nearest courthouse/clerk. (And as stated, they don't know WHO you vote for, they only know you showed up to vote or not.)

[Grummgug]

First off, using your own search clearly reveals that they don't indicate how a person votes, only whether they voted and any other information that's part of their voter registration. Stop attempting to deceive people (you're clearly implying that the site reveals how a person voted, and not stating otherwise is willful deception in my book, even if you have not technically said anything that was untrue).

Whoa whoa whoa slow down there. I am not deceiving anyone here. If someone registers for one political party, that does become public knowledge and can be accessed on this site. That's a very good indicator of how someone votes. That's not deception. That's truth.

Second, voter registration is a matter of public record. Anyone who wants to do so can easily pull this information up by other means, and you posting about it doesn't change that fact. In fact, drawing further attention to the site without any meaningful suggestion as to how to stop it does nothing but make the problem (if it even exists) worse, to the point where I now suspect that you work for this site and are just advertising it.

1. I'm posting this as a WARNING to people that their voting record can be found online.
2. Its silly to suggest I work for this site.

As regards voter confidentiality, there are good reasons for it, and it's not always a matter of shame. People discriminate based on a huge number of things... and last I checked, "political party affiliation" and "who you voted for" are not forbidden reasons for discrimination. It's clearly wrong to discriminate against people just because they didn't vote the same way you did, but it could easily happen.

Beyond that, what if you're a liberal who lives in a strongly conservative area (or vice versa)? For example, let's say you're pro-gay marriage in an area with strong anti-homosexuality sentiments; openly admitting that you disagree with the majority might be noble (sticking up for your beliefs), but it's also very difficult to do (see: Asch's conformity experiment for detailed discussion of this point) and potentially dangerous, so you might have justifiable reasons for keeping your beliefs secret. However, as long as your ballot is secret, there's nothing to stop you from voting however you like come election day. Not everyone is courageous, but everyone still has the right to believe and vote however they like; secret ballots help protect that.

I agree with you on this part. But you need to calm down with regards to the other stuff.

---------- Post added 2012-09-01 at 04:40 PM ----------

What a canard! This is public information now and has ALWAYS been public information in the US. This is just like tax records! Hint: I can go look up the cars and houses you own anywhere in the US and how much value they hold for tax purposes. Those who get concealed weapons permits are also public knowledge.

No need to try to scare people like you are doing. This is nothing new, having been this way since the country was founded. It's simply more convenient than calling or getting the horse to the nearest courthouse/clerk. (And as stated, they don't know WHO you vote for, they only know you showed up to vote or not.)

I agree.

Hence, WARNING to people who don't know how easy it is to get this info...

[semaphore]

Hence, WARNING to people who don't know how easy it is to get this info...

It's not like putting it on a site makes it much easier.

[Grummgug]

I could definitely see a group affiliated with one political party using a site like this to make decisions about people who register for the other political party. Anything from not hiring them, to keying their car, or lots of things. Its illegal, but they'd still do it.

[NineSpine]

I could definitely see a group affiliated with one political party using a site like this to make decisions about people who register for the other political party. Anything from not hiring them, to keying their car, or lots of things. Its illegal, but they'd still do it.

So don't register as a member of the party? Why would you REGISTER PUBLICLY for something you want to hide?

These records are public for a reason, and you are doing nothing but scaremongering. Your voting record is not public.

[Grummgug]

You've also got to think ahead. Today, in 2012, you have records like this which is bad enough. But at some point in the future, everyone's full voting record may get stolen, hacked, and leaked online. And once its out there, its out there. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And it would be terribly easy for people to search it.

[DEATHETERNAL]

In local elections where only a few dozen people vote for certain positions, intimidation is a genuine possibility. But more than that, transparency can cause people to vote differently. For example, after an election the voters always poll as having voted for the winner at a higher rate than they actually did, indicating that a lot of people vote differently than they would prefer the public know.

See reply to the next quote for the intimidation bit, and I really don't care about the weak minded who would rather have voted for a winner than for the canadite that is best for the nation. If they are that weak minded, I have little reason to trust their original vote had meaningful reason behind it anyway.

Meaning secret ballots were established in the 1880s to prevent voter suppression with threats or actual use of violence.

Again, the Second Amendment solves this (for nonweaklings). Intimidation doesn't work to well on a population ready to shoot you if you are on their land and threatening them in any way.

[NineSpine]

You've also got to think ahead. Today, in 2012, you have records like this which is bad enough. But at some point in the future, everyone's full voting record may get stolen, hacked, and leaked online. And once its out there, its out there. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And it would be terribly easy for people to search it.

There is no record of who you voted for.

---------- Post added 2012-09-01 at 11:49 PM ----------

See reply to the next quote for the intimidation bit, and I really don't care about the weak minded who would rather have voted for a winner than for the canalize that is best for the nation. If they are that weak minded I have little reason to trust their original vote had meaningful reason behind it anyway.


Again, the Second Amendment solves this (for nonweaklings). Intimidation doesn't work to well on a population ready to shoot you if you are on their land and threatening them in any way.

The solution is to legalize killing people for intimidating you, an action which has a fuzzy definition at best. Fucking genius.

[semaphore]

Again, the Second Amendment solves this (for nonweaklings).

Every citizen has the right to vote. But clearly there's no use debating this with you if you take your philosophy from 19th century politics.

[GarGar]

Yup. It's why most high ranking military officers abstain from voting at the O-5 and up level, because it's so competitive at that point that something as simple as a General or Admiral seeing you voting for someone they didn't like could prevent you from being promoted.

[NineSpine]

Yup. It's why most high ranking military officers abstain from voting at the O-5 and up level, because it's so competitive at that point that something as simple as a General or Admiral seeing you voting for someone they didn't like could prevent you from being promoted.

Who you voted for isn't recorded.

[rhorle]

1. The reason people vote anonymously is to make it less likely they are coerced.
2. Some people in the forum may not know that this stuff becomes public knowledge.

Your address is already public record in most States. Most services though charge you a fee for accessing their database, otherwise you have to go through state resources which can take longer. Not presented on the website you linked to are things that aren't already out there and easily accessible. It's not like this tells you what people vote, it just tells you that they voted.

Any one that wants to can go to the state and get the same list and information, so this changes nothing about anonymous voters since you still vote anonymously. No one will know what you voted for, just that you voted.

[DEATHETERNAL]

Every citizen has the right to vote. But clearly there's no use debating this with you if you take your philosophy from 19th century politics.

Every citizen does not have the right to vote. But clearly there's no use debating this with you if you take your knowledge from pure ignorance.

[rhorle]

You've also got to think ahead. Today, in 2012, you have records like this which is bad enough. But at some point in the future, everyone's full voting record may get stolen, hacked, and leaked online. And once its out there, its out there. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. And it would be terribly easy for people to search it.

Full voting record? What you see on that site is the full voting record for people, because that is all the information kept. There is no super secret database out there that lists every single candidate every single registered voter picked. There are databases that show you who is registered (public record), their address (public record), their precint information (public record) and how many times they voted (public record).

The only questionable thing about your site is the tracking of what elections a person voted on. But warning people about something that might happen in the future is stupid. Should we warn people about the sun going nova, because it will eventually go super nova in a billion years? Anything is possible in the future, but what you say isn't possible from the current source you are using.

[NineSpine]

Every citizen does not have the right to vote. But clearly there's no use debating this with you if you take your knowledge from pure ignorance.

That depends on what you mean by "right". It's very easy to make the case that voting is a basic human right.

[DEATHETERNAL]

That depends on what you mean by "right". It's very easy to make the case that voting is a basic human right.

So a three year old should be able to vote as it is a basic human right? I think not.

[NineSpine]

So a three year old should be able to vote as it is a basic human right? I think not.

All rights have reasonable limitations, without exception, and one of the primary exceptions is that a minor does not have a sound enough mind to be granted complete rights.

But please, keep telling me how I should be allowed to stand outside of a polling place with an automatic weapon and a sign that says "Don't vote Republican" because the second amendment will somehow mitigate that.

[DEATHETERNAL]

All rights have reasonable limitations, without exception, and one of the primary exceptions is that a minor does not have a sound enough mind to be granted complete rights.

But please, keep telling me how I should be allowed to stand outside of a polling place with an automatic weapon and a sign that says "Don't vote Republican" because the second amendment will somehow mitigate that.

If everyone else had their AK-47s then the Second Amendment most certainly would mitigate that.

[NineSpine]

If everyone else had their AK-47s then the second amendment most certainly would mitigate that.

Yet somehow it prevents Somalia from having a functioning government. It's kind of amazing that the situation you advocate is present in zero of the actual advanced democracies that have blossomed out of the 20th century.