[ExI] Immaculate Election

[Dave Sill]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 3:36 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> We can do better.
>

That's a truism.


>  >…And even if we had a perfect voting system, we'd still be subject to
> bogus conspiracy theories…
>
>
>
> We would have fewer however.
>

I don't think conspiracy theories are significantly linked to reality.

If we can generally get the job done without them, is there any
> justification for the machines?  What is that justification?
>

Hundreds of millions of ballots with a couple dozen or more votes on each
need to be tabulated quickly and accurately. Sure, it can be done without
technology, but that's *exactly* the kind of task that technology is suited
to perform.

The local metropolis used a system that scanned and tabulated paper
ballots. I think that's a great approach: fast automatic tabulation that
can be confirmed by slow and inaccurate humans teams.

>…The cause of riot wasn't distrust in voting machines, it was an unhinged,
> egomaniacal scam artist pushing unbacked claims of voting fraud. That could
> still happen without voting machines…
>
>
>
> So no worries, eliminate sources of suspicion of voter fraud.
>

That's impossible. And trying to appease irrational conspiracy theorists
and gullible rubes will only encourage them to make more demands.

Some of that centers on voting machines, so get rid of those.  We don’t
> need them.  Some of the theories surround the vote harvesting, so end
> that.  Some of it has to do with inadequate signature verification and
> failure to publish registered voter lists, so end those practices.  Some of
> it has to do with failure to check ID at the voting places, so check ID at
> the voting places.
>

All to satisfy unsubstantiated claims of fraud.


> If we true up the voting system, the good guys will win every time.
>

Nonsense. The winner will win. Which is exactly what we have now.


> The winner of a trustworthy election system is by definition the good guys.
>

Not by my definition.


> Everyone, well nearly everyone, wants the good guys to win every time.  I
> would estimate over 95% of all voters want the good guys to win.
>

Most of the time there aren't even any good guys on the ballot. People are
staggeringly bad at judging the character of others. And even if they
weren't, good people can be corrupted.


> So… let us work to create a trustworthy voting system.  Start by trashing
> those voting machines.
>

I'm a little surprised to see such a Luddite proposal on this list and from
you.

-Dave
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