[conspire] Stolen election narratives, CA edition

[paulz at ieee.org]

 Secret ballots:
The only secret ballot is in a booth with no cameras permitted.
If you mark the ballot at home or church or ...  there might be someone bribing or coercing you to mark the ballot in a particular way before you seal it in the envelope.
Actually in a booth is not totally fool proof.  It depends on how well you can bluff the neighborhood enforcer when he asks how you voted.
In a state-wide election with a significant margin in the count, it would be hard to force enough votes without being caught.  However, in recent years, there have been several elections decide by a very few votes...


    On Sunday, September 19, 2021, 04:50:55 PM PDT, Ivan Sergio Borgonovo <mail at webthatworks.it> wrote:  
 
 On 9/19/21 23:20, Rick Moen wrote:

> 1.  Paying people for their votes.  In the strictest sense, this cannot
> be prevented, period.  If people are willing to be bribed for their
> votes, that will happen.  Ruben's point about that, though, to condense
> down what he said, is that the secret ballot prevents the vote-buyer
> from _enforcing_ the purchase.

> Again, let's not ignore this risk-factor.  It's real.  Letting people
> fill out ballots anywhere at all makes it easier for a Tammany Hall-style

...

> 2.  Remote voting options also make possible voter coercion.  There are
> many horror stories, in particular, of domineering husbands insisting on

> 4.  Speaking of things that aren't going to happen, banning the
> handicapped and frail from being accompanied by helpers into the voting
> booth is another non-starter.

> 5.  But my final point to Ruben was:  People have small digital cameras,
> these days, often ones in their pockets that also make telephone calls.

...

> On a couple of other occasions, Ruben was terribly worked up over
> "ballot harvesting", telling me that it's a terribly corrupt practice


Ruben's concerns are real ones but things don't have to be perfect to 
work, you just have to reach a reasonable, context aware compromise.

Here in Europe it's very common to stroll around with your ID and it is 
pretty easy to get all you need to vote and eg. generally you don't have 
to register.

Here in Italy you have to show up with your ID and a "voting card" 
that's valid for several elections (administrative, national parliament, 
referendum). This card is generally sent to you by mail every time you 
change your address. You've to vote alone in a booth by paper.

But people living abroad can vote by mail and people with disabilities 
can be accompanied provided they have some medical certification.

To make stuff more interesting here in Italy we have a long tradition of 
paying/blackmailing people for their votes (organized crime).

We even invented a way to use candidate preferences to recognize voters.
Votes can be considered null if there is suspicion the vote was "marked".
With that excuse preferences have been forbidden in some elections 
leaving to the parties the choice of who was going to be elected.

Cameras are forbidden at the voting booth.

But preventing election frauds is just one of the many things that make 
an election democratic (and functional) and may not even be the most 
important.

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
https://www.webthatworks.it https://www.borgonovo.net


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