[Osx-nutters] : OpenVoting

[David Cake]

>I agree that the secret ballot is necessary in most elections. 
>Probably the smaller and more local, the greater the need for 
>secrecy. In exit polls, voters leaving are asked who they voted for 
>and a majority don't feel the need for secrecy.

	Yes. But 'most of the time it works fine' isn't a good reason 
to remove safety features of the system.
  	There are plenty of places in the world where people turn up 
at the polling booth with guns, and threaten to shoot the ones that 
vote the wrong way. Why make it easier for your country to become one 
of them?

	Certainly, most of the developed nations of the world get by 
fine with a sensible audit trail and a bi-partisan electoral 
authority, both of which the US has a curious aversion too. If you 
are going to fix the electoral system, I'd start there (and notably, 
both supported by openvoting.org)

>There aren't any secret ballots in Congress. Just think how bad that 
>would be. The secret ballot seems only to be used in the election of 
>public officials and no where else. The invitation for abuse seems 
>overwhelming.

	Representative democracy is different. Someone IS supposed to 
be able to coerce elected officials into voting in a particular 
direction, that someone being the voter.

>In the election for President though, I really don't see the need 
>for secrecy. It's not like the vote there actually has any real 
>standing. The Electoral College elects our President.

	The oddities of the US presidential system don't really 
effect the argument either way. Yes, the electoral college elects the 
president, but the electoral system is hard to generalise about, as 
its not state to state consistent.
	And besides 'our system is broken in X way, so it doesn't 
matter if we break it in Y way as well' isn't much of an argument.

	I'll say it again. US democracy is like US cheese. Most of 
the US likes cheese a lot and is very enthusiastic about cheese and 
consumes a lot of cheese, but the stuff they call cheese would barely 
qualify in a civilised nation that knew something about cheese. Same 
with US democracy. The US is terrific on the quantity of democracy 
and its enthusiasm for it, but the quality leaves a lot to be desired.
	Cheers
		David