Everyone always jokes about the French protesting everything … yet they’re the ones with better worker rights, better social benefits, better public health, better wages … meanwhile, the US never has mass protests and they have the worst worker rights, low wages, low taxes for the rich, high taxes for the poor, no public health care and few supports for the poor yet the country has the wealthiest people in the world.
There seems to be a pattern and the French figured it out a couple hundred years ago but the Americans haven’t.
I don’t know much about French history, but I’ve always wondered why oppressors would choose to oppress in a country known for actively overthrowing oppressors.
Yes I agree, but ten years of me being in favor of paper ballots has shown me there are cultural roadblocks in the USA. While some states do have paper ballots, others never will unless this is forced on them.
The concept of blindly trusting vote counting on systems impossible to understand are as American as apple pie, patriotism, and the 4th of July.
It’s not political and cannot be solved by rational argument
It’s easier for an admin or owner of a closed source computer system to stuff tens of thousands than it is to stuff one ballot.
In the uk, ballot boxes are watched by volunteers including school children.
The thing is, in the USA, the exit polls ( where people stand outside and ask how people voted) are significantly off in many states, causing most USA news to not use that in predicting national elections. That is significant in the multi hundred year history of the practice and democracies world wide.
It was a joke but thanks for the very detailed answer which I wholeheartedly agree with.
Closed source systems suck, they just allow for vulnerabilities to go unchecked. I’m a big proponent for open source solutions.
Otoh physical items with loads of people involved are indeed harder to tamper with. A viable electronic solution should imho still include those people and physical trails as a backup.
Been programming for 40 years, I’m of no special talent, it’s my trade.
If I can think of several ways to bypass any possible security of electronic voting, if the owner is participating. Then people smarter than me can do better.
And having administered large systems that have hardware and software parts, I have convinced myself it’s simply not possible to make sure they all behave well and are doing what is expected of them . Even open source.
On top of that, there is possibility of careless or bad admins, stolen admin keys, and on top of that hacking.
I will never underestimate smart people, who gain money and power, to not tamper with complex systems. So low tech, where each step can be verified with mark one human eyeballs and witnessed by the gaggle of people who have competing interests, is the only way to do democracy.
The systems perfected in Europe a long time ago work well enough I think
Everyone always jokes about the French protesting everything … yet they’re the ones with better worker rights, better social benefits, better public health, better wages … meanwhile, the US never has mass protests and they have the worst worker rights, low wages, low taxes for the rich, high taxes for the poor, no public health care and few supports for the poor yet the country has the wealthiest people in the world.
There seems to be a pattern and the French figured it out a couple hundred years ago but the Americans haven’t.
I don’t know much about French history, but I’ve always wondered why oppressors would choose to oppress in a country known for actively overthrowing oppressors.
Napoleon, the guy who declared himself emperor, was pretty successful in his oppressive reign.
He got in just as everyone got all of their anger out on the LAST oppressor. They were le tired. Lol
When France had issues similar to the USA, people in charge completely lost their heads… Literally
Also the average French person understands how democracy works, with paper ballots and checks.
Americans tend to blindly trust any old oligarch putting up software to vote on. And are incapable of introspection on the matter.
The two systems are not the same. Like comparing religion and science.
We need to write a new constitition. This time, we have to ban electionic voting.
You can’t hack paper.
Yes I agree, but ten years of me being in favor of paper ballots has shown me there are cultural roadblocks in the USA. While some states do have paper ballots, others never will unless this is forced on them.
The concept of blindly trusting vote counting on systems impossible to understand are as American as apple pie, patriotism, and the 4th of July.
It’s not political and cannot be solved by rational argument
stuffs ballot box
It’s easier for an admin or owner of a closed source computer system to stuff tens of thousands than it is to stuff one ballot.
In the uk, ballot boxes are watched by volunteers including school children.
The thing is, in the USA, the exit polls ( where people stand outside and ask how people voted) are significantly off in many states, causing most USA news to not use that in predicting national elections. That is significant in the multi hundred year history of the practice and democracies world wide.
It was a joke but thanks for the very detailed answer which I wholeheartedly agree with.
Closed source systems suck, they just allow for vulnerabilities to go unchecked. I’m a big proponent for open source solutions.
Otoh physical items with loads of people involved are indeed harder to tamper with. A viable electronic solution should imho still include those people and physical trails as a backup.
Never fully trust a treacherous computer :p
Thanks for your reply , I enjoyed it.
Been programming for 40 years, I’m of no special talent, it’s my trade.
If I can think of several ways to bypass any possible security of electronic voting, if the owner is participating. Then people smarter than me can do better.
And having administered large systems that have hardware and software parts, I have convinced myself it’s simply not possible to make sure they all behave well and are doing what is expected of them . Even open source.
On top of that, there is possibility of careless or bad admins, stolen admin keys, and on top of that hacking.
I will never underestimate smart people, who gain money and power, to not tamper with complex systems. So low tech, where each step can be verified with mark one human eyeballs and witnessed by the gaggle of people who have competing interests, is the only way to do democracy.
The systems perfected in Europe a long time ago work well enough I think