Why online voting is harder than online banking

Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by dividuum on Saturday September 12, 2020 @01:56PM (#24454166)

Not sure how that computer related. In Germany all voting places are wheelchair accessible. Additionally for the blind, there’s a Stimmzettelschablonen that allows you to vote in secret. These issues can be solved without computers.

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Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by chrisseaton on Saturday September 12, 2020 @01:57PM (#24454176)

Accessible... to people not able to get to a voting location or postbox.

> In Germany all voting places are wheelchair accessible.

There are accessibility concerns beyond just wheelchairs you know...

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Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by dividuum on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:07PM (#24454223)

In Germany you can request to vote by mail. Additionally you can get instructions on Audio CD, in braille or large fonts. As I said, this can and is all solvable without complex technology.

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Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by chrisseaton on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:11PM (#24454243)

Would you be surprised if I told you some people struggle to send and receive mail?

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Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by pmyteh on Saturday September 12, 2020 @04:20PM (#24455286)

In Britain, we deal with this problem partly by allowing proxy voting, where you can expressly authorise someone else to vote (in person) on your behalf. I had to do this once when my wife had an unexpected business trip after the postal vote registration deadline had closed. It's obviously not ideal from a vote privacy point of view, but it does provide a useful solution to some of the corner cases preventing voting in person or by mail.

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Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by pdonis on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:03PM (#24454203)

> Accessible... to people not able to get to a voting location or postbox.

A person doesn't have to be able to get to a post office themselves to cast an absentee ballot. They just have to be able to fill out the ballot and sign it. Someone else can mail it for them.

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Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by chrisseaton on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:06PM (#24454220)

> They just have to be able to fill out the ballot and sign it. Someone else can mail it for them.

Right, so they have to be able to reliably receive mail at a location fixed at least a little time in advance, and either send mail or give it to someone to send mail, and then it needs to reliably get to its destination.

Not all of those things are always easy for all people's situations.

As a practical example - see the difficulty that homeless people have voting in many cases.

Voting online as an option would possibly solve them for some people.

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Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by pdonis on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:10PM (#24454241)

Given the risks of online voting, I would rather put time and effort into making sure every voter who needs an absentee ballot can reliably receive one and reliably send it back. That seems like a better goal to shoot for.

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Re:Why online voting is harder than online banking by PeterisP on Saturday September 12, 2020 @05:23PM (#24455861)

My local elections have each voting location team do home visits on election day for people who physically can't get to a voting location due to disability, severe ilness, etc - in the last elections it was used by the people home-isolating due to Covid. There aren't that many people like that, it takes some funding and effort to make an exception for them, but it is manageable.

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