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Re:Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines alteri... by pbhjpbhj on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @03:55PM (#4750697)
>you can't prove how you voted (i.e. so you can't sell your vote). //

I assumed that if anything it was to prevent people being pressured in to voting a particular way (eg an abusive spouse) - what' wrong with selling your vote, surely that's still democratic: you've chosen to accept a particular candidate based on the outcome for you.

Re:Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines alteri... by gordonguthrie on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @04:48PM (#4750986)
Vote buying is not about a voluntary market in a tradeable commodity - it is about your boss not being able to say 'prove you vote my way or I will sack you' or your landlord saying 'prove you vote may way or I will evict you'.
Re:Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines alteri... by erichocean on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @05:24PM (#4751162)
Nonsense. Existing laws protecting employees from employer retribution (e.g. for sexual orientation, or religion, or...) are still enforceable (and the judgments for plaintiffs are large, too).

There is no reason to prevent someone from verifying that their vote was counted -- not vote buying (or the presumed ease thereof), not vote tampering or stuffing (really?), not potential outside coercion of any kind. Laws exist for all of these things already, and would not suddenly become unenforceable or ineffective in the presence of vote verification.

Re:Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines alteri... by gordonguthrie on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @05:51PM (#4751262)
Simply not true.

Coercive voting has disappeared because it is impossible for the coercee to prove to the coercer that they complied.

My granny used to tell of tying red ribbons (red being for the left) on the goats in the country and her mother getting a lift to the polls from the Tories (when women first got the vote) and voting Labour.

Verifying your vote cannot relate to ballot stuffing at all - so you can prove to yourself that you voted X, but I have 1,000,000 made-up votes for Y.

Re:Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines alteri... by MartinCron on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @04:43PM (#4750957)
what's wrong with selling your vote, surely that's still democratic

Besides just being distasteful, just handing over powerful positions in our society to the highest bidder seems like a formula for brazen abuse.

Re:Reddit user captures video of 2012 voting machines alteri... by pbhjpbhj on Wednesday November 07, 2012 @08:15AM (#4753252)
But it would only be handed over to the highest bidder if the individuals chose to hand it over ... which is how democracy is supposed to work isnt it? Arguably the current system favours a cadre of the super-rich already. People now can vote for whichever party will make them individually richer. It just seems to me like a logical extension of capitalist economics.