Re: Initial draft proposed constitution (v0.3)
On Thu, 26 Mar 1998, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Do we need secret voting ? It seems to me that publicising votes
> after the fact of a vote would be quite fine in our case, and greatly
> reduces the possibility of fraud.
>
The purpose of a secret ballot, for us, is not to protect the voter from
retribution for his vote (although that is a benefit) as much as it is to
keep all voters in ignorance of their fellow voter's views on the issue.
This forces the voter to make up her own mind in the matter, rather than
"siding" with the majority. (siding could just as easily be against as
for)
> I think we should however include the restriction that the current
> tallies not be revealed during a vote. Otherwise people are
> encouraged not to vote until the last minute, because that way they
> have the best chance of winning by surprise. This make the outcome
> far too random.
While I agree that the tally should not be revealed (to whom?) during the
period of voting, I don't understand how it matters when, in that period,
some persons, or groups of persons, chooses to cast their ballot? Everyone
gets one time-independent vote don't they? The outcome of the election
should be a surprise to everyone, otherwise why cast ballots in the first
place?
The only arguments that I have heard against releasing polling
information, while the polls are still in opperation, had to do with
discouraging voters who have not yet voted from doing so if their side is
loosing by a large margin.
Personally I would agree with your last sentence in any case. Public
elections/referenda are often a poor method for decision because of the
random factor presented by a vote. The same group can cast ballots on the
same measures and produce different results each time the vote is
collected. This is a particular pathology of thermodynamic systems with
"small" numbers of elements (i.e. under Avagadro's Number), one moment all
of the particles are on one side of the box, the next moment they have
moved to the other side.
I know that you sometimes confuse me ;-) but I just don't see the
connection here. Don't get me wrong, I don't see any purpose being served
by releasing vote counts before all the votes are in, and I am not in
favor of doing so. I have no strong feelings about the secret ballot
issue, as I am always willing to state my opinion in public ;-), but I can
see why some, with more private views, might feel the need for a secret
ballot.
As for "validating" the voting results, and keeping the interrumn count
secret, we should be able to deal with this in software. We would need a
proceedure that would collect the votes in an area we all agree is "safe"
and let the software "secure" the votes until the voting period ends; at
which point the vote could be automatically tallied and presented for all
to see (on a web page?); at which point the security on the collection
files should be released so that anyone can audit the data. As no human
hands manage the process, we should all be able to agree that it is tamper
proof.
Waiting is,
Dwarf
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Still sigless
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