version 3

[mellowtigger]

I went back and edited again my post about why I joined the local Occupation.

How did I forget to include voting reforms in the list?  Ranked choice ballots ("instant runoff") is necessary to make psychological manipulation of the electorate (fear mongering) a mathematical problem too intractable to solve.  Open source software and hardware is necessary to protect against election machinery fraud.  Public financing of campaigns is necessary to prevent moneyed interests from overwhelming the public debate.

Comments

[tangent_woman]

I suggest compulsory voting. Compulsory voting in Australia means that no person can be pressured into not voting, and no person can be denied their right to vote by use of dirty tricks. I also suggest use of paper ballots to avoid electronic manipulation of elections. And for people who complain about the loss of freedom; the voting is not actually compulsory. Showing up and getting your name crossed off a book, taking your ballots and putting them in the ballot box (blank, if desired) is. Pre-voting by post makes it even easier to vote (or not-vote), even if one wishes to return blank ballot papers just to get checked off as having participated.

(I find it odd that the same people who will queue for hours/days for concert tickets, and engage in endless postal shenanigans with banks, insurance and utilities companies and even for cereal-box competitions, object to being required to vote for the team who rules the country once every four years. It's not rocket science!)

Yes, harvesting votes from the whole eligible population of the USA would require massive logistical adjustments, but the system used in Australia is entirely scalable.

[mellowtigger]

I didn't realize that any country had compulsory voting. Yes, I would be thrilled to see Election Day each year as a national holiday. When you show up and provide your Social Security Number to the election judges, you get automatically registered for a $500 tax rebate. All you have to do to claim the money from the Internal Revenue Service is to check a box on your annual tax return form.

That refund might be an incentive to get people to the polling booth!