[Air-L] E-Voting

[Chris Peterson]

Hi all — 

I’d like to raise a point that isn’t countenanced in the discussions below (so far as I can tell). Making voting easier is priority for democracies, but how it is made easier seems to me to matter. 

This may be my inner parochial New Englander speaking, but: I actually think there is something civically important about the ritual of going to a voting place, seeing your local community volunteering, people agreeing/disagreeing on candidates but still living together, feeling attached to / part of a broader deliberative body, etc, as opposed to an atomized individual who exists nowhere only to operate a mobile device. 

Now, I realize that this opinion comes from a position of relative privilege, and that the analogue voting infrastructure disenfranchises people in any number of ways. My point, I guess, is that if we consider where and how to invest money and effort in expanding the franchise, I’d probably lean toward looking at local contexts and figuring out how to make voting part of a broader process of visible community deliberation as opposed to a narrow engineering-systems problem. 

This is one of Morozov’s stronger points in his book on solutionism: that ‘liquid democracy’ or ‘digital democracy’ often elides the core principles of democratic theory, i.e. that political solidarity arises from respectful negotiation of mutually intelligible lifeworlds, and the balance between disenfranchising struggle and democratizing struggle is very delicate. In a world where we continue to see massive widening gulfs between subcultures and map/territory, whether and how these consensus/voting mechanisms are implemented technologically and civically seems like it should be a topic of conversation. 

Best, 

— Chris 

> On Nov 14, 2016, at 1:16 PM, Ibrahim Kushchu <ikushchu at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Theoretically  mVoting is an excellent method for elections though it
> is most widely used for polling or surveys..
> 
> mVoting for elections with a proven mID system is even more stronger
> case but... there are issues regarding security of mobile
> communications, transparency of the code / institutions,  digital
> divide etc..
> 
> Estonia is an early example and a good one and perhaps Australian case
> is more recent..
> 
> I don't know any comprehensive research on the topic but there is
> definitely a need and would be interested to know about such research
> too.
> 
> 
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 8:01 PM, Robert Krimmer <robert.krimmer at ttu.ee> wrote:
>> There is no country having implemented internet voting via mobile. There are some internet voting protocols that could run on a smart phone though (not the Estonian though) …
>> 
>> ________________________________
>> 
>> Prof. Dr. Robert Krimmer
>> Professor of e-Governance
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>> Von: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> im Auftrag von David Stodolsky <dss at secureid.net>
>> Datum: Montag, 14. November 2016 um 18:25
>> An: Yosem Companys <companys at stanford.edu>
>> Cc: UC Berkeley Tier <TIER at tier.cs.berkeley.edu>, AIR <air-l at aoir.org>, UW Change Group <change at change.washington.edu>, Zacharia Gichiriri <zacharia.gichiriri at strathmore.edu>
>> Betreff: Re: [Air-L] E-Voting
>> 
>>    Estonia implemented online voting.
>> 
>>    dss
>> 
>>> On 14 Nov 2016, at 16.20, Yosem Companys <companys at stanford.edu> wrote:
>>> 
>>> From: Zacharia Gichiriri <zacharia.gichiriri at strathmore.edu>
>>> 
>>> Are there any countries that have implemented a form of mobile voting?
>>> Is there any research on the potential, challenges and applicability
>>> of mobile voting?
>>> Considering the explosive growth of mobile phones across Africa, would
>>> the use of mobile phones for elections (citizens voting through mobile
>>> phones) improve election outcomes and transparency?
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> --
>>> Zack.
>>> _______________________________________________
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>> 
>>    David Stodolsky
>>    dss at secureid.org                                      Skype/Twitter: davidstodolsky
>> 
>> 
>> 
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