[kwlug-disc] Say No To Electronic Voting ...

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 3:18 PM Mikalai Birukou via kwlug-disc <
kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:

> If paper votes were always counted correctly in Belarus in the last 4 to
> 8 elections, there would be no problem. But they weren't. Mere presence
> of Austrian paper vote system doesn't guarantee the happy ending. Hence,
> problem exist, may be not in Canada (note, in Belarus every vote has
> equal weight, unlike here, leaving only miscounting as a mischief tool).
>
> Actual change that now takes place in that country was helped by some
> tech solutions coupled with mass action. Tech is a tool. Tech is never a
> solution to a problem that not all people abide by rules. But tech de
> facto helped the defending side. Let me rephrase it, can we have high
> tech pitchforks? :)
>

The problem here is that the system is rigged. It has the appearance that
it is
fair and open, while it is neither. The reason is a dictator who refuses to
cede
power and manipulates the voting process to get his way.

The problem here is not voting, it is the power grip, which will corrupt any
voting system (paper or computerized) to get the same result.

As an example, Egypt before the 2011 uprising had similar problems: voting
was rigged at many levels, starting with requiring special government issued
IDs to be eligible to vote, to excluding candidates who are not aligned
with
the government but have a chance to win (imprisonment the month before
the election, and released after it is over), to centralized ballot
counting (and
boxes were discarded and swapped en route), to a rigged parliament that put
obstacles for someone to run for president (must get a majority of votes in
parliament or other impossible conditions).

Most of that changed over a few weeks, when people rose to depose Mubarak.
No special voting ID was needed. The regular ID that everyone has was valid.
Everyone was registered to vote by default. No insurmountable conditions for
someone to run for president. Distributed ballot counting (in sito, with
all
representatives present), and so on.

That worked for the 2012 elections, which were mostly fair and open.

But quickly the military got their act together and with intimidation and
exclusion
managed to leave most of these measures in place, but again exclude
candidates
that have a chance to win.

What will happen down the line? Perhaps another uprising, in due time.

But the point here is that: don't expect dictators to follow the rules if
they
are the ones making them, and they ones gaming them. Belarus has momentum
in the streets that may change that. I hope it does, and that it is long
lasting,
unlike Egypt.
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