- #1
rachmaninoff
Consider a 'typical' U.S. presidential election. At what levels, to your understanding, would you expect to see votes being manipulated or fradulently cast? What magnitude of fraud do you think is conceivable given the current organization of the electoral system? In particular, I want to distinguish between what is
i) conceivable - i.e., what could happen and what you're afraid of; and for many of you suggests the need for greater transperancy in electronic voting systems (i.e.)
ii) typical - what you think is happening every election day, because no one's done anything about it.
Minor clarifications (if you point something out, I'll add it to the list):
1) "Rigged" means "affected in a dishonest manner"; it does not imply success in this context.
2) "Individuals/Organizations": To simplify the poll, I do not consider what agents are responsible for fraud, whether individuals who hack into the system, dishonest poll workers, a conspiracy of local officials, a vast national conspiracy of right-wing unicorns and chimeras, etc. I also do not consider the means of manipulation, i.e., 'backdoors' in electronic voting machines, etc.
What this does consider is what you think does or could soon happen: this would include (i.e.) your perception of the vulnerability of the system, and the how corrupt election officials are nationwide (and how easy it is for them to cooperate in fraud).
This is an offshoot from the earlier thread in which the effect of fraud on the 2004 election was discussed, and which spurred some very insightful discussion. However, I believe this poll warrants it's own thread, because (i) it is sufficiently distinct in scope (more general) than the previous thread; (ii) because the topic is of importance and interest to many PF members/voters, as they have demonstrated; and especially (iii) because I believe the previous poll(s) do not ask questions that reflect the statistical distribution of PF members' opinions in a fair and representative manner.
i) conceivable - i.e., what could happen and what you're afraid of; and for many of you suggests the need for greater transperancy in electronic voting systems (i.e.)
ii) typical - what you think is happening every election day, because no one's done anything about it.
Minor clarifications (if you point something out, I'll add it to the list):
1) "Rigged" means "affected in a dishonest manner"; it does not imply success in this context.
2) "Individuals/Organizations": To simplify the poll, I do not consider what agents are responsible for fraud, whether individuals who hack into the system, dishonest poll workers, a conspiracy of local officials, a vast national conspiracy of right-wing unicorns and chimeras, etc. I also do not consider the means of manipulation, i.e., 'backdoors' in electronic voting machines, etc.
What this does consider is what you think does or could soon happen: this would include (i.e.) your perception of the vulnerability of the system, and the how corrupt election officials are nationwide (and how easy it is for them to cooperate in fraud).
This is an offshoot from the earlier thread in which the effect of fraud on the 2004 election was discussed, and which spurred some very insightful discussion. However, I believe this poll warrants it's own thread, because (i) it is sufficiently distinct in scope (more general) than the previous thread; (ii) because the topic is of importance and interest to many PF members/voters, as they have demonstrated; and especially (iii) because I believe the previous poll(s) do not ask questions that reflect the statistical distribution of PF members' opinions in a fair and representative manner.
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