Why is everyone so obsessed with automating voting? It seems to me to be a 'solution' to a non-existent problem.

• sonofhans

  today at 7:57 PM

  Control. If you can centralize all voting results in a single place you can control distribution of them. If you are the only entity able to read the results then everyone else has to take your word for it.

  Paper ballots with physical marks are easy to track and recount. Digital paper trails are ephemeral. Whom does this benefit? The people counting the ballots.

  • throwaway5752

    today at 7:59 PM

    As the article notes, the Swiss do both. The normal system is a paper ballot based system. This was for secure e-voting for those unable to use paper ballots.

    The separate question, of why people are obsessed with it - implicitly in the United States - is a separate question.

    sonofhans - to reply to your follow up here, I mostly agree with you. But I would soften it to say it is a tool that can be used for good or bad ends, and I felt the Swiss were using it more towards good ends. But I agreed that the ability to misuse it is intrinsic.

    • sonofhans

      today at 8:03 PM

      You are suggesting that it is a separate question. I am suggesting that it is not.

• hatthew

  today at 7:58 PM

  If it works, it should be much more efficient than the current system. Of course that is a massive "if"

• ge96

  today at 8:08 PM

  I'm still annoyed in the US I can't just show up and vote. The one time I wanted to vote "sorry you're not registered" like what? I'm a citizen just let me vote, oh well. And I was too late to register at the time.

• UltraSane

  today at 8:10 PM

  Every vote should be a separate piece of paper. My preferred voting method are the fill in the bubble sheets that get scanned as they go into the locked box. They automate the vote count but can be manually counted if needed.

• diego_moita

  today at 8:16 PM

  Speaking as a Brazilian here.

  Most developed countries created an infrastructure to conduct reliable elections using paper ballots. Many 3rd World Countries didn't. In such countries, it can be a lot easier to implement a fraud-proof system using automated votes. With the required know-how it is a lot easier and safer to implement electronic transmission of ballots than physically carrying them.

  It is called "leapfrogging": sometimes more advanced technologies are much more useful in places with bad alternatives than in developed/organized countries.

• throwaway5752

  today at 7:55 PM

  [flagged]

  • frumplestlatz

    today at 8:18 PM

    I'm a Republican in the United States. The only credential I want is proof of identity, just like most other countries, including our neighbors.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_identification_laws

I don't care how much maths and encryption you use, you can't get out of the fact that things can be anonymous (no one can know how you voted) or verifiable (people can prove that you only voted once) but not both.

- Switzerland usually gets around this by knowing where everyone lives and mailing them a piece of paper 'something you have'

- South Africa gets around this by putting ink on your fingernail

I've read quite a bit about the e-voting systems in Switzerland and USA and I just don't see how they thread the needle. At some point, you have to give someone access to a database and they can change that database.

Until we all have government-issued public keys or something, there isn't a technical solution to this? (Genuinely curious if I'm wrong here)

• zahlman

  today at 6:04 PM

  Sure you can, you just need an anonymous voting mechanism that's sufficiently naive. You use the verifiable process to restrict access to that anonymous mechanism.

  In Canada, at both federal and provincial levels, you walk up to a desk and identify yourself, are crossed off a list, and handed a paper ballot. You go behind a screen, mark an X on the ballot, fold it up, take it back out to another desk, and put it in the box. It's extraordinarily simple.

  > At some point, you have to give someone access to a database and they can change that database.

  Well, that kind of fraud is a different issue from someone reading the database and figuring out who someone voted for (you just... don't record identities in the database).

  • Bender

    today at 6:22 PM

    There will never be a technical or operational process that excludes cheating. The only deterrence that seems to work on humans and even then only most of the time is severe capitol punishment and that will only be as effective as people believe it happens thus requiring live streaming of the removal of cheaters heads without censorship. The current legal process of each country would have to be by-passed or people would just sit in a cage for 30 years. Even in such cases there will be people that sacrifice themselves if they think that bribe money can go to their family but that is at least a start.

    • SoftTalker

      today at 6:29 PM

      Also cheating with paper ballots is much harder to scale and remain undetected than cheating by altering records in a database.

      • Bender

        today at 6:41 PM

        remain undetected than cheating by altering records in a database.

        Absolutely. Any time something is centralized it becomes an irresistible target for unlimited numbers of bad actors and the bar to entry for remote anonymous access makes it a much easier target. Anonymous access to paper ballots means someone is going to be on at least a handful of cameras and has to bypass many security systems so if cheating happens it is because the people gathering the votes want it that way.

    • Ardon

      today at 7:01 PM

      I agree with your point that attempts at cheating are inevitable, the rest is confusing though:

      We have a long and storied history of coming up with extremely disturbing capitol punishments performed in public, and yet those punishments coexisted with much higher rates of criminality then now.

      Stealing from the church in history carried some pretty gruesome deaths, and yet plenty of people still stole from the church, etc.

      People are chronically bad at transferring future risk to their current decision making. Any consequence that relies on people being able to model a future problem against their current desires/needs is always going to have a lot of transmission losses. You end up trying to make ever more horrible punishments to overcome the losses in transmission.

      I think the goal should be the smallest possible functioning consequence, which is possible by being close to the 'crime'. The very best way is when community can do it immediately. Like if someone does something fucked up, but then their buddies go 'that was fucked up dude', I am very confident this will prevent then from doing it again much more efficiently then a distant jail sentence. (among all the other ways too, there's never one clean action to take to solve problems on a societal level)

      • Bender

        today at 7:07 PM

        [flagged]

    • today at 6:56 PM

  • jasode

    today at 6:42 PM

    >Sure you can, you just need [...] , you walk up to a desk and identify yourself, are crossed off a list, and handed a paper ballot. [...]

    Your counterpoint about in-person paper ballots doesn't seem relevant to the thread's article or the gp you're responding to.

    The article is about digital electronic voting. The voters are remote and can't walk up to a desk. Quote: >the problem with its e-voting pilot, open to about 10,300 locals living abroad and 30 people with disabilities,

    The electronic voting system and database is clearly the context of the gp's quote: >I don't care how much maths and encryption you use, ...

    The article also has a further link to another piece about e-vote database manipulation can't be detected: https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/12/swiss_evoting_system_...

  • dirasieb

    today at 6:40 PM

    > paper ballots and requiring IDs

    isn't that racist? i've heard it repeated but i'm not so sure

• jfengel

  today at 6:24 PM

  The USA threads the needle by simply not having verifiable voting. And it turns out it works pretty well. Despite countless hours and lawsuits dedicated to finding people who voted more than once, only a handful of cases have actually turned up.

  It's not that there are no checks. You have to give your name, and they know if you've voted more than once at that station that day. To vote more than once you'd have to pretend to be somebody else, in person, which means that if you're caught you will go to jail.

  We could certainly do better, but thus far all efforts to defeat this non-problem are clearly targeted at making it harder for people to vote rather than any kind of election integrity.

  • alistairSH

    today at 6:38 PM

    This. The process in my precinct is roughly...

    - Enter queue

    - A front of queue, show ID of some sort (various accepted) to volunteer

    - They scratch you from the list and hand you a paper scantron sheet

    - Go to private booth, fill out scantron

    - Go to exit, scan ballot (it scans and then drops into a locked box for manual tally later, if necessary)

    The "easy" ways to vote fraudulently are also easily caught... fake ID documents, voting twice, etc.

    For people who forget their ID or have address changes that haven't propagated through the voter roll, there is provisional voting - you do the same as above, but they keep the ballot in a separate pile and validate your eligibility to vote at a later time. IIRC, the voter gets a ticket # so they can check the voter portal later to see if the ballot was accepted.

    As noted, the number of fraudulent votes are astonishingly small, given the amount of money spent on proving otherwise. The current GOP has spent 100s of millions or billions on proving wide-spread fraud and so far, all they've managed to prove a few voters, most of whom were actually GOP-leaning, have committed fraud (and most of them were caught day-of already).

  • Joker_vD

    today at 6:33 PM

    > You have to give your name, and they know if you've voted more than once at that station that day.

    So you go to other stations, duh. It's called "carousel voting" [0], if done on a large, organized scale.

    [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carousel_voting

    • jfengel

      today at 6:58 PM

      And in Russia, it is. That's why they call it "карусель".

      In the United States, it hasn't been. The article you link to doesn't even mention the United States. To do it on a large scale requires cooperation from the people running the election, and the US isn't (yet) that corrupt.

      The US system isn't completely robust against it, and perhaps some day it will be a problem. But right now there is no evidence that it is a problem, and all of the attempts to "fix" it are clearly aimed at preventing some people from voting.

    • alistairSH

      today at 7:16 PM

      Limit voters to one polling location. Problem solved.

      That's what we do in the US. You are assigned a polling location based on your home address. You can't vote anywhere else. If you try, they turn you away.

      You can do a provisional ballot (for people who recently moved, and poll data isn't updated, etc) and they validate your ID/address/etc later.

    • orthoxerox

      today at 7:56 PM

      It only works if the people working at the polling station are in on it, because you can't normally get an absentee ballot more than once.

    • _whiteCaps_

      today at 6:51 PM

      Interesting. In Canada, for federal elections at least, you're assigned to a specific location and station. You can't vote anywhere else. There's a separate process for mail in ballots to confirm you didn't vote in advanced voting or on election day as well.

      • jfengel

        today at 7:01 PM

        Same in the US.

        You can try voting again at other stations, especially since they don't require ID. You just need the name of somebody assigned to that station, who hasn't already voted. There is a signature check if there is a suspicion, but that's rarely done.

        But that's practically never done. The risks are too high, and to have a significant impact would require enough votes to make it certain you'd get caught.

    • cj

      today at 6:41 PM

      At least in NY, you would have to know the name of someone else assigned to the 2nd polling site, since your name is only on the list of 1 polling location?

      • drstewart

        today at 6:53 PM

        This is of course a very high bar to clear, as data such as people's names is highly confidential and almost impossible to get unless you're any one of these 750+ data brokers: https://privacyrights.org/data-brokers

        • alistairSH

          today at 7:18 PM

          You'd also need a fake ID. And be willing to risk a felony conviction to add a single vote. It just doesn't happen here, despite the GOP trying to prove otherwise for decades.

          • trelane

            today at 8:18 PM

            I've only ever seen one time it was tried. The experiment was wildly successful: https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/01/voter-fraud-weve-got-...

  • buckle8017

    today at 6:37 PM

    Have you considered that in a system where proving cheating is so difficult, even weak evidence is powerful?

    If cheating is difficult to prove then we would expect only minimal evidence even with material amounts of cheating.

    • moduspol

      today at 6:48 PM

      Also, most crimes aren't uncovered by lawsuits. They're uncovered by law enforcement. The reason people resort to lawsuits is because law enforcement does not rigorously investigate or monitor. Voting laws vary by state / municipality, and they're mostly run by well-meaning volunteers acting in good faith.

      When we're not sure how well the TSA is doing, we try to send prohibited items through, and infamously get abysmal results [1]. IMO the reason we don't see more election fraud cases is because *we're not looking for it*, so we just see the obvious cases like when dead people vote or people brag about voting twice publicly.

      Until we actually do some "red teaming" of elections, we won't ever know. But the reality is, if we actually did, the results would reduce credibility of numerous prior elections.

      [1] https://abcnews.com/US/tsa-fails-tests-latest-undercover-ope...

      • trelane

        today at 8:22 PM

        Red teaming, yes. But also, what other signals of fraud are we able to detect? What measures of validity (or signals that sending was attempted) are there? How are they distinguishable from honest voter errors?

    • jfengel

      today at 7:04 PM

      Sure. And the weak evidence still isn't powerful, because so much effort had to be expended to gain it. If cheating were widespread it would have been detected much more easily.

      Instead, efforts to clean up the voter rolls never cause people to get caught. But they do cause many legitimate voters to lose the ability to vote.

      • CaptWillard

        today at 8:05 PM

        > If cheating were widespread it would have been detected much more easily.

        This is a ridiculous assertion.

      • buckle8017

        today at 7:29 PM

        Except people are actually getting caught.

        https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/03/09/ice-arrests-criminal-ill...

    • archagon

      today at 7:47 PM

      Since we’re just considering things without providing any evidence, have you considered that we don’t have such a system?

• dmos62

  today at 1:55 PM

  You should care how much maths and encryption you use [0][1], because this is not only possible, but there are multiple approaches.

  [0] https://satoss.uni.lu/members/jun/papers/CSR13.pdf

  [1] https://fc16.ifca.ai/voting/papers/ABBT16.pdf

  • jjmarr

    today at 5:53 PM

    More important than lack of voter fraud is proving to the population a lack of voter fraud.

    • _0ffh

      today at 7:46 PM

      I'm sure you could even let every voter verify that their vote has been registered correctly.

      Edit: But as a comment somewhere else in the tree noted ,,And if it could tell you that then a third party could force you to reveal that you voted "right" as agreed before.`` - I guess everything's trade-offs.

• beautiful_apple

  today at 2:02 PM

  You can have e-voting systems that protect ballot secrecy and are verifiable.

  You can use homomorphic encryption or mixnets to prove that:

  1) all valid votes were counted

  2) no invalid votes were added

  3) the totals for each candidate is correct

  And you can do that without providing proof of who any particular voter voted for. A few such systems:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Voting

  https://www.belenios.org/

  Authentication to these systems is another issue - there are problems with mailing people credentials (what if they discard them in the trash?).

  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ontario-municipal-elections-o...

  Estonia (a major adopter of online voting) solves this with the national identity card, which essentially is government issued public/private keys.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_identity_card

  Lots of cyber risks with the use of online voting though, especially in jurisdictions without standards/certification. I outline many in my thesis which explores the risks to online elections in Ontario, Canada (one of the largest and longest-running users of online voting in the world)

  https://uwo.scholaris.ca/items/705a25de-f5df-4f2d-a2c1-a07e9...

  • fireflash38

    today at 8:15 PM

    If it's a completely binary choice of "election was valid" and "election was invalid" without any partial verifications of results, I think it's still a massive step back.

    By which I mean: paper ballots have problems. But a fault in a handful of ballots doesn't mean the rest of the ballots need to get tossed out.

    I do not believe that a system managed by humans can be faultless.

  • dietr1ch

    today at 6:11 PM

    > You can have e-voting systems that protect ballot secrecy and are verifiable.

    In these systems the voter cannot verify that their vote was secret as they cannot understand, and much less verify the voting machine.

    > And you can do that without providing proof of who any particular voter voted for.

    Which is good for preventing the sale of votes, but keeps things obscure in a magical and correct box.

    How can I tell the machine didn't alter my vote if it cannot tell me, and just me, who I voted for? The global sanity checks are worthless if the machine changed my vote as I entered it.

    • yason

      today at 6:41 PM

      And if it could tell you that then a third party could force you to reveal that you voted "right" as agreed before.

      Paper ballots with mutually suspicious representatives of all parties watching themselves during handling and counting is the only way to go for big things like parliament/presidential elections and national referendums where, in the worst case, the greatest of all matters are at stake. And foolproof method for voting is most needed when the levels of trust are at the lowest.

    • choo-t

      today at 6:42 PM

      > How can I tell the machine didn't alter my vote if it cannot tell me, and just me, who I voted for?

      Isn't that the whole point of having ballot secrecy ? Even with paper vote you cannot tell which ballot is yours (or at least, a recognisable ballot is voided during the counting).

• kanapala

  today at 1:48 PM

  There's a goverment issued public & private key right here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_identity_card

  • presentation

    today at 1:54 PM

    Japan has them built into My Number Cards too https://www.digital.go.jp/en/policies/mynumber/private-busin...

• nness

  today at 6:51 PM

  Australia has a system where you are anonymous and can prove that you only voted once:

  You have to be registered and must vote within your electorate, so your name appears on a certified list for that electorate and each voting location has that list. When you vote, they strike your name from the list.

  After the election, the lists from these locations are compared. Anyone who votes twice has their name struck twice, and are investigated for electoral fraud.

  Whether people know if you voted or not is immaterial, as voting is mandatory in Australia.

  Works pretty well for a paper system.

• swiftcoder

  today at 5:27 PM

  > Until we all have government-issued public keys or something

  That's actually pretty common in Europe. The Spanish DNI (national identity card) has a chip these days, which gives you an authenticated key pair for accessing digital services.

  In the pilot project for digital voting, that identity is only used to authenticate the user, and then an anonymous key needs generated that can be used to cast the final vote.

• fermisea

  today at 2:10 PM

  What about this? Consider a toy system: everyone gets issued a UUID, everyone can see how every UUID voted, but only you know which one is your vote.

  This is of course flawed because a person can be coerced to share their ID. In which case you could have a system in which the vote itself is encrypted and the encryption key is private. Any random encryption key works and will yield a valid vote (actual vote = public vote + private key), so under coercion you can always generate a key that will give the output that you want, but only you know the real one.

  • looperhacks

    today at 6:29 PM

    Besides the fact that 99% of the general population won't be able to understand this, a $5€ wrench says that you show me proof of the correct private key (either by you showing me the letter you received, me being present when you set it up, or however it is set up)

• today at 1:57 PM

• SideburnsOfDoom

  today at 1:57 PM

  > South Africa gets around this by putting ink on your fingernail

  This is true, but its used in other countries as well, as it's a simple, effective, low-tech, affordable process.

  Most notably in India https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/02/style/india-elections-pur...

  but also in many other countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election_ink#International_use

• phoronixrly

  today at 1:44 PM

  > At some point, you have to give someone access to a database and they can change that database.

  It's the only problem in existence that can be solved by the blockchain...

  • beautiful_apple

    today at 2:04 PM

    Ironically most production e-voting systems do not use blockchains. That's because there isn't need for decentralization, just verifiability of a correct result and protecting voting secrecy.

  • caminanteblanco

    today at 1:49 PM

    But generally sacrifices that anonymous axis via a reproduceable public ledger

    • phoronixrly

      today at 1:52 PM

      Unless pseudonymized...

• mothballed

  today at 5:53 PM

  South Africa is in a somewhat similar situation of having a gigantic (1-10%, government is too broken to figure out where in that range) illegal immigrant population and poor access to paperwork for many citizens that would make any heavily scrutinized citizenship for registration lean heavily towards disenfranchisement of the poorer segments.

I wish the article had more technical details. Obviously, 2048 being a power of 2 stands out as being possibly related.

https://blog.citp.princeton.edu/2026/01/16/internet-voting-i...

That's a very exact number if you know what I mean

eVoting cannot be understood and audited by normal citizens, not even by nerdy ones. It's just good for the trash.

• atoav

  today at 1:45 PM

  It is not even about understanding. It is about how easy it is to distrust it.

  Contrary to what nerds think, the goal of elections isn't to get bulletproof results by mathematical standards. The goal is to create agreeable consent among those who voted. A good election system is one where even sworn enemies can begrudgingly agree on the result.

  A paper ballot system has the advantage that it can be monitored by any group that has members which have mastered the skill of object permanence and don't lie. That is not everybody, but it is much better than any hypothetical digital system

  • zahlman

    today at 6:06 PM

    > the goal of elections isn't to get bulletproof results by mathematical standards. The goal is to create agreeable consent among those who voted. A good election system is one where even sworn enemies can begrudgingly agree on the result.

    First you must explain to them why the former is not an example of the latter.

    • abdullahkhalids

      today at 6:27 PM

      GP already said.

      > eVoting cannot be understood and audited by normal citizens, not even by nerdy ones.

      I suggest you explain the verifiability of evoting systems to your grandma or your friend with an art degree. Then ask them to explain the same to their peer while you just listen. Then repeat the exercise with paper voting. You will see the difference.

    • wat10000

      today at 7:09 PM

      That's easy to explain. We live in a world where A&W's 1/3rd pound burger failed to compete with the McDonald's 1/4th pound burger because 4 is bigger than 3 so people thought the McDondald's product was bigger. There's zero hope that this public will understand fancy encryption.

    • atoav

      today at 6:38 PM

      Just imagine you have to explain a child in kindergarden how the collective choice is made. Raising hands works. Putting different pieces of paper into a jars works. Magical machine says the result was X does not work unless they trust it, regardless of how correct the magical machine was under the hood, because the majority lacks the skill of intuitively understanding this themselves. Sure, they could trust an expert or an figure of authority, but that is a fleeting thing. A fleeting thing that may be enough for inconsequencial decisions, but not enough to steer countries.

      Even I as someone who would have the skillset to understand why it has to be correct would have an easier time verifying a paper ballot process than ensuring that network connected complexity behemoth was running the program I checked for weeks correctly in any moment during an election. And even if you had a way to guarantee that, who tells me this was the case in the whole country or thst evidence wasn't faked a millisecond before I checked?

      Meanwhile with paper and poll watchers from each party it is very easy to find actual irregularities and potential tampering — trust is a gradual thing with paper while it is much more binary with digital. If there is a sign for the digital machine being untrustworthy you can throw the whole result into the bin.

  • phoronixrly

    today at 2:00 PM

    How about a machine voting system with paper fallback. You as a voter can review the paper protocol from your vote. If there is distrust, the justice system can review the paper trail as well.

    • 1718627440

      today at 7:31 PM

      > If there is distrust, the justice system can review the paper trail as well.

      There is always, so you would just always count the ballots.

    • rwmj

      today at 2:57 PM

      I don't understand the reason for electronic voting. The UK manages to tally up paper votes overnight, even from far-flung Scottish islands. Electronic voting is literally solving a problem that nobody has.

      • 85392_school

        today at 6:21 PM

        The UK is the world's 22nd most populated and 78th largest country.

        • rwmj

          today at 6:39 PM

          UK population density (people/sq km) is 289 and Switzerland's is 228, so not very different. Plus Switzerland is fully connected, there are no remote islands.

          [1] https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by...

        • themafia

          today at 7:38 PM

          So more populated countries have more potential poll workers to choose from. Isn't this a linear relationship? What does size have to do with anything?

    • themafia

      today at 7:37 PM

      What is the rush to tally the ballots? Do we need an _instant_ count? Isn't that actually a negative attribute as far as security is concerned?

      The distance between the election and the taking of the office is often months. I just don't understand why electronics need to be involved at all in this system.

• palata

  today at 1:36 PM

  Also e-voting can be hacked (I guess they vote from their computer/smartphone, which can be hacked from the other side of the world). The last place you want to care about phishing, IMO, is voting.

  Good luck hacking in-person voting or even "physical" mail voting from the other side of the world.

  • phoronixrly

    today at 1:50 PM

    Regular ballot voting can also be hacked and on a scale. Making ballots invalid while counting them, or modifying them in some form or other, intentionally writing wrong values in the counting protocols...

    And of course controlled vote or paid vote...

    E-voting can and has also led to exposing voting fraud -- see Venezuella.

    • another-dave

      today at 2:02 PM

      but it's done in public where anyone observing the count can see that the people counting don't have any pencils etc in their hand

      • tribaal

        today at 2:18 PM

        Exactly - it's done in public, and not centrally. Any citizen can go and check how it's done in their own Geminde.

    • palata

      today at 7:10 PM

      Yeah but it cannot be hacked from the other side of the world. I think it's a different kind of threat.

      If an attacker from somewhere else in the world want to tamper with their votes, they have to get Swiss people to modify the ballots, or get their agent to learn Swiss-German, good luck with that :D.

  • today at 5:34 PM

• phoronixrly

  today at 1:47 PM

  The ballot voting process is also misunderstood by regular citizens, even nerdy ones. From experience, even by voting officials.

  • tribaal

    today at 2:11 PM

    As a Swiss citizen I strongly disagree. Most people capable of reading and basic maths (addition!) can understand the counting of our paper ballots. My kids understand how this works since they are like 5.

    Any citizen can go and check how votes are counted in their Geminde. Any citizen can check what is reported in the federal tally. I did several times. It's not rocket science.

    • 1718627440

      today at 7:29 PM

      > basic maths (addition!)

      Technically you don't even need that, you just need to be able to count, i.e. find the successor to a given number.

Stories like this probably scare some people off from electronic voting but I don't think this is that big of a deal. When we finish voting operations in my area we load the ballots up on someone's personal vehicle and they take them down, securely, to where they need to go. That vehicle could get blown up and those ballots could be gone, though I think we could still get a record of the results.

That being said for the United States, I am in favor of in-person voting requiring proof of citizenship, and making "voting day" a paid national holiday. Not so much for technical or efficiency reasons but for social reasons. I'd argue it should be mandatory but I don't think we should force people to do anything we don't have to force them to do, and I'm not sure we want disinterested people voting anyway.

Exercising democracy, requiring people to put in a minimal amount of thought and effort goes a long way. It should be a celebratory day with cookies and apple pie and free beer for all. Not some cold, AI-riddled, stay in your house and never meet your neighbors, clicking a few buttons to accept the Terms of Democracy process.

I know there's a lot of discussion points around "efficiency" or "cost" or "accessibility" or how difficult it supposedly is to have an ID (which is weird when you look at how other countries run elections) and there are certainly things to discuss there, but by and large I think the continued digitalization and alienation of Americans is a much worse problem that can be addressed with more in-person activities and participation in society. We're losing too many touchpoints with reality.

• stetrain

  today at 1:52 PM

  > That being said, I am in favor of in-person voting requiring proof of citizenship

  I think this is fine if it also then means that obtaining a qualifying ID is treated as a no-cost and highly-accessible right for all citizens.

  This is where such arguments tend to get stuck in the US. If you require proof of citizenship, but also have places where getting to a government office to get such an ID is difficult or expensive, then you are effectively restricting voting access for citizens. A measure to place stricter qualifications on voting access needs to also carefully consider and account for providing access to all citizens.

  The US is a geographically very large place with worse public transportation options compared to many other countries, and with that comes differences in economic and accessibility considerations for things like "Just go to your county's office and get a qualifying ID."

  • today at 7:37 PM

  • jonas21

    today at 7:53 PM

    > I think this is fine if it also then means that obtaining a qualifying ID is treated as a no-cost and highly-accessible right for all citizens.

    This is essentially what the Supreme Court said when they upheld Indiana's Voter ID law in 2008 [1]:

    > The burdens that are relevant to the issue before us are those imposed on persons who are eligible to vote but do not possess a current photo identification that complies with the requirements of SEA 483. The fact that most voters already possess a valid driver’s license, or some other form of acceptable identification, would not save the statute under our reasoning in Harper, if the State required voters to pay a tax or a fee to obtain a new photo identification. But just as other States provide free voter registration cards, the photo identification cards issued by Indiana’s BMV are also free. For most voters who need them, the inconvenience of making a trip to the BMV, gathering the required documents, and posing for a photograph surely does not qualify as a substantial burden on the right to vote, or even represent a significant increase over the usual burdens of voting.

    > Both evidence in the record and facts of which we may take judicial notice, however, indicate that a somewhat heavier burden may be placed on a limited number of persons. They include elderly persons born out-of-state, who may have difficulty obtaining a birth certificate; persons who because of economic or other personal limitations may find it difficult either to secure a copy of their birth certificate or to assemble the other required documentation to obtain a state-issued identification; homeless persons; and persons with a religious objection to being photographed. If we assume, as the evidence suggests, that some members of these classes were registered voters when SEA 483 was enacted, the new identification requirement may have imposed a special burden on their right to vote.

    > The severity of that burden is, of course, mitigated by the fact that, if eligible, voters without photo identification may cast provisional ballots that will ultimately be counted. To do so, however, they must travel to the circuit court clerk’s office within 10 days to execute the required affidavit. It is unlikely that such a requirement would pose a constitutional problem unless it is wholly unjustified.

    [1] https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/553/181/

    • stetrain

      today at 7:58 PM

      Yes, but I don't think most of those IDs qualify as "proof of citizenship."

      Even a RealID compliant ID is not direct proof of citizenship.

      Others in the comment chain have talked about localities with very few DMV officers per capita in some districts and appointment wait times of over a month. If we are going to require such a step to be eligible to vote, we need to hold states and municipalities to a high standard of providing an adequate level of service for all citizens.

  • AuryGlenz

    today at 2:03 PM

    Pretty much every bill that has ever been put forward for needing an ID to vote has had a provision for free IDs. That’s not where things get caught up.

    Also, it’s a pretty silly thing anyways. I don’t even drink and I still need my driver’s license quite a few times every year.

    • servercobra

      today at 7:35 PM

      While Wisconsin was debating this, they also closed a bunch of DMVs and limited hours for other ones.

      The WI constitution enshrines the ability to vote. So you may think it's silly and for 99% of people it may be silly, but if anyone is prevented from voting because there's not a reasonable way for them to get a license, their rights are being infringed.

    • d1sxeyes

      today at 5:30 PM

      Even if the ID is nominally free, if I have to take a day off and pay for bus/train tickets to wait in line at some office, it’s not really free.

      • 0cf8612b2e1e

        today at 5:47 PM

        Some districts have limited DMV hours in advance of voting days.

        Coincidental how these might be Democratic leaning areas in Republican states.

        • jeffbee

          today at 6:23 PM

          I don't even know why this is downvoted. Standard technique in Texas. Harris County does not have 40 DPS offices for its 5 million people. The current backlog to get a DPS drivers license appointment in Harris County is 45 days. The next available appointment in Kerrville is tomorrow. That is inequitable.

          But anyway, none of that is the real core issue with the idea of voter ID. The real issue is that there are many living Americans who were born in jurisdictions that steadfastly refused to issue birth certificates to Black people.

          • superxpro12

            today at 6:52 PM

            This doesn't have to be binary... there can be multiple sources of disenfranchisement. They all add up.

      • jabedude

        today at 6:51 PM

        Neither is voting free, what's the argument here?

        • connicpu

          today at 7:14 PM

          In Washington voting is free. My ballot comes in the mail, I fill it out, I drop it in the outgoing mail. It's pre-stamped. I don't mind full citizenship verification at the time of registration, as that can be done months before it's actually time to vote.

        • beej71

          today at 7:06 PM

          > Neither is voting free

          It's pretty free. You sit down at your table, fill out your ballot, and drop it in the mailbox. You don't even need a stamp. (In some jurisdictions.)

        • kelseyfrog

          today at 7:07 PM

          This like saying that because ISPs charge for access, HN could have a subscription fee. The argument is that quantity matters.

      • SoftTalker

        today at 6:41 PM

        That's life. Figure it out. It's really an insult to a group of people to imply that they aren't capable of being a functioning adult in society.

        • superxpro12

          today at 6:52 PM

          "Voting is only from 9-4" and you have a real job. Let's not pretend this wouldn't immediately be taken advantage of in certain places where disenfranchisement is real.

          • SoftTalker

            today at 6:53 PM

            Get an absentee ballot then. And I've never seen such limited hours in my lifetime. Usually it's 6am-6pm on election day. And many places now have early voting, you have 20-30 days to find a time to go vote.

            • tartuffe78

              today at 7:21 PM

              The federal government is trying to severely limit absentee voting as well.

            • mulmen

              today at 7:41 PM

              Absentee ballots are available at the county seat from 2:00pm to 3:15pm on the second Tuesday the month except in September and October if the county has less than 5 clerks available. Clerk allocations are based on property tax (pay for what you use). Congratulations poor and minority counties now can’t access absentee ballots.

              This sounds made up but limiting access to “free” services is not unheard of. This topic has been litigated to death. There are no new arguments. If you are in favor of voter ID laws you are simply ignorant.

            • jeffbee

              today at 6:56 PM

              [flagged]

        • archagon

          today at 7:07 PM

          Funny, because I have the exact same thing to say to the legislators. Oh, it's too hard to get everyone voter ID? Too expensive? That's life; figure it out before passing your pointless security theater law[1]. Otherwise, we will do everything in our power to stop it.

          [1] (Though mass disenfranchisement is almost certainly the actual purpose of the law, not security.)

        • wat10000

          today at 7:00 PM

          Making things more difficult means fewer people will do it. It's foolish to insist that it's all or nothing. It's not about being capable, it's about marginal effects in large groups of people.

          • sejje

            today at 7:26 PM

            That's not the same as "disenfranchised" or "taking voters off the rolls," as it gets talked about (see both of the sibling comments to yours).

            If they can't put up some minimal effort, what was their vote worth? I don't think the laziest folks probably vote in good policy.

            • wat10000

              today at 7:36 PM

              Crazy people with extreme views vote in every single election. Sensible moderates with actual lives may decide that it's not worth the effort.

              I'm not worried about lazy people voting. I'm worried about crazy people voting, and not having enough votes from sensible people to drown them out.

        • today at 6:59 PM

    • TSiege

      today at 7:11 PM

      > Pretty much every bill that has ever been put forward for needing an ID to vote has had a provision for free IDs.

      Do you have a source for this because I have seen very few laws like this and runs counter to the overt intention of these laws

      • sejje

        today at 7:24 PM

        Look up the 25 states that already have voter ID laws, and corresponding free-id programs to avoid being considered a poll tax.

      • mulmen

        today at 7:34 PM

        You can make it free but still require a person to travel to the county seat or some other distant location to get the ID. That requirement disproportionately hinders minority and poor voters. It’s also easy to “forget” their registrations.

    • stetrain

      today at 4:21 PM

      Free and accessible are not the same thing. And a driver's license is not necessarily proof of citizenship.

      • delecti

        today at 5:16 PM

        Yep. And in fact there's been a ton of resistance for 20 years to rolling out an alternate form of driver's license which does act as proof of citizenship. See the REAL ID, which even now is only kinda a requirement to fly domestically.

        • jjmarr

          today at 6:02 PM

          Real ID only confirms one was lawfully present in the United States when the ID was issued, it is not intended to prove citizenship.

          https://www.dhs.gov/archive/real-id-public-faqs

          For example, DACA recipients, temporary protected status refugees, and citizens of states in free association with the USA (Micronesia/Marshall Islands/Palau) that are in the USA are all eligible for Real ID.

          • brendoelfrendo

            today at 7:30 PM

            Correct. My understanding of the SAVE act is that it would require an enhanced RealID drivers license to act as sole proof of citizenship, which is a type of license only issued in 5 states (all bordering Canada) that can act as proof of citizenship when driving across the US-Canada border. Even people with a valid RealID would be required to bring an additional form of ID to prove citizenship, such as a birth certificate. The fact that this is confusing to people is, in and of itself, a huge red flag for the impact this will have on voter participation.

        • DangitBobby

          today at 5:56 PM

          I have a Real ID, and I supplied a proof of citizenship to get it. However, in my state, it's possible to obtain a Real ID without providing proof of citizenship, so my Real ID does not qualify as proof of citizenship. My passport is the only document I have that could function as both photo ID and proof of citizenship. Passports are not the easiest things to obtain and they are not free.

        • jagenabler2

          today at 5:28 PM

          I'm not sure where this idea that REAL ID is a form of citizenship came from. I am not a citizen and i was given a REAL ID just by proving my legal (non-immigrant) status.

          • wat10000

            today at 7:32 PM

            I think a lot of people just forget that non-citizen legal residents exist.

        • mothballed

          today at 5:22 PM

          .gov own court filings have argued Real ID isn't a reliable proof of citizenship and have refused to accept it as such.

            "...based on HSI Special Agent training and experience, REAL ID can be unreliable to confirm U.S. citizenship."
          

          https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.alsd.76...

    • lokar

      today at 5:19 PM

      The current bill Trump is pushing for requires "documentary proof of citizenship ", this can actually be very hard. It means an original/certified birth certificate, as well as any subsequent name changes (mostly married women).

      This is completely unnecessary.

      We establish citizenship, very reliably, at time of registration. This is on of the main jobs of the registrar of voters. They have plenty of time to look up the details of the person and establish citizenship (and intentionally lying in this process is a serious crime).

      We then establish identity at the time of voting, again, very reliably.

      Intentional voter impersonation or voting when not eligible is vanishingly rare in the US.

      • tastyfreeze

        today at 5:36 PM

        Some states only require a piece of mail and checking a box saying you are legally allowed to vote to register. Then when you checkin to vote the workers are not permitted to ask for ID to prove you are the person you claim to be.

        At no point during that process is there presentation of proof of citizenship.

        • selectodude

          today at 5:58 PM

          Any ballots that are cast under same-day registration are cast as provisional and will go through the full verification process if the election is close enough where those ballots are necessary.

          Source: actually ran a fucking election precinct. Non-citizens aren’t casting ballots illegally.

          • tastyfreeze

            today at 6:28 PM

            I'm not talking about same day registration. If you are on the rolls and proof of citizenship is not required to register, then how do you as a poll worker know the person on the rolls is a citizen?

            • selectodude

              today at 7:31 PM

              You don't, but also you don't have to. Voter rolls are cross referenced with other sources of data to verify citizenship. ID is required to submit a non-provisional ballot even during early voting if you're not in your designated precinct.

              Also just generally it's a severe federal crime to vote illegally, so people who are here illegally aren't out en masse publicly tying their identity to federal felonies.

              • lokar

                today at 7:41 PM

                Exactly, what you give them to apply is not everything they use to verify you.

          • zdragnar

            today at 7:09 PM

            They literally just charged someone in Philadelphia for illegally voting in every federal election since 2008. Non-citizen, ordered deported back in 2000 but still in the country.

            There's not been a reliable audit to show the extent to which this happens (probably not enough to affect even local elections), but to say that it isn't happening is just a lie.

            • selectodude

              today at 7:37 PM

              Ok? And yet, they were caught. Dude's a shithead, swung zero elections, and got caught. They catch people all the time voting illegally. I would make a strong guess that they counted zero of his ballots as they were all provisional.

              He should go to jail and yet his existence is not proof that there are hoards of African deportees voting in state and federal elections.

            • brendoelfrendo

              today at 7:34 PM

              One of voter ID's biggest advocates, the Heritage Foundation, could only find 68 cases of non-citizens voting since 1980. Even if all of them are repeat offenders, that's a few hundred bad ballots out of billions cast. As you said, it is also possible to catch these people. Our election integrity is not threatened by non-citizen voters. It just doesn't happen on the scale that Republicans insist it must be happening, and the fact that they keep repeating it doesn't make it true, it means that they have an agenda that benefits from making you think it's true.

        • lokar

          today at 7:45 PM

          That is the documentation they ask for in the application. It's enough for them to understand who you claim to be. They then consult their own records to establish if that identity is eligible to vote. Then finally, on Election Day, you show you are that person.

          At that last part, Election Day identification, is not even that important, since the same person can't vote twice. So if you impersonate another person that will be quickly detected. It's not a useful strategy to alter the outcome of an election.

        • meroes

          today at 6:17 PM

          In that process there's no proof, but every state manages voter roles which your provisional information will then go through a further process.

        • giancarlostoro

          today at 5:53 PM

          I have cousins from Cuba and Venezuela, hearing this sort of information is rather alarming to them to say the least.

      • expedition32

        today at 6:01 PM

        Trump expects half of the US to get a passport in the next 6 months.

        These kind of fundamental changes require years of preparation. Either Trump is an incompetent moron or he has ulterior motives.

        • bilbo0s

          today at 6:18 PM

          He's trying to prevent poor people from voting.

          Requiring poor people to pay a hefty fee, which they probably don't have, to get a passport seems a fairly competent way to go about making sure poor people don't vote to me.

          If I don't want poor people voting, then attaching a fee to voting doesn't mean I'm incompetent. It means I'm smart enough to know poor people don't have money.

          By the way, I think all of this is horrible. Everyone should be equal before the law and should have their vote count without having to pay for that right. I'm just pointing out that this is a really good way to eliminate the vote of the poor.

          • superxpro12

            today at 6:56 PM

            I hate that we get so caught up on applying labels to the disenfranchisement, rather than completely and forcefully rejecting any attempts to disenfranchise any voter.

            In a functioning democracy, voting is sacred. It must be treated as THEE core, fundamental right of every person under its care.

            To violate this sacred tenet should be immediate grounds for exile. If you can't respect the ONE CORE tenet, or are incapable of, then there is not space for you in this society.

            • tartuffe78

              today at 7:23 PM

              It's an unconstitutional bill, but if all three branches of government hold it up it's going to be chaos (intentionally) come election time.

  • ericmay

    today at 1:59 PM

    > I think this is fine if it also then means that obtaining a qualifying ID is treated as a no-cost and highly-accessible right for all citizens.

    I completely agree and I don't think there is a fair argument to suggest otherwise.

    • stetrain

      today at 4:28 PM

      Right, so proposals that do not adequately address this point are not fair, and this is why the issue is so contentious in the US.

      I absolutely support ID to vote provided that everyone who is eligible and wants to vote can get such an ID and vote without hassle.

      I don't support most attempts to pass Voter ID laws because I am wary that they would not actually result in that outcome.

    • mulmen

      today at 7:55 PM

      Great but history is proof that it won’t be equally accessible to everyone. There’s no evidence these laws are necessary. This juice just ain’t worth the squeeze.

  • dolni

    today at 2:09 PM

    > but also have places where getting to a government office to get such an ID is difficult or expensive

    Where in the US do you find it's difficult for people to get an ID? Where is it not? What percentage of the population has an ID in a place where it's difficult to get one vs somewhere it is easier?

    What constitutes an ID being expensive?

    Nearly every country in the world requires proof of citizenship to vote. How is the rest of the world dealing with this problem? Do you think that their democratic processes might be compromised because of it?

    • swiftcoder

      today at 5:20 PM

      > Nearly every country in the world requires proof of citizenship to vote. How is the rest of the world dealing with this problem?

      Most of those nations have a mandatory national ID, so everyone already has proof of citizenship. The US and UK are very much outliers in having vocal and successful resistance to the implementation of a national ID card.

      • mothballed

        today at 5:28 PM

        It's still bizarre though how this plays out in reality.

        In some places like Illinois, an ID is required to exercise the rights of people but not the rights of citizens (FOID required to bear guns, but ID not required for vote).

        In places like Arizona, it's the exact opposite. You can bear or conceal guns without an ID but you need an ID to vote.

        Vermont is the only state I know of with any consistency on lack of ID requirements that convey non-ID citizens to also have the right of people. You can conceal guns and vote without ID.

      • drstewart

        today at 6:50 PM

        >Most of those nations have a mandatory national ID

        And what are the fees for these IDs, something you conveniently are leaving out (hint: mostly not free)?

        • sejje

          today at 7:32 PM

          Perhaps those nations don't have laws against poll taxes; the US does.

    • jjmarr

      today at 6:13 PM

      Until 1986[1] most Americans didn't get a Social Security Number until their first job.

      In The Matrix (1999) there's a scene where Agent Smith explicitly remarks that Neo has an SSN as proof he's a law-abiding citizen in a white-collar job.

      [1] when it was made a requirement to claim tax deductions for dependent children. Even today, if you don't want the tax break, you can opt out at the cost of ruining your child's life!

      • sejje

        today at 7:30 PM

        I was born before that and issued my SSN at birth.

        • jjmarr

          today at 8:23 PM

          The first pilot project to issue SSNs with the birth certificate automatically was in 1987. You can read the history here:

          https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v56n1/v56n1p83.pdf

          Prior to that, getting the SSN required giving your birth certificate to the government. If the family wasn't getting government benefits, many didn't bother.

    • zinekeller

      today at 2:28 PM

      > What percentage of the population has an ID in a place where it's difficult to get one vs somewhere it is easier?

      Not the OP, but except for passports (and passport cards)... there isn't really any federal-level ID in the US (and passport booklets/cards are expensive, just a bit over $100 IIRC).

      The nearest equivalent in the state level are driver's licenses, which are also on the expensive side considering the ancillary costs (because it's a driver's license, not just an identification card). This is also the reason why US-centric companies like PayPal, for this exact reason, accepts a driver's license as proof of identification (obviously where not otherwise prohibited by local laws).

      Some (New York for example) do have an ID (called a non-DL ID, that's how embedded driver's license is in the US), but most states do not have a per se ID.

      > What constitutes an ID being expensive?

      Developing countries, rather ironically, issue their IDs for free? Okay, indirectly paid by taxes, but there's no upfront cost. The above-mentioned identity documents have a clear cost attached to them.

      > How is the rest of the world dealing with this problem? Do you think that their democratic processes might be compromised because of it?

      Cannot talk about other countries (because there is an ID system and it's not a controversial affair to them), but instead I'll answer with a reflection of the US system.

      Unfortunately, American ID politics are hard, mainly due to concerns of surveillance, but I think (only my opinion) because some of them want those historically disenfranchised (even if a fully native-born US citizen) de facto disenfranchised. This means that there is no uniform and freely-issued identification system in the US (or even a requirement to do that at the state level). Unfortunately, this... is a tough nut to crack, politically-speaking.

      • devilbunny

        today at 6:07 PM

        > most states do not have a per se ID

        I haven't researched this thoroughly, but what state will not issue an ID that is equivalent in every way to a driver's license except that it isn't a license to drive? I just checked Mississippi, Wyoming, South Dakota, and West Virginia, all of which do, so clearly being rural, poor, or both isn't enough to stop states from doing it. (The detailed politics are, as you say, a mess.)

      • ricree

        today at 5:47 PM

        >but most states do not have a per se ID

        Out of curiosity, do you have a source or list for this? My own home state and those around me that I've spot checked all have a state ID available as an alternative to a driver's license. My understanding was that this is the case for most states.

        Unless I've misunderstood you and you meant a state ID that is completely separate from a driver's license to the point that people with a DL would have one?

      • stvltvs

        today at 2:43 PM

        Note that drivers licenses wouldn't count as proof of citizenship under the SAVE act.

    • beej71

      today at 7:18 PM

      > What constitutes an ID being expensive?

      If you're talking about this as a requirement for voting, then anything greater than $0 is too expensive since it smells like a poll tax.

    • stvltvs

      today at 2:41 PM

      Proof of citizenship is not the same as the driver's licenses people are issued by their state.

      Not everyone has ready access to proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. It gets even more difficult if your current legal name doesn't match your birth name, e.g. if you took your husband's name.

      Not every eligible voter has or needs a government issued ID. For example, retired people who don't drive. For them to get to the DMV to get an ID just to vote would be a challenge.

      The US has large rural areas where government offices are hours away.

      All of this adds up to significant barriers to eligible voters. There's a reason even the GOP isn't bending over backward to pass the SAVE Act.

    • orwin

      today at 2:26 PM

      The person I used to stay with when I used to visit WV don't have a proof of citizenship. He doesn't know where his birth certificate is (probably with the US army if they kept track of their nurses giving birth on ex-allied territory during a war), and get by with is SSN and driver license.

      How it works in my country : my electoral card is freely sent to my address when I register to my voting office. I can vote with it, or with an official ID, as long as I'm in the correct place. The only moment I need my ID is to cast a vote on behalf of someone who identified me as a 'surrogate'.

    • stetrain

      today at 4:25 PM

      There are rural places in the US where it is an hour + drive to whatever the equivalent of the DMV office is, with no public transit. You can find similar places in cities where people may not have a car at all, with a long walk to find such an office that is only open during narrow hours.

      People in or near poverty are going to be disproportionately affected by those conditions.

      And just getting to the DMV does not necessarily mean you can get an ID that counts as proof of citizenship. There is no standard federal citizen ID in the US. A basic state ID or driver's license is not proof of citizenship. Even a RealID compliant ID is not a direct proof of citizenship, so depending on how strict the voting requirements are it may not be adequate.

    • mulmen

      today at 7:59 PM

      > Where in the US do you find it's difficult for people to get an ID?

      Minority and poor areas.

      > Where is it not?

      White affluent areas.

      This isn’t hypothetical. Voter suppression is as American as apple pie.

  • xvector

    today at 1:59 PM

    Even the poorest people have a state ID or drivers license. You cannot get most jobs without some legal ID.

    • pseudalopex

      today at 6:02 PM

      Nearly 21 million voting-age U.S. citizens do not have a current (non-expired) driver’s license. Just under 9%, or 20.76 million people, who are U.S. citizens aged 18 or older do not have a non-expired driver’s license. Another 12% (28.6 million) have a non-expired license, but it does not have both their current address and current name.

      Additionally, just over 1% of adult U.S. citizens do not have any form of government-issued photo identification, which amounts to nearly 2.6 million people.[1]

      [1] https://cdce.umd.edu/sites/cdce.umd.edu/files/pubs/Voter%20I...

      • anonym29

        today at 7:07 PM

        If 10% of drivers lacked car insurance, would your solution be to remove the legal requirement to possess a valid insurance policy to operate a motor vehicle because it discriminates against the poor?

        • beej71

          today at 7:23 PM

          No. Because operating a motor vehicle is a very dangerous activity.

          This a very is a poor analogy that you have here.

        • brendoelfrendo

          today at 7:38 PM

          The poor have a right to vote, while they don't have a right to operate a motor vehicle. We can debate over how disenfranchising it is to be unable to drive in the US (very), but the law makes a pretty clear distinction between these two activities.

    • appointment

      today at 2:35 PM

      In many states these are available without proof of citizenship. When people say proof of citizenship they usually mean a passport or REALID.

      • stvltvs

        today at 2:50 PM

        Most state-issued Real IDs don't count as proof of citizenship under the SAVE Act.

        https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/will-save-act-allo...

        • bilbo0s

          today at 6:08 PM

          Under the SAVE act, you kind of have to have a passport or don't vote in some states.

          Which is why I'm pretty sure it's not gonna pass. Both republicans and democrats depend heavily on mass votes from, let's just say, a lot of people who are, generally speaking, not the sort to have passports.

    • orwin

      today at 2:29 PM

      In the US, a driver license isn't a proof of citizenship. Also, state IDs are not accepted by federal agencies, so it probably wouldn't work as proof of citizenship on federal elections.

      • lokar

        today at 5:21 PM

        There really are not federal elections. We call them that, but they are state elections for federal office.

      • mplewis9z

        today at 5:16 PM

        Federal elections are all run by the individual states, so a state ID would be all you need.

        • stetrain

          today at 5:33 PM

          If there is a federal law requiring proof of citizenship, as is currently being argued in Congress, a state ID would not be all you need since they are not proof of citizenship.

          • today at 7:42 PM

• amanaplanacanal

  today at 6:03 PM

  I would guess most people don't have a proof of citizenship handy. This would get even worse if the effort to get rid of birthright citizenship succeeds, how would you even prove you are a citizen?

  This would be less of a problem if the US had some sort of national ID issued by right, but we don't, and the same people pushing for requiring ID for voting would be against creating one. They hate the idea of a national ID.

  My state does all elections by mail now. How would this even work?

  All this is on top of the fact that elections are run by the states, not the national government. Would such a law even be constitutional?

  • pseudalopex

    today at 6:56 PM

    > My state does all elections by mail now. How would this even work?

    Trump told Congress to ban most mail ballots.

    > All this is on top of the fact that elections are run by the states, not the national government. Would such a law even be constitutional?

    Experts said no. But this Supreme Court surprised experts before. And the constitution said Congress could decide elections of Congress. They have the power. They need an explanation enough people would accept.

    • natebc

      today at 8:01 PM

      It's not really up to Trump or Congress though is it?

      Elections are run by the several states.

      • pseudalopex

        today at 8:18 PM

        I edited my comment. But before you replied I thought. Congress can decide elections of Congress.

  • Spivak

    today at 7:08 PM

    Yeah, I think most people who want proof of citizenship are forgetting that your driver's license (even your REAL ID) isn't a proof of citizenship. It's passport, certificate of naturalization, or birth certificate.

    Restricting voting to people with passports and who happen to have a birth certificate handy is going to make the first election with the requirement weird as hell and probably backfire on Republicans if their goal is winning at any cost.

    Requiring some form of ID that your state is willing to accept as good enough is a very different beast than proof of citizenship.

• lolc

  today at 2:01 PM

  Please realize that Switzerland holds many votes per year. There is no big voting day where I have to go somewhere. I could go cast my ballot in person, but I can also fill out and send in my ballot in advance. That is entirely routine and part of my day like other paperwork.

  The problem with e-voting is that it is much harder to validate. My paper ballot rests at a community building where it will be counted on the day of the vote. I can understand the process from start to finish in physical terms. Throw in a USB stick and anything could happen. It is possible we will never know what went wrong here.

• kanbara

  today at 6:20 PM

  i don’t think that requiring in-person “ID”-proofed voting and removing mail-in ballots (which is the best part of voting in CA) does anything to bring people back to reality…

  Even if it were a holiday, people may not be able to travel or take time off from obligations. There’s no obligation to drive 2 hours to vote, to fly back if you work in another country, or to go get a new birth certificate because Real ID doesn’t prove citizenship even though you provide citizenship documents to it when you get one…

  I’ve heard of a lot of takes here about what we should do for voting to make it “more secure” but all of this is actually a solution for a problem we just don’t have.

• Waterluvian

  today at 1:48 PM

  I think a lot of what you argue might make sense for American elections where you're voting for an absolutely ridiculous number of things.

  I'm not sure how it is in Switzerland, but in Canada I will vote for maybe three candidates in five years. And I don't mean three visits to the polls (though it's usually that), I mean three actual checkbox ticks for people to count. They're paper ballots and the counting is done that night. I think if we were stuck voting for like forty different races every two years it would be a very different story and a lot of what you say would resonate with me more. Except the voter registration stuff.

  We're pretty flexible about registration up here and it works. My wife one year showed up with some mail that had her name/address, and me vouching for her. Though I think a lot of the luxuries of democracy are most easily enjoyed with a trusting, cooperative culture that isn't constantly wound up about being cheated by the others.

  • soco

    today at 1:58 PM

    In Switzerland I voted last week for 5 election lists and 6 different topics. This happens at least 4 times a year, but I don't call it "ridiculous number of things".

    • Waterluvian

      today at 2:15 PM

      For the voter that may not be a ton of work. I imagine to count all those votes you need technology and not just the election workers at each station? Here we have kept it dead simple. They’re all just hand counted over a few hours.

• estebank

  today at 7:08 PM

  > That being said, I am in favor of in-person voting requiring proof of citizenship

  The appropriate time to verify citizenship is the one that already happens: during registration. Poll workers only need to verify who you are and that you're registered.

  • drivebyhooting

    today at 7:12 PM

    In my experience there was no verification other than verbally verbally confirming address and name.

• rhcom2

  today at 5:58 PM

  > voting requiring proof of citizenship

  Isn't this just a solution in search of a problem though? Multiple investigations have discovered absolutely minuscule amount of non-citizen voting in US elections. It's something that seems reasonable on its face but lacks any purpose and comes with an ulterior motive that it is part of the made up GOP talking points of a "stolen election" and "illegals voting".

• nonameiguess

  today at 7:10 PM

  I'd agree in principle with your idea about proof of citizenship, but unfortunately the reality I experienced is I had a valid California driver's license with a Texas address because I had been in the military and California allowed that, but Texas changed their laws to require a Texas ID to vote, and subsequently they also closed 90% of the offices you have to go to to get an ID. Luckily, I knew about this way in advance, but it took 9 months to get an appointment, and when I got there, it required something like four different forms of proof. There were people in there who still lived with their parents who didn't have their own names on any bills bringing their parents in with them to vouch that they actually lived there, getting turned away and told to go fuck themselves. It was extremely transparent and obvious what the state was trying to do, not wanting young people and recent transplants to vote.

• drdaeman

  today at 7:26 PM

  Instead of full e-voting I would love to see an additional scheme to a traditional paper ballot that allows for verification. Something like STAR-Vote or Scantegrity. Even if it’s flawed, it would be nice to run specifically because it doesn’t affect the elections but could produce useful insights. If it fails - nothing particularly bad happens, if it works - cool, we get extra assurances or maybe spot some fraud that we weren’t aware about.

  But there seems to be either no political will, or some issues with the practical implementations. There were some municipal experiments here and there, and then just… crickets. Anyone knows what happened to those efforts?

• ramon156

  today at 7:05 PM

  We should at least start with electronic voting to compare it against real voting. I know there have been more smaller local tests, but they are not comparable.

• RandomLensman

  today at 5:54 PM

  What would constitute a "proof of citizenship"? Would a passport be enough, for example?

• phailhaus

  today at 1:47 PM

  Voter registration already requires proof of citizenship. What is the point of requiring that high bar of proof on the day of voting as well?

  • AuryGlenz

    today at 2:06 PM

    In my state it doesn’t require that. You just need someone else that’s registered the vouch for you. A registered person can vouch for up to 8 people:

    https://www.sos.mn.gov/elections-voting/register-to-vote/reg...

  • tossstone

    today at 2:02 PM

    I've lived in 3 states and none of them have required proof of citizenship to register to vote. You basically check a box that acknowledges that you are a US Citizen with the right to vote and that illegal registration carries penalties.

  • grosswait

    today at 1:48 PM

    How is it a high bar of proof if it is already required? Edit: and already met

    • stvltvs

      today at 2:53 PM

      It's not a requirement in most places. This would be a significant change in practice.

  • nomorewords

    today at 1:47 PM

    Why have voter registration?

    • smw

      today at 5:47 PM

      One of the issues is that the US, unlike most of Europe, for example, doesn't require registering your address with your locality or police when you move.

    • ericmay

      today at 2:28 PM

      In the United States at least, voter registration will include your place of residence which will place you in a specific precinct. In other words: "I am so and so, and I live here. Votes that affect this area include me, and I get a say."

      When voters are voting for things, for example a tax levy to fund a new school, or for who will be their state or federal congressional representatives, it's important that the voters in that school district or in that congressional district are the ones voting for their representatives or for the bills or initiatives that affect them. This isn't quite as important for national elections, gubernatorial races, or for the senate at the federal level, but it's obviously incredibly important the more local you get.

      Without voter registration, that model breaks down. Even mundane things like how much staff and equipment should be at a polling location is not easy to figure out when you don't know how many voters you'll have. If you haven't worked as a poll worker it's really enlightening to learn about how the process works and a great way to meet your neighbors.

• zer00eyz

  today at 6:04 PM

  >> requiring proof of citizenship

  Go and try to figure out how to do this from scratch. Imagine your house burned down and you need to start with "nothing".

  If your parents are still alive you can use them to bootstrap the process of getting those vital documents (or if you're married that can be another semi viable path).

  Pitty if you don't have those resources. Furthermore it might get complicated for any partner who adopts their other partners last name (were talking about getting the documents, before you can get some sort of verified ID).

  The reality is we don't have a lot of instances of "voter fraud" committed by people who aren't citizens (see: https://www.facebook.com/Louisianasos/posts/secretary-of-sta... as an example) . And the amount of voter fraud we do have is very small (and ironically committed by citizens see https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-widespread-is-electio... for some examples).

  > I am in favor of in-person voting

  Again, the size and dispersion of the American population makes this odious. Dense urban areas will face lines (they already do) and many of them (Chicago) have moved to early voting because spreading things out over many days is just more effective. Meanwhile places like Montana (where population density is in people per square mile) make travel to a location burdensome.

  I get why you feel the way you do, but the data, the reality of America, makes what you desire unnecessary and impractical. Feelings are a terrible reason to erect this barrier when it makes little sense to do so.

• expedition32

  today at 5:58 PM

  I used to be really angry that we still vote with paper and red pencil. The Netherlands is ultra digital after all!

  But then they showed how easy it is to hack and we live in a world with evil countries like the US, China and Russia who want to destroy our way of life.

• openasocket

  today at 7:28 PM

  Voter ID is often touted as an important part of election security, but when you look at the threat model of elections it just doesn't do much. Think about how you would try to cheat at an election. The common methods are things like ballot stuffing, throwing out votes, discouraging people from voting, etc. Examples include spreading disinformation about what day voting is happening, seizing ballot boxes and replacing them with forged ballots that favor your candidate, or calling in bomb threats to polling places. These are not prevented by voter ID requirements.

  The only thing voter ID prevents is voter impersonation. It prevents you from finding someone else's name and polling place, going there, pretending to be that person, and submitting a vote on their behalf. But that threat doesn't really scale. Even if you assume no one at the polling places notice you coming to vote over and over under different names, a single person could probably only do this a few dozen times on election day. To scale that you would need more people; and every person you add to the scheme increases the odds of someone slipping up or getting caught. But the real issue is if any of the people you are impersonating try to vote! While election officials don't record what people voted for, they do record who voted, and the ballot counting process will automatically note that people voted multiple times. So you would have to figure out some way to gather a database of a large number of people you know aren't going to vote, and get a bunch of people to turn up at a bunch of polling places under those names. It's just not practical to do, when elections are decided by thousands or tens of thousands of votes.

  > how difficult it supposedly is to have an ID (which is weird when you look at how other countries run elections)

  The devil is in the details. I don't trust that the groups drafting Voter ID legislation are doing so in good faith. For example, North Dakota passed a voter ID law years ago. It stated that you needed a valid state-issued ID that included a street address. Sounds fine, right? The problem is that most homes on Native American reservations don't actually have street addresses. Tribal members use P.O. boxes for mail, and that P.O. box is on their driver's licenses. This was brought up when the law was proposed, but it passed anyway. The Spirit Lake Nation and the Standing Rock Sioux tribes had to sue in federal court. They were eventually successful, but it took years, and in the meantime the 2018 midterms were held with many Native Americans literally unable to vote.

  See https://www.npr.org/2020/02/14/806083852/north-dakota-and-na...

• mulmen

  today at 7:32 PM

  > That being said for the United States, I am in favor of in-person voting requiring proof of citizenship

  Why?

  > I know there's a lot of discussion points around "efficiency" or "cost" or "accessibility" or how difficult it supposedly is to have an ID (which is weird when you look at how other countries run elections)

  How do other countries run elections to overcome their racially motivated systemic voter suppression?

  > and there are certainly things to discuss there

  This is a laughable understatement.

  > but by and large I think the continued digitalization and alienation of Americans is a much worse problem that can be addressed with more in-person activities and participation in society.

  I think this is naive. You are attempting to force an outcome without understanding the cause. Systemic racially motivated voter suppression is an undeniable reality in American politics. Voter ID is a clear example of exactly that. It is used to disenfranchise minority voters. This is clear established fact.

  There is zero evidence of any voter fraud happening that would be eliminated by additional voter ID.

  This is a serious topic that requires you educate yourself on reality. I suggest you take your advice above and touch reality, you are overly digitalized if you think voter ID has any merit at all.

• today at 7:37 PM

sigh

This is why you do parallel paper/electronic voting. Fill it out electronically, it prints a receipt (maybe including a QR code), you mail the receipt (along with the 'classic' absentee voting stuff, i.e. double envelope, proof of eligibility to vote in the outer envelope.)

Oh and as a side effect it can be audited very nicely.

• ninalanyon

  today at 7:50 PM

  If you are doing paper voting why bother with voting machines at all? What's the benefit?

  • eqvinox

    today at 8:15 PM

    Immediate results without miscounts and at far lower cost. Given some confidence into the system, you'd only audit the paper ballots stochastically for a randomly chosen, say, 5% of election districts each time.

    [Whether that's worth it, I'll not make a statement on.]

Don’t forget about https://verifiedvoting.org/ and its decades-long advocacy for scanned paper ballots.

> Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to the Internet of Things! I control it all from my smartphone! My smart-house is bluetooth enabled and I can give it voice commands via alexa! I love the future!

> Programmers / Engineers: The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise.

The title is misleading. It's an e-voting PILOT. That's important. "Switzerland is running small-scale e-voting pilots in four of its 26 cantons", three of which were not affected.

From Wikipedia [1]:

> A pilot experiment, pilot study, pilot test or pilot project is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research project.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_experiment

• beautiful_apple

  today at 2:06 PM

  Switzerland has been very careful/ conservative about rolling out e-voting. The same cannot be said of other jurisdictions (like Ontario's municipal elections) where adoption is very rapid and without coordination/support/standards from the provincial or federal governments.

• jjgreen

  today at 1:31 PM

  Had to truncate the title since too long for HN (often the case for the Register)

  • palata

    today at 1:34 PM

    And it makes it sound like a production system failed, where what actually happened is that this was a pilot that worked in 3/4 of the involved cantons and that the people who participated to it knew it was a pilot.

  • Alifatisk

    today at 1:43 PM

    You cut out something that changed the message entirely

    • jjgreen

      today at 1:48 PM

      I thought the edit window was 15 minutes, but it seems it is an hour, so edited to restore the "pilot"

It’s a nice property of elections that you can measure votes needing more intervention against the margin of victory before you decide your next step

Brazil has digital voting since 1996 and it works pretty much flawlessly. I'm sure Switzerland will figure it out someday.

Meanwhile Brazil does full e-vote for almost 30 years collecting more than 100 million votes (that's 11 times the whole of Switzerland's population).

You'll get there Switzerland, it can be done. It is safer and faster.

• beautiful_apple

  today at 2:08 PM

  Brazil's e-voting does not allow voters to vote online from home on a personal computer (like in Switzerland). It has very different requirements.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting_in_Brazil

• palata

  today at 1:31 PM

  And they probably started with small-scale pilots, too.

  • diego_moita

    today at 1:36 PM

    Yes, they did.

    But I think that the main reason is that Brazil's elections were a lot dirtier and a lot more unreliable than Switzerland's.

    What I mean is that the push towards e-voting is much stronger in countries with unreliable elections, because e-voting is harder to tamper than the crude ways you can defraud paper ballots.

    Switzerland's and other organized countries have elections that are "good enough", so the push towards e-voting is probably not that strong.

    Is the "leapfrog" concept. Sometimes it is easier to adopt newer technologies in places where the existing ones are horrible. Other examples: electronic payment systems, solar panels and EVs in India and Africa.

    • palata

      today at 1:39 PM

      Actually I don't understand the push towards e-voting in countries like Switzerland. E-voting can be hacked from the other side of the world, because it happens on computers. In-person voting or physical mail is much harder to hack from the other side of the world.

      • brainwad

        today at 2:17 PM

        Most of the push for e-voting in Switzerland is from the Swiss abroad (10% of the electorate), who have a right to vote, but whose exercise of that right is subject to the vagaries of the international postal system. I personally have had problems with receiving postal ballots from Australia to Switzerland with not enough time to return them; presumably Swiss voters in Australia have similar problems, let alone less-developed countries.

        • ninalanyon

          today at 7:58 PM

          That's easily fixed by extending the deadline. No new technology is required.

          • brainwad

            today at 8:16 PM

            It's not necessarily easy. The timing of Australian elections from issuance of writs is limited by the constitution, and since they can occur at the discretion of the prime minister, you can't prepare for them in advance.

            Swiss votes are scheduled in advance, but the explanatory material and campaign flyers still have to be made and in order to be topical you don't want to make them too early. In particular the consequences of previous votes can effect the upcoming votes - e.g. the referendum voted on last Sunday impacts one of the initiatives that will be voted on this June, so nothing could really be prepared until the outcome of the former was known.

      • diego_moita

        today at 1:44 PM

        Can't talk about Switzerland, don't know the particularities.

        But in continental countries like Brazil it makes a lot of sense. It is cheaper, faster and safer.

        > E-voting can be hacked from the other side of the world, because it happens on computers

        How do you "hack from the other side of the world" a computer that isn't even online? True, the transmission of computed results is made online, but keeping that safe is trivial, banks do it.

        • palata

          today at 7:17 PM

          > How do you "hack from the other side of the world" a computer that isn't even online?

          E-voting in this case means that they can vote from their computer, ipad or mobile phone. They are connected to the internet.

        • today at 2:14 PM