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News & ArtsTuesday, February 15, 2011
Election Has Conservation District Transformed Nation's Most Stupidest Election into Nation's Most Frightening?
Posted by Goldy on Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 12:50 PM
Long ridiculed for holding our nation's most stupidest election, an almost totally unpublicized contest in which voters stand in long lines at a handful of area libraries in order to cast their ballots for candidates who do no campaigning whatsoever, the King County Conservation District has apparently responded to critics by kicking off today one of the first in the nation online elections... an innovation that surely has election integrity advocates everywhere shitting their pants.
- The view from the back of the line at 2010's KCCD polling station at the Bellevue Library
To be fair, the KCCD's new online voting option can't help but dramatically expand participation in the election, which last year produced record turnout of about 0.4 percent. No, I did not misplace the decimal point, and yes, that was a record high, a more than 50 percent increase over the number of ballots cast in 2009 (which was itself an all time high). And given the choice between voting online, or standing in line for 90 fucking minutes, I'm sure as hell happy to be able to choose the former.
But an online election? Really? Are all sides really prepared to trust this technology, especially here in King County, only six years after the 2004 election brouhaha? Wouldn't this be kinda like welcoming German reunification in, say, 1951?
The problem is, there is no good way to run a KCCD election. King County Elections must charge each governmental entity a per-voter fee, and that would eat up too much of the KCCD's $6 million budget to make an ordinary election feasible. And so for most of the last 70 years the KCCD has held an all-but-secret ballot, in which literally dozens of conservationists on one side, and property-rights extremists on the other, would turn out in their own private battle for control of the board and its budget.
The Internet revolution has improved awareness, increasing participation by several hundredfold since only 18 voters cast ballots countywide in 1989, but that hasn't made KCCD elections any less of a joke. So perhaps under these very limited circumstances I can accept online voting as the less bad of two very bad options. But here's hoping the rest of the nation doesn't look to KCCD as a promising example of democracy on the cheap.
1
If implemented properly, online voting will probably be more expensive to implement and maintain than the current methods we use, but I don't see it being inherently more prone to corruption.
OK, let's put it this way. Would you feel confident in the election of President Palin, if it all came down to very close races in Ohio and Florida, conducted via online balloting?
3
Can't let everyone vote - that would be Democracy ...
First verify you are a voter. Then print a sign a form which you must then fax, mail or scan and email. Wait 48 hours and get a pin number which you may use to vote.
BLURG! Going to Renton (their only in person voting site) is easier than this...
One big one is that it cannot enforce ballot secrecy. I might want to sell my vote, but since I go into the voting booth alone, there is no way someone who wants to buy my vote can verify that I have voted as promised. Hence there is no market for vote-buying. This is not the case if I can vote at home at my computer. (This is also a problem with mail-in ballots.)
Another problem is identify verification. E-commerce businesses pay hundreds of dollars a year for certs and even under that system the actual identify link is not very secure. We would need to give government-issed certs to every voter, and people would need to be trained in secure cert management. And of course a government-cert system would raise many (both justified and unjustified) privacy concerns.
Another problem is scaling. With some effort, I can forge an ID and take the time to impersonate that voter at a polling place. But even with a large group of co-conspirators I can get maybe a few hundred votes out of that. But if I find find a flaw in an e-voting system, one person with one computer can write a script that immediately scales up to forge tens of thousands of votes.
Regarding KCCD, why not just make its officers appointed by the King County council and be done with it? That would immediately make it representative of King County voters as a whole.
6
It's all about implementation. The technology doesn't scare me. I'm as likely to be mugged as hacked.
7
Hell, it's not like any of the candidates are reaching out to potential voters or even listing endorsements recognizable to the less informed voter or not.
Honestly, the KCD should do it's membership selection by initiative. It's not like Eyman or Perpetually Offensive is paying a per-voter fee.
Most stupidest, indeed, and apparently planning on staying that way.
1 - You are as confused as many seem to be. It's the King Conservation District, not King County Conservation District. It has no tie to King County, other than the fact that it exists in the same geographic area.
2 - KCD (not KCCD, as you refer to it), has never used King County Elections. It was King County Elections that had problems, namely in 2004. They've always run their own elections, which is why they were so low-key and only in a few locations around the county.
3 - Online voting has happened elsewhere. KCD is not the first. In 2010, the State of West Virginia ran a pilot program for members of the military to vote on-line. I believe there were others.
@9 I find their FAQ interesting (kingcd.org/new_ele_faq.htm)
Their answer is that WAC 135-110-200 / RCW 89.08 specifies a first quarter election and other details for minimum voting requirements.
Oddly, and I think we should make sure to up the frequency until the point of inclusion here, there is no follow-up "WTF? Why don't we just change the 1st quarter requirement?" question and answer.
For myself, I'm interested to see how this turns out. I'm skeptical of on-line voting, but know we can't iron out bugs until it's practiced. I see a conservation district election as one of the least damaging ways to try out a new form of voting.
14
So who is a good candidate to vote for? Why doesn't the "Stranger" interview the candidates?
The procedure is a little cumbersome, but I can see how the purpose of this is to make it more difficult for hackers to game the system or for wealthy special interests to buy votes.
Also, voting on-line can be made even more secure by providing for a public audit of the vote. For example, the State could be given the authority to select a small random sample of voters and to contact them directly to verify their votes.
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