Forum Post: Use the gathering to register voters
Posted 14 years ago on Oct. 15, 2011, 9:11 a.m. EST by savetheworld
(1)
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Wall Street wins unless we're able to convert the rage to votes.
good idea
Fantastic idea! I would add to that that we also need to use it to convince people to not only vote, but be informed voters. After all, if one listens only to Democracy Now! or Fox, their not getting all the information they need to make truly informed decisions.
deGrene, you are so right. Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Voter education is so important. Educating people on macroeconomics is so important. People need to read Paul Krugman, and then vote.
Obama 2012!!!! Yes We Can!!
We are the ones we have been waiting for
Voters’ turnout in North America is constantly going down and people are disillusioned with the electoral process and feel it has now become a bit meaningless to vote. It is not enough for most people just to vote once every four years to elect someone that will later be corrupted or do whatever.
In order to create a better democracy, we need to be able to bypass at least some of the representative process. Modern communications is now allowing us to say what we want as individuals and we no longer need to be represented by people in parliament to take decisions for us. The role of the government should be to propose directions society could take but letting the people decide through referendums (direct democracy). This process, while alleviating corruption by removing some power to elected people, would allow some decisions that no political party would ever attempt to take because they would often be against the interests of influent lobby groups and powerful corporations.
So far, the main stomping block for e voting taking on is revolving around confidentiality (anonymity) and hacking concerns. Those issues could be addressed by having an open e voting system by which the database, although anonymous, would be open allowing voters to verify that their vote is accounted for and accurate. The users could get a random number identifying them in the database and check if that number (or key) is associated with the correct vote for the given referendum, many could be run simultaneously. The best would be to create a package using maybe Open Office as a way for the user to manipulate the database to verify his/her vote and analyze the data if desired. The difficulty in having a representative and legitimate vote is to be able to use the electoral database for the constituencies to generate the individual keys; maybe someone would have to be elected the old fashion way clearly stating this goal as a platform... Looking at what is happening in the Arab world, this might be a way to quickly implement a form of democracy in places where there is nothing yet to support it. Your movement is very fertile ground for these ideas to take roots, there are highly educated motivated people in your group that could make this a reality and elaborate a system that would account for minority rights, server setups, phone interface etc. It could also (one can dream) create a whole new world where every voice can finally be heard and be as important towards decision making as anyone else. No matter the size of the voter’s bank account or number of influential friends: we have to take the power back.
Thanks for your time.
We need to use this opportunity to register people since the Republican controlled states have passed laws to make registration more difficult.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-war-on-voting-20110830
many states have reduced early registration
increased id requirements- some require birth certificates
Florida has increased requirements for groups who want to do voter registration drives- liike the boy scouts, womens' league, etc.
What do you want to vote
yes!