The degree to which people lack confidence in the mechanisms of the election gives way to people disregarding election results they don’t respect or support.
When a democracy is working, you’re ostensibly satisfying a majority (or significant plurality) of the public. When it has been undermined through manipulation, corruption, or fraud, you end up with a public told they’ve selected a candidate that only rarefied minority actually supports. The end result is civil unrest, which prompts unpopular leaders to staff up larger security forces, which furthers tension into an outright armed struggle.
Voting systems that feed into people questioning election results ultimately undermine the democratic system. But candidates who are deeply unpopular winning general elections also feed into people questioning election results.
Voting machines that are not open source, and do not print a paper ballot for public verification are the problem. They grant the capability to steal an election without an audit trail.
There’s a reason they were implemented, and their numerous proven vulnerabilities have never been fixed, and that reason was to steal elections. I’m not saying the election was “stolen” via direct election fraud, but there’s no way to know for sure.
If a population in a democracy cannot insist on public counting of ballots, and instead rely on private companies to tell them who won.
Then there is no hope for change until there is a complete replacement of the entire political class. And that can only happen in the future
Dude shut the fuck up voting machines are not the problem here
The degree to which people lack confidence in the mechanisms of the election gives way to people disregarding election results they don’t respect or support.
When a democracy is working, you’re ostensibly satisfying a majority (or significant plurality) of the public. When it has been undermined through manipulation, corruption, or fraud, you end up with a public told they’ve selected a candidate that only rarefied minority actually supports. The end result is civil unrest, which prompts unpopular leaders to staff up larger security forces, which furthers tension into an outright armed struggle.
Voting systems that feed into people questioning election results ultimately undermine the democratic system. But candidates who are deeply unpopular winning general elections also feed into people questioning election results.
Voting machines that are not open source, and do not print a paper ballot for public verification are the problem. They grant the capability to steal an election without an audit trail.
There’s a reason they were implemented, and their numerous proven vulnerabilities have never been fixed, and that reason was to steal elections. I’m not saying the election was “stolen” via direct election fraud, but there’s no way to know for sure.
Only outrage, but no logical defense. Do not be so hard on yourself if you later regret such an outburst.
Many people must believe in this system, often for deep seated needs. But these “machines” have no reasonable defense.