# 60% of Smartphone Owners Would Cast Their Ballot on a Mobile App



## Kid_Eternity (Sep 19, 2012)

Would you vote in an election via your iPhone or iPad?



> Would you cast your Election Day ballot on a mobile app? Then you’re among the 60% of smartphone owners who think it’s a good idea, according to a new study.
> 
> Internet radio smartphone app Stitcher surveyed 2,129 American adults, 1,024 of whom are smartphone owners, and found that more than half of smartphone owners would make their Election Day choices on an app if it were possible to do so (it’s not).
> 
> Breaking down the numbers, Stitcher found that Democrats are more willing to vote with an app than Republicans, 54% to 47%. As might be expected, younger voters are more likely to approve of mobile voting. Men are also more likely than women to be willing to vote with an app by a slim margin of 49% to 47%.


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## stuff_it (Sep 19, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Would you vote in an election via your iPhone or iPad?


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## marty21 (Sep 19, 2012)

no


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Sep 19, 2012)

If the issues around fraud could be addressed why not? 

Although not on an Apple device.


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 19, 2012)

marty21 said:


> no


 
Why not? If it was secure what would be wrong with voting via an app?


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## weltweit (Sep 19, 2012)

Hmm Security - Who was it who said:

Vote early and vote often!!


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## marty21 (Sep 19, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Why not? If it was secure what would be wrong with voting via an app?


I prefer going to a Polling Station, voting via an app would feel like I'm voting on xfactor or Big Brother -


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## Bungle73 (Sep 19, 2012)

marty21 said:


> I prefer going to a Polling Station


What for? This is the 21st century.


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## marty21 (Sep 19, 2012)

Bungle73 said:


> What for? This is the 21st century.


I get buses to work, invented in the 19th Century - should I stop using them? I use the tube (19th Century) trains (19th Century), I read books (printed first maybe 500 years ago) Iisten to music (thousands of years old)

I also use telephone, computers, smart phones and kindles

not sure of your point


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 19, 2012)

Bungle73 said:


> What for? This is the 21st century.


 
Innit. Why the idea of just tapping to select who you're voting for and hitting submit in under a 15 seconds then getting on with your day isn't appealing I don't know...


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 19, 2012)

marty21 said:


> I get buses to work, invented in the 19th Century - should I stop using them? I use the tube (19th Century) trains (19th Century), I read books (printed first maybe 500 years ago) Iisten to music (thousands of years old)
> 
> I also use telephone, computers, smart phones and kindles
> 
> not sure of your point


 
Some of that doesn't make sense. You can read digital books, listen to music on devices that didn't exist 15 years ago. Like voting, you're still voting you'd just be doing it in an incredibly time efficient manner.


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## marty21 (Sep 19, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Some of that doesn't make sense. You can read digital books, listen to music on devices that didn't exist 15 years ago. Like voting, you're still voting you'd just be doing it in an incredibly time efficient manner.


I don't mind walking 10 minutes to the polling station and voting.


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## Bungle73 (Sep 19, 2012)

marty21 said:


> I get buses to work, invented in the 19th Century - should I stop using them? I use the tube (19th Century) trains (19th Century), I read books (printed first maybe 500 years ago) Iisten to music (thousands of years old)
> 
> I also use telephone, computers, smart phones and kindles
> 
> not sure of your point


Are you getting horse drawn buses to work, or using steam engine drawn Tubes?


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## marty21 (Sep 19, 2012)

Bungle73 said:


> Are you getting horse drawn buses to work, or using steam engine drawn Tubes?


I would if I could


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## quimcunx (Sep 20, 2012)

No.  Judging by how often I click the wrong thing when browsing here on the phone I would be terrified of voting Tory.


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## corieltauvi (Sep 20, 2012)

I always enjoy the walk to the Polling Station. And the well earned democratic pint afterwards.


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## editor (Sep 20, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Would you vote in an election via your iPhone or iPad?


I don't own either, so clearly can't.


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## JimW (Sep 20, 2012)

Bring back the mass meeting and a show of hands.


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## Hocus Eye. (Sep 20, 2012)

This sounds like a gimmick to get people who would not otherwise vote, to so so. Good luck with that.


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

quimcunx said:


> No.  Judging by how often I click the wrong thing when browsing here on the phone I would be terrified of voting Tory.



So far apart from security this is the best argument against I've seen. Mass voter mistakes would be horrendous...


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## elbows (Sep 20, 2012)

The security issue is too multi-faceted to be solved in my opinion. It includes all of the following at least:

Whether the ballot is really secret.
Bad results by someone gaining physical access to your device and voting on your behalf.
Bad results caused by bugs.
Bad results caused by hackers.
Bad results caused by corruption within the IT companies that provide the app or infrastructure.
Bad results caused by corrupt politicians, dictatorships.
Quite apart from the actual quality of the results, the inability to have a simple means by which to check the vote, and thus the inability to respond in a transparent way to any accusations that the election was rigged. Computer recounts are not reassuring.
If it was done via the internet, the international dimension leading to fears of external meddling in results, either real or imagined.


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## elbows (Sep 20, 2012)

Plus it would take the fun out of certain surprise result. It would be so much easier for surprise to turn to suspicion when the system is a mystery black box to people, rather than an old-fashioned but rather visible framework of many people and many bits of paper, boxes, tables, and late night counting rituals.


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## elbows (Sep 20, 2012)

To put it another way, its not just a question of practicalities and logistics, but psychology. That includes the candidates themselves, who may also struggle to accept reality if it is delivered to them by a sudden parp from the digital brass eye and doesnt have the smell they were hoping for. Better they get that sinking feeling by watching the old fashioned count.


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## maldwyn (Sep 20, 2012)




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## skyscraper101 (Sep 20, 2012)

I would like it as an option, but not if it meant doing away with paper and pencil voting.

I'm like marty21, I like the trip to the polling station. There's usually a middle aged party campaigner or two with nothing better to do but stand around greeting people in some vain attempt to win a last minute change of heart. I like scrolling down the list of registered voters and glancing to see if any of my neighbours have voted. Plus I like the secrecy of the polling booth, the little curtain to pull across, the feeling of symbolic empowerment, or the pointlessness of a safe seat constituency. I like to pretend I'm a the leader of my own party and I'm casting a vote for myself, and doing the slight pause for the world's press before dropping it in the box amidst a barrage of camera flashes. Also, how would spoiled voted be cast on a phone. Much more fun to have people do drawings and post them on on the internet for lulz on election day. I rather feel a smart phone app would do away with all the fun of election day.

Can't do any of that now anyway, livin in Ameriland and not registered/allowed to vote .


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## corieltauvi (Sep 20, 2012)

Maybe smartphone owners could be tricked in to thinking that they're voting for the X-Factor or something similar. Some of them are so dumb as fuck we might get the turnout up


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

elbows said:


> Plus it would take the fun out of certain surprise result. It would be so much easier for surprise to turn to suspicion when the system is a mystery black box to people, rather than an old-fashioned but rather visible framework of many people and many bits of paper, boxes, tables, and late night counting rituals.



The quaint arguments have no value as far as I can see, part of the problem of the UK is people all too easily cling to outmoded ways of doing things because its 'tradition'...


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## g force (Sep 20, 2012)

How many of these smartphone owners planned to vote anyway? The headline stat is fairly useless as a standalone.


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## elbows (Sep 20, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> The quaint arguments have no value as far as I can see, part of the problem of the UK is people all too easily cling to outmoded ways of doing things because its 'tradition'...


 
I doubt you'd recognise value if it came up to you, stole your vote and puts your nuts in a vice.


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## Lord Camomile (Sep 20, 2012)

skyscraper101 said:


> I would like it as an option, but not if it meant doing away with paper and pencil voting.
> 
> I'm like marty21, I like the trip to the polling station. There's usually a middle aged party campaigner or two with nothing better to do but stand around greeting people in some vain attempt to win a last minute change of heart. I like scrolling down the list of registered voters and glancing to see if any of my neighbours have voted. Plus I like the secrecy of the polling booth, the little curtain to pull across, the feeling of symbolic empowerment, or the pointlessness of a safe seat constituency. I like to pretend I'm a the leader of my own party and I'm casting a vote for myself, and doing the slight pause for the world's press before dropping it in the box amidst a barrage of camera flashes. Also, how would spoiled voted be cast on a phone. Much more fun to have people do drawings and post them on on the internet for lulz on election day. I rather feel a smart phone app would do away with all the fun of election day.


'zactly. It's not all about practicality, it's about symbolism and all that bumpf  Definitely think it would lose something just blipping it through on your smartphone, and even though people say it doesn't the way you interact with processes affects the way you, um, interact with them.

That's two different meanings of interact, obviously


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## DotCommunist (Sep 20, 2012)

there was shennanigans with postal votes. there would be more shenanigans with this


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

elbows said:


> I doubt you'd recognise value if it came up to you, stole your vote and puts your nuts in a vice.



Think it may be time for your to take your pills dear...


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## marty21 (Sep 20, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> The quaint arguments have no value as far as I can see, part of the problem of the UK is people all too easily cling to outmoded ways of doing things because its 'tradition'...


  conversely some people in the UK always insist that things have to change even though they may not have to


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

marty21 said:


> conversely some people in the UK always insist that things have to change even though they may not have to



I think that's true, progress for progress sake is pointless but the proportion of traditionalists in the UK easily outweighs us progressives.


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## elbows (Sep 20, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Think it may be time for your to take your pills dear...


 
You can dismiss me if you like, but you cant dismiss the fact that I wont be alone in considering the use of IT for voting to be a bad idea for numerous reasons that go well beyond 'quaint'.

In fact you arent a bad example as to why I wouldnt want to place even our rather limited form of democracy in the hands of geeks. Much as there are some militant activist geeks, or those with eyes wide open, there are also a bunch of superficial, immature, easily exploitable a-moral asshole geeks who would lead the world into peril and then give a flippant shrug. Progress is a messy business, not to be trusted to those who think its all a laugh or are too busy sucking corporate cock and rejecting the old to notice when they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater.


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## RaverDrew (Sep 20, 2012)

imagine if your mates fraped you by voting tory


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## Lo Siento. (Sep 20, 2012)

nothing wrong with the idea, it's just irrelevant is all. Politicians are constantly looked for excuses as to why so many people don't vote. It's not our fault if you lot can't convince us that it's worth walking 10 minutes down the road to vote for you


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## ddraig (Sep 20, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> The quaint arguments have no value as far as I can see, part of the problem of the UK is people all too easily cling to outmoded ways of doing things because its 'tradition'...


there are some good solid arguments posted above
why not answer them instead of getting prissy?


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

ddraig said:


> there are some good solid arguments posted above
> why not answer them instead of getting prissy?



Eh? I've conceded from the start that security is the biggest issue here. Other than that the quaint argument just don't cut it.


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

ddraig said:


> there are some good solid arguments posted above
> why not answer them instead of getting prissy?



Eh? I've conceded from the start that security is the biggest issue here. Other than that the quaint argument just don't cut it.


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## ddraig (Sep 20, 2012)

so which is it?
security issues or a quaint argument?


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

ddraig said:


> there are some good solid arguments posted above
> why not answer them instead of getting prissy?



Eh? I've conceded from the start that security is the biggest issue here. Other than that the quaint argument just don't cut it.


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## ddraig (Sep 20, 2012)

OK!!!
think your tech might be trying to rig the vote!


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## marty21 (Sep 20, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Eh? I've conceded from the start that security is the biggest issue here. Other than that the quaint argument just don't cut it.


 


Kid_Eternity said:


> Eh? I've conceded from the start that security is the biggest issue here. Other than that the quaint argument just don't cut it.


 


Kid_Eternity said:


> Eh? I've conceded from the start that security is the biggest issue here. Other than that the quaint argument just don't cut it.


 
you voted three times!


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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

Yup something is not right here, only hit submit once...


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## marty21 (Sep 20, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Yup something is not right here, only hit submit once...


 less technical problems with a pencil and a piece of paper tbf


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## elbows (Sep 20, 2012)

Heed the warning of the IT Gods, they have sent you a warning, tremble at their horrific potential.


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## marty21 (Sep 20, 2012)

elbows said:


> Heed the warning of the IT Gods, they have sent you a warning, tremble at their horrific potential.


 SKYNET!!!


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## elbows (Sep 20, 2012)

marty21 said:


> SKYNET!!!


 
Its ok really, Sky are a fit and proper person to replace democracy with a network of doom


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## Badgers (Sep 20, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Yup something is not right here, only hit submit once...


 
Stealing the election eh? You sir are worse than George Bush


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## Badgers (Sep 20, 2012)

Personally I am all for mandatory voting and a bank holiday on polling day Friday
Then beers in the evening as we sit round (united as a nation) watching in the pubs and cafes of Britain cheering as Peter Snow wields the swingometer.
Saturday national hangover and lie in, if we don't like the result then storm parliament on Sunday and burn down the churches.

Fuck your phone apps frankly


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## TruXta (Sep 20, 2012)

As Lo Siento said, it's a total irrelevance even aside from the security and tech issues. And LOL at this faux techno-progressivist coolth bullshit, I like my old shit thank you very much, tends to last a lot longer and break down a lot less than modern tech.


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## DotCommunist (Sep 20, 2012)




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## Kid_Eternity (Sep 20, 2012)

Badgers said:


> Stealing the election eh? You sir are worse than George Bush



Koff koff


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## Barking_Mad (Sep 22, 2012)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Why not? If it was secure what would be wrong with voting via an app?



Cos they're all wankers.


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## Termite Man (Sep 22, 2012)

I'd have thought making voting easier will mean people think less about who they vote for. I'd rather a low turnout of people that can be bothered to make the effort to go out and vote (even if the are tory/lib dem/labour scum) because hopefully they will have thought about policies etc.  A smartphone app will just have fuckwits just voting for the sake of it without any considertion IMO


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## moochedit (Sep 22, 2012)

No i wouldn't want to vote with any electronic system.

How would you keep it a_ secret ballot and at the same time ensure the result was accurate? _
_seems to me the only way you could tell the result was accurate in an electronic vote would be if everyones vote was public.*_


*edit - of course the result wouldn't be accurate in a public vote either due to voter intimidation


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## Cid (Sep 23, 2012)

Even the postal vote has been subject to repeat allegations of electoral fraud, I can't imagine a voting app would be any more secure. Possibly if you used biometrics, but then you might create a link between personal data and how you voted.


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