Ok, maybe we think it through a little more.
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Well said. Thereâs another way this can come out too which doesnât require any bad intent behind it. Say all my friends are diehard Bernie fans, and on primary day theyâre all proudly showing off their ballot selfies. Then their eyes turn towards me. âHey Kyew, whereâs your ballot selfie?â I respond âMy phone died so I couldnât get itâ to hide my secret Clinton shame.
Next time I vote, Iâm going to remember that scene. Maybe Iâm kind of leaning towards reelecting Hillary, but now my friends wonât stop singing about Warren, and I really donât want to have to face lying to them againâŚ
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There is a VERY GOOD REASON for laws like this, and theyâre the same reasons as against human-readable voting machine receipts. IT KEEPS PEOPLE FROM BUYING VOTES. Duh.
Buying votes, in the most literal meaning of that term, is virtually non-existent in the US, because thereâs no way for the buyer to know if someone actually voted the way you instructed them to. But if you allow people to take pictures of their completed ballot, youâve just opened the door to widespread vote buying. Itâs a stupid, stupid, stupid idea.
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Try âcommon modus operandi in some countries.â
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The point of human-readable voting machine receipts is to have a paper record available for verification, the receipts are supposed to be printed and directly moved/stored in a locked box without human intervention, so they wouldnât facilitate vote-buying, they could prevent electronic fraud, though, if they werenât fought tooth-and-nail.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3033551.stm
Just thought Iâd chip in with this old article that I posted the last time this came up. The use of camera phones for voting fraud started happening almost as soon as they were available. Keep the ban in place.
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I love how the First Amendment trumps like, everything. Even the secret part of âsecret ballotâ.
If you can prove how you voted, that opens the door to folks buying your vote, duh.
Exactly. The real potential for voting fraud doesnât come from individual voters, it comes from a single person (or group of people) changing thousands of votes at once by tampering with the vote-tallying process.
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I specifically said receipt, which by definition, is something the voter would receive and keep. This is different from a paper log thatâs viewable through a window on the voting machine, but never actually given to the voter. Iâm all in favor of that.
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Except that youâd have to be an idiot to pay for a photo of a ballot. No Photoshop even required, fill out a ballot the way your briber/extortionist wants, take the photo, then go to the poll workers for a new ballot, telling them to destroy the one you accidentally spoiled.
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âYouâd have to be an idiot toâŚâ is not even slightly comforting. There are TONS of idiots, weâre surrounded by them every day, and any sensible policy must account for what they might do. Many of these idiots vote, and who those idiots will vote for is THE freaking cornerstone of the political strategy of at least one major party.
Of the people who are dumb enough to even talk to someone that pays bribes for votes, how many do you think would come up with the idea of asking for a new ballot all on their own? My guess is precisely none of them.
The next time you hear something related to the electoral process that makes you think âyouâd have to be an idiot to do thatâ, please also consider just how many idiots there are.
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New feature: My app will photoshop your X to the appropriate spot so you can get paid by multiple candidates. 
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Very subtle, nice!
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Whoâs going to actually do that, though? If someone is actively soliciting paid votes, most people are either going to accept or refuse; the number of people who will bother with the sort of counterscam youâre describing is pretty slim.
Still, would you pay people to do something you have no way of verifying that they did?
Spoiled ballot? We have electronic voting. You can fix your mistakes all you want. But once you hit the âconfirmâ button, thatâs it. No do-overs. Youâve voted. Period.
The screen doesnât show your vote details after you hit Confirm, does it?
California still has actual paper ballots that you can spoil and turn in for a new ballot. Until it goes into the box, it doesnât count.
When you hit the Confirm button, which is a large physical button below the touchscreen, the button lights up, and a green border appears around the ballot, which is still on the screen. After about 5 seconds, the screen is cleared. More than enough time to snap a picture.
