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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   9017 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 28, 2024

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The big ones we’re missing are transparent boxes/individual envelopes and a full voting holiday. Sure, I’m in favor of both. I’m even fine with photo ID requirements. But they aren’t free, and I’d argue that they wouldn’t actually reduce the amount of bitching that goes on after an election. Trump and people like him will seize on the counting, the certification, any possible vector for sowing doubt. They have already baked into their worldview a far-reaching conspiracy against him, personally. That’s license to doubt even the most secure process.

I think this is precisely why something like this would be good to do. There are many people in power who agree with you and honestly, in good faith, believe that it won't actually appease Trump and his followers; if they went with it anyway, it would provide a truly costly signal to the electorate that they take election security seriously. So seriously, that they consider this kind of non-free step worth it even if it means submitting to demands from what they consider to be an irrational/cynical actor, thus increasing in the odds of someone irrational/cynical winning an election, in addition to both a reduction in their own status within their own peer groups and a reduction in the status of said peer group among various peer groups.

Okay, so what do we get for it?

That’s like demanding a car ban because you enjoy biking. Directional agreement is not a blank check.

As @07mk says, what you get is more secure elections. You want secure elections don't you?

We'd get more secure elections and, likely more importantly, the perception of more secure elections as judged by the electorate. And personally, "we," the people who agreed to take this costly action, would gain actual knowledge that wasn't there before, that we actually do care about fair elections and are not merely convincing ourselves that we care about fair elections.

I really don't understand the push against election security. In all other areas of government regarding probity and integrity, there is an understanding that the appearance of integrity is just as important as the integrity itself. It's such low hanging fruit to institute controls that are commonly found throughout the rest of the free world.

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