Why online voting will kill local democracy, not save it
Luxon blames low election turnout on weak candidates
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says low voter turnout in this year’s local body elections was the result of uninspiring candidates who failed to engage the public.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning, Luxon said candidates needed to “excite voters” with clear ideas and vision.
“One is candidates have to be compelling, and they have to excite voters to actually say they have a vision of what they want to achieve and what they want to do,” he said.
Luxon said he supported exploring computerised voting for future elections, though he believed the current system “does actually work – people just need to get off and do it”.
As NZ staggers to comprehend the pitiful turn out at local elections, the inevitable ‘vote online’ argument starts up again.
Look.
If we started online voting, we would become an immediate target of Chinese hackers, Russian Hackers and North Korean hackers.
Do you all honestly believe that NZ could ensure our voting systems weren’t hacked?
Come on.
The millisecond you start online voting I would refuse to participate because it immediately opens NZ up for rigged elections.
Local council elections which saw a pitiful 32% turn out which was lower than the previous low point of 36%, online voting won’t solve that!
This isn’t voter apathy, it’s voter antipathy – no council can pretend to have any mandate when barely a third voted!
Dr Bryce Edwards notes that right wing astro turf groups were highly effective in pushing their messages and ACT gained 10 seats…
…In 66 mayoral races, nearly half elected a new mayor based on high rates rise revolts – rate rises that were ironically caused because this Government dismantled 3 waters and pushed the costs onto locals – how is 3 Waters looking now you stupid rednecks?
Look.
Since we privatised the elections to just two companies in the 1990s, participation rates went from 55% to 32%.
It is time for us to dump the privatisation of our local elections and actually have the Electoral Commission do them with the same level of resource we do with national elections.
That’s how we turn around voter apathy, that’s how we challenge the influence of Dark Ag money influencing our local elections!
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It is inevitable that online voting would get hacked. 100% guaranteed it would go wrong and destroy trust in democracy. I feel embarrassed for those naive enough to suggest it.
Why have two voting systems?
Just have the same polling stations used for the national election and have a polling day like the national election.
Yup. Hell, you could even do it on the same day. Vote for your MP, vote for your council.