[H-GEN] Re: [H-ANNOUNCE] Constitutional amendments

[Craig Eldershaw]

Rob wrote:

>My main problem with the current proxy system is it 'transfers' voting
>rights.  This is a bad idea imho.  

Proxying can be done in the form of "I want Joe to vote on my behalf as
he sees fit" or "I want Joe to handle my votes as follows: Bloggs for
Sec, Doe for...".  Is it just the former case that bothers you ?  It
could be stipulated ('tho difficult to enforce) in the constitution
that the later is always done.

>would be kept secret and counted only when the election was on.  
>...
>Paper absentee votes could also be allowed.

If the aim is to have secret ballots, then paper absentee votes would
have to be mandatory - but easily supported.  Just print the voting
forms used on the day in advance, and get absentees to fill them
in.  Then they can just be added to the box (unread) with all those
collected on the day.  I don't see how a secret ballot could be had
with any other system (unless a completely automated system was set up
to receive electronic votes, record who had voted, but only record the
tally totals (so it only reports that: Craig, Rob, James and Ian voted,
and that for the presidential post Bloggs got 3 electronic votes,
whilst Smith only got 1).  But that would be a lot of work to set up).

Also with absentee votes: the complication of people running "for
president, or failing that, for secretaty".  With proxying, this can
be handled, but absentee voting would be messier due to run-time config
changes :-)

Cheers,
	Craig.