Some election questions...

I am presuming the upcoming elections will be held, in so far as how the actual system of tabulating votes is concerned, as the earlier thread mentioned. If not, what are to be the differences?

Also, how "open" is the election process, in terms of independent verification, etc.? I understand Ulrika did the heavy lifting where that was concerned, so I'm curious as to the details.

(I'd also like to state flat-out I have no real concerns about the system. Rather... well, I live in Florida. After the last couple of presidential elections, I've found an intense interest in *exactly* how easy it is to tell the votes cast were really the votes cast I never knew I had. Thankfully, the current small size of Neualtenburg makes any form of recount easy, I imagine...)

The elections will be identical to the last vote.

Voting will begin in world with a visit to a voting booth. Avatars with their "Neualtenburg" groups activated (I'll send out invitations in a couple of days to everyone) will be able to click on the voting booth to receive a voting PIN. From there, all the voting is done on a web page.

I've opened up the voting web page to allow folks to try the voting system. Login in with the first and last name of "Test" and "Voter", using the PIN "000" (no quotes of course). During the real elections you'll be allowed to vote once but as the Test Voter you can practice voting as many times as you want.

It's completely open, in that everyone who votes receives a URL to a permanent voting receipt. Those URLs can be forwarded to a third party which can then validate the results of the election independently while still maintaining privacy.

Give it a try. Check out the receipts. Ask questions!

~Ulrika~

Hi Ulrika,

Tested this out and I had problems.
I couldn't vote (but this is likely because I have not joined a faction.) Personaly, I feel that the whole necessity of joining a faction is a big flaw in the system, one that in RL would normally cause me not to vote, but that's a side issue and I will likely swallow my principles and join one or the other in the end.

The fact that I could not vote however gave me the error message, which turns out to have a mistake in it.

It says:

"There is no user registered with the name 'dianne mechanique'."
(this should maybe be altered to reflect the fact that the error is in not being 'factionalised' or whatever?)

and:

"Please visit the voting booth in the town square of Neualtenburg in the sim of Anzere..."
(here I am thinking that Neualtenburg is not in Anzere anymore )

Edit: Forgot about the test voter thing, that is my "faction' for now right?.
2nd Edit: appears I am unclear on the process, ignore everything except the bit about the Anzere mistake.

Just tested it and it seems to work well Ulrika! Of course it has parties and names of people that are not involved with project anymore, but I assume that will be updated?

The only other thing I noticed was that I did not get a URL to a receipt like you state we should. So I can't say how well the receipts work or not.

The reason we created factions instead of allowing individuals to run is that it focuses the debate on issues instead of the personality of the individual.

So, if you believe strongly in preserving the openspace of a sim, followed by community projects and then private enterprise, you'd vote for "Green", "SDF", and "MPP" in that order. It's a ranking of your personal ideology. Contrast that with voting for "Sue", "Jim", and "Steve". At best it is a time consuming chore to sort out the views of 10 different candidates and at worst the vote is just a popularity contest.

Additionally, factions minimize personal attacks, which can arise during heated political debate. By having the general population voting only for platforms (factions) individuals are shielded from the scrutiny of external parties, being ranked instead only within their own party.

Note that from our bill of rights, citizens are not required to be a member of a faction. Those who are unaffiliated can still rank factions according to preference.

Fixed. Thanks for catching that.

~Ulrika~