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Comment by sama | Hacker News Reader

One of the other groups is pursuing this (and electronic voting). I think that's the right long term solution!

Disagree with you on electronic voting. I know a little bit about this one.

There is no way to both protect the secret ballot and ensure a public vote count. Can't be done. And most systems (proposed, hypothetical, existing) don't do either.

I also disagree with electronic voting, but am a huge supporter of: - automatic registration - election days as (paid!) holidays - national no-restrictions on requesting absentee (some states require you to vote in-person unless you have a reason explaining why you literally can't)

Getting really into the weeds here...

While I agree with everything you just said, I also know there's only two sure-fire ways to increase participation:

#1 Peer pressure

Things like vote.org will help if they close the loop by showing to your peers (bragging rights) that you've voted.

#2 Competitive races

Competitive races require fixes to our gerrymandering and incumbency protection. Maximally competitive districts (totally doable), public financing (will happen sooner or later), proportional voting (tough sell).

> #1 Peer pressure Things like vote.org will help if they close the loop by showing to your peers (bragging rights) that you've voted.

Yeah, I defs remember remember reading about a group that sent out a list of everyone in your neighborhood who voted in past elections with an add-on like, "Make sure you're on this list next year", and they got a whole lot of people registered. I also heard Facebook's "I voted" status-maker increased turnout last time around

Why do you disagree with electronic voting if you support mass absentee voting, which (AFAIK) has the same problems?

I should have asked: if its public, which of your groups is working on universal, automatic registration?

I know Brennan Center, Pew Trusts, ACLU and others have been working this for a while now.

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