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Comment by bluGill | Hacker News Reader

You don't see it happening (much) because we have a secret ballot. If I really care about Proposition 1234 I can sell my vote to you, collect the fees, and still vote however I want. There have been cases where someone felt compelled to vote for something they didn't want because they didn't want to be seen voting the other way [their boss would fire them, or such situations], thus we no longer allow anyone to find out how an individual voted.

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Ah, I thought this was about another kind of secrecy emphasized in the article:

>We don't just need votes to be anonymous and private (while still making the final result provable and public); we need votes to be so private that even the person who made the vote can't prove to anyone else what they voted for. [emphasis theirs]

This is the part I was saying doesn't seem so necessary.

I think that goes along with what the parent mentioned. If someone can prove how they voted, then Person A can buy Person B's vote and request proof that Person B voted that way. However, if Person B can't prove which way they voted and it is just based off trust then Person B can lie and still vote however they'd like.

You can do that today. You could have sold your vote in the 2016 election. It just doesn't seem to be a thing people do.

How can you do that today? Can you get the equivalent of a receipt from voting?

One possibility that comes to mind is filling out a vote-by-mail ballot and letting them verify and send it in.

It's a really nice property to have, though-- often on the path of authoritarianism is being threatened and having to pass various kinds of loyalty/political tests... if you could prove your vote this would just help that along.

Votes are counted aggregated publicly on some level, so you can punish/reward whole communities.

Not really. If the vote was against you the entire community knows the majority are united against you and that power in numbers limits what punishment you can do. If the vote was for you then you are punishing your supporters more than your detractors.

Of course size and scale matter. China can still oppress Hong Kong even with a secret ballot because Hong Kong isn't large enough even united. (or are they?). However most cases are at least covered by secret ballots.

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