Hacker News Reader

Comment by param | Hacker News Reader

Dear Sir, As an Indian I can testify that we actually have far more election abuse - people being blocked from entering a voting booth, vote boxes(still vote on paper) being stolen, voting booths set on fire...

Of course, again, there is media acting as a watchdog, and a hope that the manipulation is statistically insignificant.

View on HN

> vote boxes(still vote on paper)

FWIW, most of the world votes on paper, and if history's anything to go by paper ballot is way more reliable than electronic, at least when it comes to auditability. I'm sure it's possible to design a secure and tamper-proof electronic voting system[0] with a great, useable interface... but nobody seems interested in doing that.

[0] system, not machine, because you most likely want the machine recording votes and the machine tallying them to be fully separate.

I would like to disagree with Mr.Param who is either being a cynic or trying to be "me-too". India is aggressively moving away from paper-ballot voting to EVM's. In our last general elections, a million electronic voting machines (EVM's) were used which reduces vote-rigging, ballot capture etc. In maybe 5 years, we will be completely rid of paper-ballots.

For further read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_voting_machines

India also has option called "None of the Above" as a voting option, which is extremely democratic.

All right, I have been living in the US for a while, and didn't know about the move to electronic voting. However, my point about there being FAR more abuse in India stands. Here are some references: Fatal attacks near polling booth - 2009 - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123985213176424031.html

Booth capturing "found primarily in India" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booth_capturing

intimidation on racial lines: http://uk.oneworld.net/article/view/162808/1/5847

You are plain kidding if you feel elections in India are anywhere close to being as good as US.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com