DA is losing support under Maimane: poll

Mike Hoxbig said:
What's stopping you from rocking up election day, with a pocket full of fingers after a massacre the night before, and placing 100 votes on your party?
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GrammatonCleric said:
Do you really think people will go as far as this?
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Okay, well...idea #2 :p

Create a mobile app people can download on their cellphones. You use your ID Number if you registered to vote and cast your vote via the app.

Once your vote has been cast, it creates an entry into a database. Once the entry is made, if you wanna try your luck and vote again, if your ID Number is in the log, it prevents you from voting again. It's not rocket science...with the added benefit of being able to cast your vote from literally anywhere
 
GrammatonCleric said:
Okay, well...idea #2 :p

Create a mobile app people can download on their cellphones. You use your ID Number if you registered to vote and cast your vote via the app.

Once your vote has been cast, it creates an entry into a database. Once the entry is made, if you wanna try your luck and vote again, if your ID Number is in the log, it prevents you from voting again. It's not rocket science...with the added benefit of being able to cast your vote from literally anywhere
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And whats to stop me taking your ID book and your cellphone and voting for my party then? (if I'm being nice about it)...

e-voting has many many many risks, especially in a country like ours.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
What's stopping you from rocking up election day, with a pocket full of fingers after a massacre the night before, and placing 100 votes on your party?
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You scan your fingerprint in front of the election people and party monitors before going through to the private booth to vote. Obviously
 
GrammatonCleric said:
Okay, well...idea #2 :p

Create a mobile app people can download on their cellphones. You use your ID Number if you registered to vote and cast your vote via the app.

Once your vote has been cast, it creates an entry into a database. Once the entry is made, if you wanna try your luck and vote again, if your ID Number is in the log, it prevents you from voting again. It's not rocket science...with the added benefit of being able to cast your vote from literally anywhere
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How would you be able to guarantee anomininity with this system? Even if you could do it with the correct programing people still wouldn't trust it. Also for some people it is rocket science just ask any customer service agent at Vodacom or MTN.
 
imranpanji said:
But even numbers wise, the % of the vote that those seats represent is 1 seat at most. Is that 1 seat worth a reduction in diversity? And to remove the voice from those that are hardly represented anyway?
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Representation - this is the important word. Your interests can only be represented if your party gets a seat.

The minority parties that do not get a seat have zero influence once the election is over. They are a line on a spreadsheet and nothing more.

In many cases the number of votes that these minority parties get may not materially influence the number of seats that a bigger party would get if they received those votes. The fact remains that mathematically a vote for a party with no prospect of seats is a wasted vote. You are of course free to vote for those parties for idealistic reasons but you should not think that you are influencing your representation in government.
 
ambo said:
Representation - this is the important word. Your interests can only be represented if your party gets a seat.

The minority parties that do not get a seat have zero influence once the election is over. They are a line on a spreadsheet and nothing more.

In many cases the number of votes that these minority parties get may not materially influence the number of seats that a bigger party would get if they received those votes. The fact remains that mathematically a vote for a party with no prospect of seats is a wasted vote. You are of course free to vote for those parties for idealistic reasons but you should not think that you are influencing your representation in government.
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It's kind of a self-feeding loop - if everyone has the mentality that you shouldn't vote for a smaller party because it risks not attaining enough votes for a seat, they will never have sufficient votes for a seat. Rather prioritise your most important requirements in a party and vote for whichever one ticks the most boxes at the top of your list, regardless of its size. And even if your chosen party doesn't get a seat, your vote is not entirely lost as the combined votes for smaller parties potentially reduce the representation of a bigger party that you do not support.
 
ambo said:
Representation - this is the important word. Your interests can only be represented if your party gets a seat.

The minority parties that do not get a seat have zero influence once the election is over. They are a line on a spreadsheet and nothing more.

In many cases the number of votes that these minority parties get may not materially influence the number of seats that a bigger party would get if they received those votes. The fact remains that mathematically a vote for a party with no prospect of seats is a wasted vote. You are of course free to vote for those parties for idealistic reasons but you should not think that you are influencing your representation in government.
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It's worse if you vote for a party that doesn't represent your views, as essentially you may have given them a seat which doesn't represent you anyway.

Rather vote for the party that does represent your views and hope they do get a seat. A lot of the smaller parties did get seats because they reached the required total as people voted for them. They may have not expected it, but at least those people are represented
 
imranpanji said:
It's worse if you vote for a party that doesn't represent your views, as essentially you may have given them a seat which doesn't represent you anyway.

Rather vote for the party that does represent your views and hope they do get a seat. A lot of the smaller parties did get seats because they reached the required total as people voted for them. They may have not expected it, but at least those people are represented
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On a national level, I would agree with you.

Unfortunately that does not happen at a municipal level. Invariably your vote would count for nothing due to the lower numbers. See the PE results that I posted... effectively all those "small party votes" only managed to give the ANC an additional 1 PR seat and it gave COPE at least 2 more seats.

Where there is a small majority victory at the polls, those seats can make a difference.
 
MickeyD said:
On a national level, I would agree with you.

Unfortunately that does not happen at a municipal level. Invariably your vote would count for nothing due to the lower numbers. See the PE results that I posted... effectively all those "small party votes" only managed to give the ANC an additional 1 PR seat and it gave COPE at least 2 more seats.

Where there is a small majority victory at the polls, those seats can make a difference.
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Let me turn this around a little bit. If the EFF was in a similar position in Gauteng, where a vote for EFF would prevent an ANC majority.... would you tell DA voters in that area to vote for EFF?
 
imranpanji said:
Let me turn this around a little bit. If the EFF was in a similar position in Gauteng, where a vote for EFF would prevent an ANC majority.... would you tell DA voters in that area to vote for EFF?
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At a municipal level?
Vote 1: the ward councillor of my choice
Vote 2: the party most likely to decrease the ANC majority
 
I can see now that voting for much smaller parties may be a waste but in SA there is more than 1 opposition party that gets enough votes to gain representation to some degree - the DA and EFF, for example, in KwaZulu-Natal the IFP and in some areas COPE and the UDM.
Voting for any of these parties will make a difference.
 
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