Why online voting is a bad idea — although it may seem like the perfect solution

Daniel Puchert

Daniel Puchert

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Why online voting to fix South Africa's election queues is a bad idea

With voters queuing for hours on Wednesday to cast their ballots in South Africa’s 2024 general election, there have been renewed calls for an online voting system in the country.

“The IEC should seriously consider implementing electronic online voting systems,” DJ and radio presenter Jack Lekgothoane said on X/Twitter.
 
Most of the queuing problems are because many people insist on going in the morning. Very few stations have queues late afternoon and at the scheduled close.

Any measure to encourage afternoon voting will help a lot.
 
It would actually be brilliant if people who pay income tax could vote online. Those who earn below the income tax threshold can go queue, because:

a.) their time isn't valuable
b.) a website would just confuse them
 
nicroets said:
Most of the queuing problems are because many people insist on going in the morning. Very few stations have queues late afternoon and at the scheduled close.

Any measure to encourage afternoon voting will help a lot.
Click to expand...
The opposite, I think? The people that were there at closing time (and were there for 4/5/6/7 hours) would have only got there in the afternoon.

The peeps who went in the morning are the ones who waited 1/2 hours and were done.
 
nicroets said:
Most of the queuing problems are because many people insist on going in the morning. Very few stations have queues late afternoon and at the scheduled close.

Any measure to encourage afternoon voting will help a lot.
Click to expand...

Not all voting stations are the same; some are busier than others. Encouraging people to go at a certain time will only introduce a bottleneck. It is the registered voter’s distribution which isn’t optimal. Either you employ more voter stations and or you control the spread. It is congestion, and gridlocks needs to be better released.

Then there is continuing. Their systems need to be redundant, and it is not.
 
nicroets said:
Most of the queuing problems are because many people insist on going in the morning. Very few stations have queues late afternoon and at the scheduled close.

Any measure to encourage afternoon voting will help a lot.
Click to expand...

Dylan_G said:
The opposite, I think? The people that were there at closing time (and were there for 4/5/6/7 hours) would have only got there in the afternoon.

The peeps who went in the morning are the ones who waited 1/2 hours and were done.
Click to expand...
It varied from station to station.

Even among stations within like 3km of each other where I live there was a marked difference.

Some were fast in the morning, some didn't open on time, some the queue was about the same length throughout the day.

There was also a marked difference in performance. Some stations processed voters much faster than others.

Edit: Also what @Fulcrum29 said.
 
3WA said:
It would actually be brilliant if people who pay income tax could vote online. Those who earn below the income tax threshold can go queue, because:

a.) their time isn't valuable
b.) a website would just confuse them
Click to expand...

Is that so you and @epah can hold hands while you que to vote?
 
Daniel Puchert said:
Why online voting to fix South Africa's election queues is a bad idea

With voters queuing for hours on Wednesday to cast their ballots in South Africa’s 2024 general election, there have been renewed calls for an online voting system in the country.

“The IEC should seriously consider implementing electronic online voting systems,” DJ and radio presenter Jack Lekgothoane said on X/Twitter.
Click to expand...

Oh what - most of the first world countries tried it and failed?
SA government - "hold my drink"
 
EADC said:
Poor people pay income tax, if you rich you know how to get around paying income tax.

You just different kind of poor.
Click to expand...

I do know exactly how to get around paying income tax. I just choose not to quit my job, get a grant and spend all my time in rural Eastern Cape farming and fscking goats.
 
ANC government would fsck online voting up so badly. End up with a Wordpress template site and it will cost taxpayers 50 gajillion Randelas.
 
Maybe the online voting is a bad idea, but perhaps a "check-in" process via an app, which generates a QR code, which then verifies the ID number, voter status etc.

Then 2 queues, 1 for the "checked-in" people and one for all classical voters
 
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