🚀 go-pugleaf

Re: Voting by Phone
     The facts: On June 6 the Nova Scotia Liberal Primary by
telephone was a failure. On June 20 it came off without a hitch
with a 94% voter turnout. You can call the Liberal Party at
(902)423-6128 or Maritime Telephone & Telegraph at (902)421-4311
for confirmation
     I gave copies of Canadian news articles that gave these facts
to both the Daily and the Camera. I cannot make them read them.
     True, as Mr. Giles says, this was a Primary, not subject to
election laws. But Boulder has home rule, and can run its elections
almost any way it likes.  The initiative we're now collecting
signatures for says:

SHALL THE BOULDER CITY CHARTER BE AMENDED TO REQUIRE THAT VOTERS BE
ALLOWED TO VOTE BY TELEPHONE IN ALL MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS GOVERNED BY
THE CHARTER (INCLUDING VOTING FOR CITY COUNCIL AND ON INITIATIVES,
RECALLS AND REFERENDA), PROVIDED THAT TELEPHONE VOTING IS FIRST
FOUND CONSTITUTIONAL IN AN ACTION FOR A DECLARATORY JUDGMENT, WITH
THE CITY PAYING THE REASONABLE ATTORNEY FEES AND COSTS OF THAT
ACTION?

     Mr. Giles has 2 substantive objections to voting by phone:

     1. The government and others could tell how you voted. Yes,
the government could, if it would break all the administrative laws
that keep the computer containing the names that match the PIN
numbers locked up and separate from the voting computer, which
knows only the valid PINs. So we have made phone voting an option.
If you don't want them to have any possibility of knowing your
vote, drive to the polls. Most people are proud of how they vote
and tell exit pollsters and others. As Giles points out, future
phones can use an encryption system to prevent a corrupt government
from spying on our votes.

     2. People voting by phone would be subject to coercion. This
has been the case with absentee ballots for decades, and in certain
localities (recently Weld County, Colo.) with all-postal voting for
several years, but has not proved to be a problem. It is illegal.

     Besides the goal of more voters (a grand success in Nova
Scotia), the Voting by Phone Foundation has a more important goal:
true democracy, in which we the people have a vote on the important
issues that affect us. Colorado and 19 other states have this in
rudimentary form: the initiative. But so many signatures are
required that, as with the legislative process, money talks- most
of the initiatives making the ballot will have paid petitioners.

     With a convenient and economic voting technology working, we
then propose to seriously lower the required signatures for
initiatives.  Then perhaps the best and brightest will get involved
in running the city/state/country, not just the richest and most
powerful.

     Then perhaps someday we will have a government that is ours
and that we can trust.

     If you want our brochure, send a stamp to The Voting by Phone
Foundation, 774 19th St. #5, Boulder CO 80302. To try a
demonstration, call (303)444-3596. If you were registered to vote
in the City of Boulder before July '90, we can identify you (by
name and birthdate) and (more or less) prevent you from voting
twice. There is also a separate vote for everyone else. We will
have the new database up as soon as possible. We need a fax
machine. Thanks!