Derek Muller (Veritasium) made an interesting video about issues with democracy and voting systems. It is an important discussion which I hope he will eventually turn his big brain to more fully articulating issues and possible solutions. As things stand, our political system does not represent the reasonable wishes of the population and even less so their best interests. That has been getting worse at a time where it is ever more important that we get it right.
I have designed a fair, private, but transparent and auditable, voting protocol
Below is the comment I made on his video and below that a link to the video which, although somewhat disappointing for me I still think is worthwhile to watch.
You are a smart guy. Fix this. There are things that have not been accounted for here such as proxies and a favorite of mine to push decisions closer to the 'ground' of the individual voter. There is no conflict between me and another person as to what to have for dinner because I decide myself for myself. Some decisions need to be made thoughtfully by people who both care and understand. That is not most people, nor should it be. We should not all be voting on the test for how much tension a screw in a Rocketship should bear. I'm a smart guy, but I don't even know if that question is even a sensible one to ask. Most importantly at this stage of the game is that we globally exist within an ancient power regime that takes as foundational premise that some are better than and more entitled than others and that the allocation of the world's resources is properly to those who have a legal claim to the power of the state to enforce ownership and privilege. We have been sold the notion that we must all somehow 'earn' our right to breath the air and that it is okay that people unable to do so suffocate. It's messed up when I use the example 'air', but since we apply that to food and shelter and the variety of means to have a life, it's the same thing. You won't die as quickly if you starve to death, but you will die, and in a world of abundance such as we have there is no need for that except to uphold the principle that there are people who 'own' more than they need and people who do not own enough to meet their needs. I designed a voting system for a municipal election in Ontario whereby people's votes could be secret, known only to them, yet at the same time be available so the voter could ensure that their particular vote was counted as cast and the published results would allow others to do the same and it could be verified that only legitimate voters voted, and in the event of any irregularity or dispute the entire election could be audited to ensure total compliance still without revealing how a vote was associated with an individual. We had a date and time set to present this to the city council. The presentation was cancelled because someone on the council had a relative at another company that ultimately was given the go-ahead without ever seeing what we proposed. Subsequently that supplier was accused of irregularities (just errors, I think), go figure. We now have, in first world countries like Canada, the facilities to hold elections with such a mechanism and if things like ranked-choice or some better variant are chosen then the same thing would apply such that people could verify that their vote was counted as cast and even with a relatively complex voting protocol the system overall could be vetted after the fact. One of the things not addressed here is a foundational constitution that provides for inviolable individual rights and entitlements that even a majority cannot vote away. It does not address genuine equality of opportunity. If someone is simply not educated enough to render a sensible opinion, or if someone is struggling to keep body and soul together where an election is the least of their worries or if methods of voting are sufficiently onerous as to discourage people, or if candidates have such extremely disparate resources that only one is ever presented to people ... well ... you get the idea ... a real system requires thought beyond what has been presented as a mathematical problem. We need a rational constitution and a real voting system because we are entering a time where the entire worlds jurisdictions and all of their rules are about to be turned on their heads as automation eliminates work, we enter a new time of abundance, and our impact on our environment becomes ever more extreme.
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