[EM] direct democracy / proxy system

[James Green-Armytage]

Dear election methods fans,
Forest Simmons and I wrote:

>Of course, the communication medium that would support this process is a
>difficult problem, which is already under debate. The internet is the
>obvious choice, but then there is the issue of security, that is the worry
>that someone may be able to hack into the system and change the outcome of
>the vote. Also there is the issue of access, that is the fact that not
>everyone has equal access to the internet. 

>As you noted, the security of communication would be a major issue, as
>well as preservation of anonymity, where that is essential.
>It seems like the national scale might be too large at present, but the
>idea could be used in state or other more local jurisdictions.

I now write:

	One thought occurred to me about the internet voting issues. Although
internet voting is a tricky business, the fate of direct democracy does
not need to be completely dependent on the fate of internet voting.
	Depending on the frequency of the popular votes, in ratio to the
willingness of society to allocate resources for direct democracy, it
should be possible to perform direct issue votes using conventional voting
stations, that is, the kind that are set up on election day.
	For example, if society is willing to put together a sort of election day
setup for DD votes maybe four or five times a year, and then cram a bunch
of issues together onto each DD ballot. 
	I imagine the interface being electronic, and I imagine the data from
each polling station being kept on some sort of digital format, like a CD.
However, the computers used should not be connected to the internet at
all. Instead, the disks with the voting data should be physically carried
to a central location for the tally, by whatever sort of couriers you
would have in a normal election. The file with people's list of standing
proxies would, I suppose, already be kept at that central location. 
	Admittedly, to have a DD vote every couple of months may not qualify as
DD in the pure sense, that is giving people the ability to vote on every
issue that goes through the legislature. However, if each ballot is choc
full of interesting, important, policy-determining issues, then you will
be giving people a very substantial opportunity to express their will, and
depending on the bindingness of the popular votes, a very substantial
amount of control over policy.
	In addition, it might make sense to set up an emergency DD vote given
certain circumstances. For example, I don't think that a war should be
launched without first having a DD vote in which a majority votes in favor
of that war (unless of course of course an enemy attack is already
underway). That is, I think that the people should have the opportunity to
veto an offensive war. I suppose that there might be other issues that
might call for an ahead-of-schedule direct vote.
	Carrying this same thought to its extreme, I suppose that it might be
possible for a society to set up permanent voting stations, and have votes
on a daily or weekly basis. I would guess that the cost of this might be a
little steep, though.

sincerely,
James Green-Armytage