Spoiled Ballots, Abstention, and Touch-Screen Voting

[zimmerwald1915]

Personally, I buy the arguments of ballot-spoilers more than I do abstentionists...where there are actually ballots to spoil. However, I'm interested in exploring how the ground between the debating sides shifts if there are not ballots to spoil, for example, if one is living in an American state that has wholly adopted touch-screen voting?

Feel free to lambaste.

[Die Neue Zeit]

That's a good tactical question.

[zimmerwald1915]

That's a good tactical question.
I take it this is a placeholder for a much more comprehensive response? :D

[bricolage]

Spoilt ballots benefit from having something concrete for those counting the votes (maybe others) to see and gets around the argument of 'you are just too lazy to bother walking to the polling station'. On the other side of the argument though if there is someone who doesn't want to vote because they don't think it will make a difference, telling them to vote in a way that will be guaranteed not to make an (immediate) difference might not have too much resonance.

[zimmerwald1915]

Spoilt ballots benefit from having something concrete for those counting the votes (maybe others) to see and gets around the argument of 'you are just too lazy to bother walking to the polling station'.
There are half a dozen threads about simple spoiling. What's new and different about this one is that it specifically excludes the possibility of having "something concrete for those counting votes" to view. How does one spoil a ballot cast on a touch-screen machine? It's not like they give you a stylus so that you my write whatever you like on the touch screen; your only options with a touch screen machine, at least as I understand it, are to check boxes.

If this is the case, and it is in many US states that I know of (I haven't done the research to know how widespread it is abroad), is spoiling thereby excluded as a tactic? Is there a way to send a similar message using the touch-screen technology?

[Die Neue Zeit]

You should go back to paper balloting with more polling stations. The US is the only country in the world with electronic balloting concentrated in so few polling stations.

[tophat]

What, in concrete terms, does spoiling your vote achieve?

[Q]

You should go back to paper balloting with more polling stations. The US is the only country in the world with electronic balloting concentrated in so few polling stations.

The Netherlands has had electronic polling stations for a while now. Last EU election though we reverted back to the pencil, because of privacy issues over electronic voting, I'm not sure how the upcoming elections will be (March: local elections, June: national). But there is a blank option if I remember correctly.

[zimmerwald1915]

You should go back to paper balloting with more polling stations. The US is the only country in the world with electronic balloting concentrated in so few polling stations.
I'm not convinced it's worth organizing a campaign to "bring back" paper balloting, just to make spoilage possible again. Doesn't seem like the best use of time and resources.

[Niccolò Rossi]

How does one spoil a ballot cast on a touch-screen machine? It's not like they give you a stylus so that you my write whatever you like on the touch screen; your only options with a touch screen machine, at least as I understand it, are to check boxes.

If this is the case, and it is in many US states that I know of (I haven't done the research to know how widespread it is abroad), is spoiling thereby excluded as a tactic? Is there a way to send a similar message using the touch-screen technology?

I think you answered your own question. I don't think there is any way to spoil a ballot with an electronic polling system.

Besides, I think the discussion on whether or not spoilage is a preferable 'tactic' to abstention is the more interesting and certainly more contentious topic. Zimmerwald, maybe you would care to give your contribution to this (http://www.revleft.com/vb/idea-spoiled-ballot-t129884/index.html) thread? I'd be interested in hearing it.

[whore]

if the machines are in private booths, could you not deface the machines or break them or something?

and then fuck off out of their fast... (be sure not to do it in your normal area)