It was that speech where a female from CA I think told him “see you in court” around 22nd Feb, and this was regarding trans’ rights I believe.

I watched some of it live. He talked about lots of things and said he wants to ban all voting booths and have paper ballots and that (in his typical self) “there won’t be cheating, they have advanced technology, really advanced stuff. It’s called… “watermark”. It’s really great”.

Combined with the accusations that there were indeed cheating by paper ballots for some states, it’s kinda the smoking gun that would mean he perhaps shouldn’t be president?

Why is no one here talking about this? Why is no one outraged?

  • @einkorn@feddit.orgEnglish
    0•23 days ago

    I am not 100 % sure I understand your point here. Using paper ballots doesn’t mean you have to submit your vote via mail. You can still use local polling stations.

    I assume you are from the US, so here is what we do in Germany:

    • You are notified via mail of the upcoming election you are eligible to take part in (No special registration required, only the usual registry with the municipality if you move to a new place)
    • Option A: You opt in for a (paper) mail ballot
      • You receive a ballot via mail that you fill out and then double wrap the ballot: The ballot goes into an official unmarked envelope that is later placed with every other mail-in ballot of the district. The unmarked enveloped goes into a regular envelope for transportation via mail (which is free of charge)
    • Option B: On the day of the election, you head to your assigned local polling station
      • You identify yourself by one of the official forms (Personal ID, driving licence, passport)
      • You are handed a blank paper ballot ([example from northern Germany](file:///home/se/Downloads/Muster-Stimmzettel_zur_Bundestagswahl_2025_im_Wahlkreis_1.PDF))
      • You make your choice behind a privacy screen
        • Law declares that the head of the local election council has to be able to view both the booth and the voter (but of course not the vote) except in some special circumstances.
      • The ballot is then placed in a sealed urn
      • After the deadline at 18:00 the urn is unsealed and votes are counted
        • Critically: This counting is public. While not many people do, it is explicitly allowed to watch the officials at this stage
      • After tallying the votes, the ballots are bundled up, sealed and handed to the officials on the municipality level.

    One of the many issues with electronic voting are those last two steps: Examining the votes can never be public, as we are simply unable to look at the state of all electrons in a computer.

    • @towerful@programming.devEnglish
      0•23 days ago

      No, from the UK.
      I don’t understand how the US can want to have 100% paper ballots, but ban voting booths (which to me means, in person voting). This essentially leaves postal voting.
      And USPS has been repeatedly targeted by right wing politics.

      What kind of paper voting system is left without in-person, if USPS is compromised?

      President Donald Trump on Friday [21st Feb 2025, I think] said he may put the U.S. Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover of the agency, which has operated as an independent entity since 1970. https://apnews.com/article/trump-postal-service-usps-what-to-know-672db6c590837411ca3ba36966e374e1

      So paper votes only, no voting booths… Leave postal votes. And the government controls the postal service.
      What else is there?

      • @vonbaronhans@midwest.socialEnglish
        0•23 days ago

        I’ll be the first to admit I have no idea what my Chucklefuck in Chief means by trying to get rid of voting booths.

        But if I had to guess, I think he means literally the booths. As in, no privacy. Just paper on a desk where anyone can see what you’re doing.

        If it isn’t clear, this fucker has no idea what a free and fair election is SUPPOSED to look like. He just wants to make sure whatever system we end up with favors him and him alone. And for some reason, voting booths are catching his ire. Maybe he feels insecure not knowing if Melania actually voted for him.

    • @Zexks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0•23 days ago

      In the US we don’t get any kind of notifications. In fact republicans are trying to remove any kind of notice to anyone. So leave that part out.

      Option A is currently trying to be eliminated by the existing administration. So no go

      Option B: This is the part about removing the privacy screens. Here we call them voting booths.

      Also you can’t allow the entire public to actually review all f the paper ballots. There are simply to many people and too many ballots. There is no difference than your attempt at claiming we ‘can’t review the electrons. Which show a complete lack of understanding how digital data is processed and stored.