Interesting Links for 07-03-2012

[andrewducker]

• Ken Clarke defends secret courts. I, of course, think they're an awful idea.
  (tags: law secrecy security_theatre uk )
• 6 Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying
  (tags: money income society )
• Jews in Scotland may be disenfranchised by a Saturday vote.
  Is there a reason why voting has to happen on one day? Give people a week to vote, with daily updates on the ongoing count!
  (tags: voting uk scotland independence jews )
• Kids born later in the year more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD
  (tags: adhd diagnosis children )
• Govt. agencies, colleges demand applicants' Facebook passwords. (And they can, frankly, fuck off)
  (tags: facebook privacy employment usa )
• Dammit, I find myself largely in agreement with esr on Hollywood, piracy and the internet
  (tags: censorship politics freedom )
• A man who informed police when he found child abuse images on his computer has not been allowed to be alone with his daughter for four months.
  (tags: uk Child_abuse )
• How I became Amazon’s pitchman for a 55-gallon drum of personal lubricant on Facebook
  (tags: lubricant facebook amazon advertising )
• On Writers Block
  (tags: neilgaiman writing )
• I hadn't realised that Gillian Anderson stood on a box for The X-Files
  (tags: GillianAnderson x-files tv )
• Either be offensive, or don't be offensive. Being offensive and then pretending you weren't is just dumb.
  (tags: humour offensive )
• Rather than a mansion tax we should be sorting out council tax
  (tags: tax uk housing )
• Romney vs Mr Burns - can you tell which quote belongs to which one?
  (tags: simpsons politics usa )

Comments

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I suspect it is a hangover from when voting was done by acclamation or by hands up and everyone had to be in one place at the same time.

Not convinced by the idea of having updates on the score during the voting but this may be a bit of conservatism on my part.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Releasing as the count went along would be a nightmare. I expect you would reach a situation where huge numbers of people delayed voting until the very end so they could decide if/how to vote tactically.

[andrewducker]

Yup, I'd expect people who were completely wedded to one party to vote early, and then other people to vote for their favourite of the ones in the lead. This would provide impetus for you to vote early if you thought your party had a chance of winning, so that others would see you as worth voting for.

It would be a ridiculous system and _still_ better than the one we currently have.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I would certainly do that in my constituency when using single member plurality voting.

I live in a multi-way marginal. The Labour majority over the Lib Dems is in the hundreds, the SNP won the Holyrood constituency that my Westminster constituency overlaps and I think the Tories would consider this a target seat.

So, I’d love to wait until the end of the week and then vote tactically.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

When it happened in America, and Fox declared Bush the winner even though polls were still open on the west coast, it seemed to result in a lot of people not bothering to go out. Which is odd, I would have assumed that a party being in the lead would seriously motivate the opposition to get out there and vote.

Still. I think updates could be useful, just. Anything that gets better turn-outs in our elections. It's shameful how few people bother to vote.