[eindiran]

Hard disagree. The world is complex enough that every person in the world relies on the words of "spooky experts telling [them] what to believe".

Even outside of that, elections require trust in the process. Already, with a "simple" system in place, we have to trust that no one is committing fraud, that votes aren't being surreptitiously added or thrown out, etc. E-voting doesn't fundamentally change the trust dynamics at all: people ultimately need to believe that the people in charge of the process aren't up to any funny business or bad at their jobs.

This argument gets used a lot to argue in favor of first past the post. Explaining a Borda count or single non-transferable vote is harder than explaining: most votes = win. But I think it ultimately comes down to trust: if the people voting trust the people involved with the process (even if they don't understand the nitty-gritty details) they will accept the results of an election.

[chrononaut]

> E-voting doesn't fundamentally change the trust dynamics at all: people ultimately need to believe that the people in charge of the process aren't up to any funny business or bad at their jobs.

A notable difference is that any John or Jane Doe can become a poll worker or poll watcher with little barrier to entry no matter their background, and verify the integrity of their elections should they choose to do so.

To me, the lack of the ability for an average person to do this would significantly change the trust dynamics.

[greenduck]

> relies on the words of "spooky experts telling [them] what to believe".

Widespread distrust of subject matter experts already exists in the US. You can't just tell people to shut up and listen to the experts.

The efficacy of vaccines is one of those things that is almost impossible for the average person to verify. I can get in a plane and confirm for myself that it doesn't fall out of the sky. I can't get a vaccine and directly compare it with my chances of catching the flu without one. That's the reason why people widely trust the safety of planes, but there exists an anti-vax movement in the US.

Even with alternatives to first past the post, the complexity is of a wildly different scale than blockchain. I can sit down with someone and go step by step how ranked-choice works right now without looking up material. I'd have to pull out reference material and then start with the basics of hash functions or something to explain blockchain.