> So, we have a largely moderate-right party in power and a far-left party out of power.

I'd say you -- mind you, I'm writing from the other side of the Atlantic, and even if I have lived in the US, that was a long time ago! -- have lunatic right-wingers in power and lunatic liberals who think they are entitled to running the show as the (weak but noisy) opposition.

Why does this happen? Because close to nobody votes in the primaries, and so it is mostly candidates who have rather extremist views that are chosen by the two parties. How to solve this? By getting more people to vote in the primaries, so that more middle-of-the-road candidates are chosen.

How would this be even possible? Only if expressing one's vote were much simpler. I pretty much subscribe to Bradley Tusk's view (see: Vote with your phone: Why Mobile Voting Is Our Final Shot at Saving Democracy) that allowing people to vote from their phones is the only way to save the US.

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tts626 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Actually, "a long time ago" the GOP was not moderate in the least. But the Democrats were quite centrist in most things, at least up until Obama.

But I agree, poor turnouts in primaries is bad. Even worse in states with open primaries where liberals purposely try to sabotage Republican primaries.

Electronic voting isn't going to help us, not for a good long while. Nothing on the Internet is safe. And as soon as quantum computing hits the scene, things are going to get real cray cray.

Imo, we just need good old fashioned ballots, an enforced chain of custody, and proper ID checking (at some stage), no late mail-in ballots (drop off is fine), and ZERO computers.

And I say this as a very pro-technology person. But we haven't caught up to what the tech can do, not yet.

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dotcoma 7 hours ago | parent [-]

I know for sure that e-voting has been a thing for years now in Estonia, perhaps the country most subject to Russian attempts to tamper with voting.

	▲	tts626 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'll have to look into that. But I'll tell you, neither major party in the USA would go for it. The Dems will cry about ballot access, I mean there might be some bum or granny out there without a phone, and we'd have to pass a bill to give away free phones to everyone, oh and along with free healthcare, before they might consider it. The GOP will cry about who has control of the system, that we're not a democracy, we're a Republic, something about unconstitutional blah blah blah, and "we never needed that before, why do we need it now", sorts of arguments. My take is that everything is hackable. If Russia hasn't hacked it, maybe they just have bigger fish to fry. Who knows. But from what I know of quantum computing and AI, even the best encryption is going to be in trouble. While personally I'm on the side of tech, that eventually we'll get there, I'm also rather cautious in how we proceed. https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-quantum-...