Referendum 2.0 or All Power to the People!

You may say I'm a dreamer
But i'm not the one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

-John Lennon-

The Constitution of Russia, Article 3.2 , states that “The people exercise their power directly, as well as through government bodies and local self-government bodies”
')
But, in practice, this very "directly" is actually not. People choose some deputies, some parties, and then they vote in a completely different way than the people want, and this is for five or six years in a row, and nothing can be changed.

I propose to discuss the technology that will help the people of Russia to exercise power directly.





So, Article 3.3 of the Constitution: “The supreme direct expression of the power of the people is referendum and free elections”

Why not use referendums to decide key issues of a country's life? So that everyone can express their opinions on important, exciting issues. The referendum is what I need, I think so.

How to hold a referendum? You can, of course, allocate a certain number of billions, print a megaton of blanks, put bins, set a certain day (one), then collect pieces of paper and plant a new forest , count them manually, transfer the information above.

Stop! After all, we live in the 21st century, we need to use information technologies, they are everywhere, and they are meant for that. We will use what works well, costs little and is widespread everywhere: the Internet and cell phones.

Action plan

We create a website on which we register all Russian citizens who have the right to vote. Distribute logins and passwords. You can send them by registered mail (as they send letters from the Pension Fund).

For each person who is registered on the site, add his cell phone number to the database. This information can be obtained from mobile operators. We send a text message with a request to log in and enter the code from the SMS, confirming that this number is really in the hands of this person. If the person has several numbers, let him use any of them.

If a person doesn’t have a phone, he should be able to contact the mobile operator and get a simple Nokia 1202 phone with a SIM card for free. Phones can either be paid by the state ( if you think this is expensive, then bear in mind that they have already taken more money from AvtoVAZ in favor of each citizen; moreover, you can buy telephones in bulk with a discount, or buy a line to produce them, and collect here, so it will be much cheaper than in the trade network ), or a mobile operator. The operator, if he has normal rates, is still profitable, because There is a high probability that the subscriber will remain for a long time.

Then everything is simple.

Everyone has the right to create on the site a new topic for the referendum. In order to bring this topic to a general referendum, it must receive the necessary number of votes in support of how many there are now under the law - no less than 2 million in different regions, if we are talking about the all-Russian referendum. As soon as the topic receives support from people, the question is put to the vote.

Voting

Voting in our system is also very simple and convenient.

Pay attention to the picture: each referendum has its own unique identifier, UUID, it can be considered its unique tag. When you click on it, the search page opens, displaying the results by ID. So you can quickly see the materials marked with this tag - the opinions of people, discussions, etc.

In order to vote, a person enters (login) on the site using an encrypted connection. Click on the button "Get SMS". The code comes to the phone, 3-4 significant number. After that, it enters the code in the field for the code under “For” or “Against” and presses “Vote”. Everything. No need to go anywhere. You can vote for a week or two - you need to choose a period empirically.



Thus, it is possible on the most pressing issues very quickly (instead of several years - several weeks) to receive the opinion of the people and be guided by them for further action (the decision of the referendum is the law). No need for intermediaries in the form of deputies and parties, everything is solved directly.

Implementation details

I think from my description it is obvious that the sms code is valid only within an encrypted session. Thus, even knowing who got what code by phone, you cannot use it, because the connection is encrypted, and the code is one-time.

It seems to me that in order to be confident in the final voting software, it is worth creating a LiveCD isoshka with a minimal Linux distribution, which, when loaded, launches the browser and climbs to the voting site. Who does not have a computer or the Internet, he can vote, for example, in the mail, just using a dedicated computer for this from the LiveCD. Deer breeders can give out satellite phones with netbooks and stoves that generate electricity (this is cheaper than flying around helicopters).

Possible problems and their solutions

I would like to hear the opinion of respected technically savvy people who are a lot on Habré. What pitfalls can come out here? Voting for money, of course, this method does not prevent.

The transfer of sims to other hands can be controlled through checking the IMEI code (one IMEI votes only 1 time on behalf of one person).

Voting results should be available so that everyone can make sure that their vote has not been replaced. Voting results should be available in real time, and not after “counting”, since here the votes are counted immediately. The results are only general, voting is closed, otherwise everyone can see who has voted as it is, and this can be used in voice trading. Of course, because everyone has his own voting history, you can make a screen - but the screen can be faked, it's not the same as watching the information directly from the site, there is no guarantee that the person took the money and voted as it should.

For people with disabilities should be provided with the opportunity to work with the system. For the visually impaired / blind, you can provide the function of reading SMS text out loud and, of course, provide them with devices like this . For those who are unable to act independently, certainly, the help of special assistants will be needed.

Summing up

In general, it seems to me that such a system could solve many problems, make our society more free, active and responsible. The technical implementation is extremely simple and cheap, the question for small is whether it is interesting to the society?

PS

Yes, the system is simple and disgraceful, no rocket science. Moreover, I (and maybe not only me) wonder why nothing like this has yet been created.