no. no.

first, the u.s. was started by the elite, run by the elite, and is run by the elite. that has never changed. it was never a democracy, it was never an indirect democracy under a republic (as it officially is called), and it was never mob rule. the idea that "democracy is mob rule" is just not fully fleshed out. some forms of indirect and direct democracy can lead to mob rule, but to simply say all democracy is mob rule is plain wrong.

In an oligarchy like the U.S., someone with enough money ought to be able to purchase voting records

FIFY.

You don't live in a democracy.

Almost right, but people get to voat on legislative matters, hell, they can even print their own legislation and take it to the ballot. They do it very well in Switzerland, now ask yourself, how come switzerland is THE only country with direct democracy? Why are they among the top economies of the world?

Transition to what?

The MSM mocks any attempt to bring accountablity to ellections. When people wanted to recount the Gore vs Bush ellections, the media blow this whole "hanging chad" thing up to make it sound like some kind of unnecessary thing. What? Count the electoral votes to decide who will be the next president? BUT HANGING CHAAAADDDDSSS.

Too bad we don't have the same thing for senators.

And a democratic republic is mob rule by a bunch of degenerate scum that managed to get elected by the gullible populace. Saying it's better than real democracy is bullshit.

Quick, where's the nearest burn ward?!

They don't want our numbers to conflict with their numbers.

really, because bitcoin was a complete failure that ended with a few people running off with millions while everyone else's computers were ruined.

We're a democratic republic. We are not a democracy. We never were.

Your voting record could also be used against you by an employer or other party, do you really want that? The problem we have is not that we can't see our own votes, it is that there is no guarantee to it, because the collection of the vote itself is subverted by the parties or corporations working in the interest of a party. Even this doesn't matter as the underlying vote collection system between the states can also be compromised, and the discrepancies are downplayed and access to the evidence is denied or it is simply destroyed.

Trying to fix the corruption with more accounting won't really fix the problem. To fix it you probably would do best to force competition by removing the primary processes completely, and simply allow all candidates to go head to head. This would make it significantly more difficult for a candidate to win a majority, but also there would be more competition. The rich would it course choose their candidate as always but their funding would not be as effective if they had to split among candidates.

Voting records were open very early but employers fired people for how they voted. A belief in voting is a mistake. A professor once pointed out that when ancient cultures needed to settle decisions among equals, they drew lots. We still do for the ultimate power of the state -- jury duty. If Joe Sixpack can sit on a jury, he should have an equal chance at sitting in congress. Oh, there might be retards and scoundrels. Do you think that's not the case now? The difference would be that no one particularly wanted the job. They might defer to people who knew what they were doing. And lobbyists would have a hell of a time figuring out who was good and bought -- and even those relationships would be unlikely to last long.

yeah we can't have that. only politicians should be allowed to sell their vote!

Would be a wonder if the voting machines are the only machines on Earth the US government can't hack.

the records are anonymized (was your name on the ballot you filled out?).

Electronic Voting Machine Fraud

I think my dad explained to me how america was supposed to be the best.

America was supposed to be a Republic. Imagine there are 2 wolves and 1 sheep. Everyone gets a vote on what to eat. And every ones vote is equally considered. Wolves might want to eat the sheep, but since the sheep doesn't want to be eaten they find something else to eat. It's built on compromise. The proof that America was supposed to be a republic is the Constitution. The perfect document built by dozens of men with different opinions and philosophies getting together and agreeing on a base set of human rights that everyone deserves regardless of philosophy or opinion.

A democracy is majority rules. 2 wolves want to eat the sheep, the sheeps vote doesn't fucking matter, and the sheep dies a bloody horrible death.

But none of that matters, because America is far more an oligarchy at this point. Two of the biggest runners are the wife of an ex president, and the brother of and ex president who was the son of an ex president. On top of that money controls all bills and you're voice and vote means absolutely nothing in anyway. That's an oligarchy. That's why there is no transparency, because you have done nothing to affect or help the government and therefore they don't owe you a damn thing. Or at least that's how they view it. Now if you're giving millions of dollars to help influence law, then there is total transparency. Those companies know how their votes are going and know what their money is going to, on top of knowing what their competitors money is going to.

ah, how the tables have turned

Voting machines are a total fraud.

If you can get legal access to your records, then that means that those with more dubious methodology can also get access. Know the saying "Don't put anything on the internet that you don't want the public to see"? The IRS is already on record of using people's political affiliation to attack people, why would you want to have another way that they can use pressure to affect your vote?

America isn't a fucking democracy. It never has been. The founding fathers wanted a Republic, we currently have a plutocracy.

On the flip side, I don't really want my voting records recorded.