Of course, in the Netherlands, election loser Geert Wilders starts spreading messages suggesting a rigged election. It's what far-right people always do when they lose. But, unlucky for him, the Netherlands still votes on paper, so while a full recount will take time, it is perfectly possible to do. Democracy deserves the paper trail. It's something I will never stop preaching as loud as I can.
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The paper votes are a good verification, but not unsurmountable.
To Putin, for example, videos of the officials stuffing the boxes is part of the process, with the logic of practice (perhaps) being undermining trust in the process itself.
That's why in actually free elections each polling place is observed by monitors from muitlple parties.
All the "excess" people and the "inefficiency" of paper voting is the point of the system. It's what maintains trust.
@iju @jwildeboer
Some of its security theatre, though.
I once counted votes (might've been for europarliament, but might not as well), and the sealed box's bottom fell off while moving it to the counting table. In theory the box might have been stuffed.
There are good practices and they were observed, but during times of peace we easily become compliant and don't recognize signs of danger.
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2/2
Few years after I read the notes of international observers who had been around for another counting I'd participated in.
Was something around the lines of that we saw several attack vectors that could have been abused, but none of the counters (we all represented different political parties) seemed concerned, so the trust in the system was intact, which was the main thing.
I feel these are anecdotes that should really be discussed more.
No human system is infallible. Volunteer election officials are bound to make mistakes and accidents will happen. It's true all those accidents should be documented and learned from to do better next time - and perhaps they are?
Some of the arrangements in the local + regional elections last spring were obviously better than others, for example.
@iju @jwildeboer
Jan Wildeboer 😷
Juho Mäntysalo
Osma A 🇫🇮🇺🇦