Euro Elections and fsfe

[Lionel Élie Mamane]

On Wed, May 29, 2019 at 07:43:09AM +0200, Florian Snow wrote:
> Vitaly Repin <vitaly_repin at fsfe.org> writes:

>> Why can't FSFE monitor how each and every MEP voted for the matters
>> regarding free software dyring the current and previous election term
>> and present this statistics at FSFE web site (searchable web pages +
>> json/xml)?

> I like the idea, but I also worry about its effect. (...) It creates
> a problem when people take this lists about singular issues as the
> sole basis for their vote.  Politics is more complicated than that
> and I personally feel that while Free Software is important, there
> are clearly more existential issues out there that should take
> precedence.

As one says in French, "Yes, but no". Either "most" (for some value of
most) people are able to make an informed decision based on data and
information, or they are not.

If they are not, why do we decide things by vote?

If they are, withholding information because some may use it in the
wrong way to orient their vote leads, globally, to a worse vote
outcome, because people are forced to make a less informed vote. The
information can also be used in a more balanced way, as a
datapoint. It can be used to tip the balance between several
candidates that have otherwise broadly similar stances on the "more
existential issues out there that should take precedence". E.g. if you
were a French elector ten years ago, and you want to vote Socialist
Party anyway, well, you may want to vote specifically for Michel
Rocard, who has shown in the Software Patents issue that he was
willing to work "above the standard call of duty" on that kind of
issue. For this example, I'm not sure the French electoral system
takes into account voter preferences to select who, among the party
list, is elected. But other countries' systems do: the number of seats
that each party gets depends on the cumulated amount of votes all
party candidates got, but which candidate is elected is decided by
which candidates among the party list got the most individual /
personal votes.

On an emotional basis, I very much reject this idea of "dumbing down"
electoral information (or other things in general) just because you
think my neighbours are unable to deal with the information that would
be useful to me.

Kind Regards,

Lionel