Hacker News Reader

I honestly don't see an issue with having people vote directly on bills. Everyone's got a smartphone and Amber Alerts have a mechanism to disseminate information widely and quickly (something that cannot be ignored or at leasts documents receipt of the voting expectation). Winning an election should not entitle any political actor or party 4 years to run amok with zero accountabillity other than losing the next election.

View on HN

I can see an issue. Someone makes a bill called the Save Puppies Act with terrible stuff in it and everyone votes for it without reading the bill. No one has time to read every bill. Potentially it could be done with a few bills during presidential election years.

This already happens quite a bit with the referendums required to amend state constitutions in the US. Maybe not quite as nefarious, but they sneak in unpopular stuff, and the ballot summaries don't mention those parts.

Bills should have to be summarized like scientific papers do in the abstract. It can be boiled down to its substantive parts but the whole nature of the game (particularly with those omnibus-style bills) is to obscure included and unrelated provisions desired by lobbyists and establishment politicians who are earning their next paycheque.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com