The perils of electronic voting

Claims that Goldman Sachs bankers might have attempted to manipulate a public vote on a tax on banking transactions illustrates three important information age trends. The first is that, whether we like it or not, public policy will increasingly be influenced by electronic petitions and votes. The second is that such votes are misleading as they are open to manipulation, and do not represent a majority opinion. And the third is that attempts to rig such votes can often be detected and therefore backfire on the perpetrators. Goldman Sachs is reported to be conducting an investigation. Hopefully that will mean a few less inflated bonuses to pay.