Dumb ballot-box plan

It’s one of those times all-patriots folk find themselves opposing the government: legislators derail a plan for ‘smart ballot boxes’…

But within just two days, the bureau decided to withdraw the initiative after the backlash.

“The original intention of the proposal is to help voters confirm their ballots were marked correctly to further protect their voting rights,” a bureau spokesman said. “After listening to opinions from lawmakers and the public, the government is willing to reconsider.”

The containers would be fitted with scanners that would somehow detect invalid ballots and ask voters if they wished to amend them. No opposition candidates are allowed to run these days, so it seems the ‘marked correctly’ rationale is an attempt to reduce the number of blank or spoiled ballots. It’s hard to take pride in being a legislator when everyone knows many voters stayed at home and you got a fraction of the votes won in the old days by pro-democracy politicians who are now in prison. Chances are that lawmakers – who are now pre-screened and essentially nominated by the authorities – fear that turnout will shrink even further if voters think some fancy tech is examining their supposedly secret ballots.

HKFP adds… 

Chief Executive John Lee on Tuesday did not directly answer a reporter’s question as to whether the ballot scanners would infringe on the right to cast a blank or spoiled vote, saying only that electoral procedures would be conducted smoothly and satisfactorily.

HKFP report on the latest from Jimmy Lai’s trial, in which judges ask if Lai was ‘inciting hatred’ when he talked about the police twisting facts after the Yuen Long attack and China’s assimilation into the global system. Is that what used to be called criticizing?

Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair, New Yorker, etc, names Jimmy Lai as her Man of the Year…

I love this guy, Jimmy Lai. His heroic stand against Chinese authoritarianism may result in his never leaving his cockroach-infested prison cell again. But my profound hope is that he is not only freed but comes to live in the U.S. and buys the Washington Post. I’d be a cub reporter for him in a heartbeat.

AFP story on Macau’s vanishing civil society…

Today, public protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched sweeping measures in the past five years that ousted opposition lawmakers and chilled free speech.

Ahead of the anniversary, multiple Macau democrats told AFP they were warned not to make critical remarks in public.

Apparently, ferry services between Hong Kong and Macau were suspended yesterday as Xi Jinping arrived to mark the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover in 1999.