Learn

This site has many chapters. You do not need to read all of them. Pick the path below that fits why you came, and follow it in order. Each path takes you from a plain starting point to the chapters with the most depth for your purpose.

Every chapter stands on its own, so you can leave a path at any point. Terms are defined in the glossary. The hardest objections are answered briefly in Hard questions.

Defined terms

• Reading path: a suggested order through existing chapters for one kind of reader. Paths add no new claims; they only arrange chapters.
• Core chapter: a chapter with a full argument, evidence, competing interpretations, and sources.

Paths

For citizens

You want to know what this is, whether to trust it, and what happens to your information.

1. Start here: the framework in five minutes, and what it is not.
2. The framework: priorities, opinions, and the private vote, and why they are kept apart.
3. Priorities and Opinions: what you would be asked, and what you choose to share.
4. Privacy and Consent: who can see what, and how you stay in control.
5. Private voting: what the vote would require, and why it does not exist yet.
6. Hard questions: the strongest objections, answered directly.
7. Status: what works today and what is simulated.

For teachers

You want material for a class on democracy, civics, or research methods, with questions students can argue about.

1. Start here and The framework: a shared vocabulary for the class.
2. The secret ballot: why privacy in voting was introduced.
3. Access and exclusion: who has been kept from voting, and how.
4. Participation between elections: referendums, consultation, and participatory budgeting.
5. Question design: how wording changes answers; good for a hands-on exercise.
6. Representation and Tradeoffs: the arguments behind representative government and limited budgets.
7. Seminar guide: objectives, readings, exercises, and discussion prompts.
8. Glossary: stable definitions for handouts.

For researchers

You want to evaluate the framework's assumptions, its measurement choices, and what could be tested.

1. The framework: the claims and assumptions under test.
2. Question design and Measurement: wording, ordinal data, denominators, weighting, nonresponse, and opt-in bias.
3. Collective priorities: aggregation methods and their counterexamples.
4. Opinion and choice: why stated preferences and ballots differ.
5. Evaluation: what could be measured, labeled as hypotheses, not results.
6. Cases: comparative studies of existing practice, with failures.
7. Published releases and Consent: the rules any future data release would follow.
8. Sources: the full bibliography.

For election practitioners

You work in or around election administration and want to see where this framework stops and your authority begins.

1. Start here and Status: this is an educational framework, not an election service.
2. Private voting: requirements stated, nothing claimed as built.
3. Identity and registration: authentication, identity proofing, and eligibility kept separate.
4. Security and Hardware: threat model, device trust, and what current website controls do not cover.
5. Intimidation: coercion and the limits of remote voting.
6. Audits and verification: evidence that does not depend on trusting the operator.
7. Governance and Jurisdictions: who holds authority, and why no universal certification exists.
8. Proposals and Participation over time: how the framework treats official ballot items and calendars.

Evidence

This page makes no factual claims of its own. Evidence is in each linked chapter and in Sources.

Competing interpretations

Some readers will prefer to start with the objections, not the framework. That is a reasonable path: begin at Hard questions and follow its links.

Application to this framework

The paths exist because the framework spans civics, survey research, security, and law. No single order suits all readers, and none of the paths skips the limits.

Unresolved questions

• Should there be a separate path for journalists or for policymakers? Suggestions can be sent through About.