Actually, what I'd like to see in that regard [yes I know in my last post I just advocated mechanical voting machines...] would be a system where registration was required for all candidates (no 'out of the blue' write-ins) but where the registration was free-of-charge and available to anyone who wanted it. Essentially what would happen would be that the candidate (or his staffer) would fill in a card with a pre-printed six-digit number and submit that card prior to the election. Persons wishing to vote for that candidate would punch in the number of their choice (the candidate would be responsible for ensuring that voters knew his ID). Beyond the fact that this would make tallying the votes easier, it would also avoid the problems that would occur if someone with a common name were to win a write-in campain.
Actually, what I'd really like to see in that regard would be a system where the ballot doesn't list any candidates and it was the responsibility of the candidates to ensure that voters knew their id number. The issues of which candidates deserve "ballot access" would then go away, since all candidates would be equally eligible.
You HATE Palm Beach voters, don't you? :-)
Seriously, even I would have trouble commiting a bunch of numbers to memory. I'd probably vote "straight party" with your system.
Agreed, some candidates have a name ID advantage, including when Texas had the unfortunately-named Jesse James as State Treasurer. And some live off the name of their lineage (Kennedy, Bush, Rockefeller, Gore, Pryor, Bayh, Udall, Taft, etc.). But I still think I'd rather see the name on there because I always double-check my ballot (even when they were computer punch-outs) and this helps me be sure I've made no mistakes.