Not sure I agree about the tyranny. Having a link from each ballot back to who it was issued to seems like the only way to be sure no more than one ballot was cast by each person. Otherwise somebody could show up and demand a provisional ballot claiming they lost theirs or never received it and there would be no way to verify their original wasn’t already cast. Who/what they voted for doesn’t need to be linked to anything (except the totals), but we need to know the ballot was used to prevent duplicates. If there is no record of who voted for what, I don’t see the opportunity for tyranny.
I envisioned that the ballot would be mailed out attached to the voter guide, which obviously has the name and address on it. Then people would fill out the ballot at home, bring the whole thing to the polling place, show their ID matches the name and address on the voter guide, detach the ballot and insert it into the machine reader or ballot box.
The ballot would need to have a barcoded unique serial# in order to use the correct key to interpret it as well as be sure it is the correct unique ballot for that voter. No two ballots should have the questions or possible choices in the same order — that would prevent anyone using a template to rapidly fill out a bunch of unclaimed ballots.
The tyranny comes in being able to link a ballot to a voter and knowing how that voter cast his vote. Voters who do not vote the "correct" way would find themselves targeted in any number of ways: their building permit is "irregular", their car suddenly violates emissions standards, their employer suddenly found their performance sub-par, etc. It is for this reason that unions prefer "open" ballots rather than anonymous ones.
You can tell if someone votes more than once through voter ID. When you show up at the precinct to vote, your name is on a list of registered voters. With voter ID, you verify that you sign next to your name and no other. Without voter ID, you could show up in multiple precincts and choose any name next to an unsigned slot. So, what I am thinking is that you show up, show your ID and sign your name, then you get a serial numbered ballot which is marked on another ledger as "distributed." You vote, you hand the ballot back. At that time, it is marked as "used." If you mess up and need another ballot, the spoiled ballot is marked "invalid" and another is issued. For provisional ballots, there would have to be a mechanism to link the ballot to the voter, but only until the ballot is found legitimate. At that time, it would be de-identified and placed with the other ballots.
After the election, the process could be audited to ensure that the number of ballots cast matches the number of voters who showed up.
Putting the questions/candidate names in random order would be another safeguard. That would help to combat the type of fraud where eighty different names are registered at the address of the same empty lot.
There are all kinds of things that can be done to safeguard our elections. The fact is, the left does not want to safeguard, because any validation of the election process makes it harder for them to manufacture votes.
At the end of the day you count the ballots in the ballot box.
Then the result is announced.
A lot of the fishy business occurs when ballots are taken to government offices to be counted, or when absentee ballots are processed, or when provisional ballots are allowed.