[Political Junkie Too]

I don't understand why technology improvements aren't making the casting and tabulating of ballots faster and more secure. There is no excuse for elections that take days to count.

How come credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express can process a combined 100 million transactions a day, but our states can't process a few thousands of ballots? Something has to change.

Why can't we combine the best technologies to make a seamless voting system that can count the votes instantaneously?

I suggest that the following technologies be used to make a more secure voting procedure:

1. Use rewritable credit cards to record each person's vote.
   • Hotels can program cards like this to open selected room doors right at the front desk. Why can't ballots be recorded on the chip or magnetic strip in the same way?
2. When a voter checks in at the front desk, give them a credit card/room key type ballot that they insert into a voting machine.
   • The registrar will have the voter sign the voting roll.
   • A credit card/room key will be programmed to that voter (instead of handing them a paper with their voter code) and handed to the voter.
   • The voter goes to a voting booth/machine and inserts the card into the voting machine. The ballot for that voter will then appear on the screen.
   • The voter makes his choices and presses "submit vote." The machine records the vote onto the card and the voter retrieves the card.
3. The voter walks over to a tabulating machine. This machine can be similar to credit card point-of-sale registers that we see all across the world. The voter inserts his card into the machine.
   • The machine reads the card and displays the ballot on the screen. The voter is prompted to confirm the ballot.
   • The machine then counts the vote and sends the transaction to the main transaction server, just like with credit card transactions.
   • The machine keeps the card for reuse just like how ATMs keep cards that are deemed to be stolen or fraudulent.
   • The card is wiped after the vote is transmitted and an acknowledgement is received.
   • Periodically throughout the day, an election worker will retrieve the wiped cards from the tabulation machine and bring them back up to the front desk for resuse.

Why can't a voting procedure like this work? Why can our credit card and hotel companies process billions of transactions this way, but we can't leverage that technology to improve the voting booth?

-PJ

[foreverfree]

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