Posted on 11/22/2020 3:55:01 AM PST by MalPearce
Open question: given the corruption and legal disputes around elections at least since Florida's hanging chads, just curious to see what people think would be a better system either at state or federal level.
Voting in person can be done privately. Blockchain can ensure in person voting is secure and untampered. Make every person who votes in person dip their finger in indelible ink. No double voting.
Absentee ballots can be available but should be validated by a globally unique identifier (GUID) generated by a private key or hash that is only known by a single individual or entity in the election office and it cannot be tampered with by being input into a blockchain backed security vault. All GUIDs are validated against the private key. They key only works one way so GUIDs couldn’t be generated for fraudulent purposes. Every one would be linked to a living NBC.
On Election Day, votes are tallied and numbers are submitted no later than 2 hours after the close of polls and are hashed by the private key to prevent tampering. Absentee ballots are due 1 week in advance of the election and processed no later than 2 days prior to Election Day. All absentee ballot tallies are due to the FEC no later than midnight 2 days prior to Election Day. All votes received or “found” after 2 hours past the close of polls are invalid and destroyed.
The electoral college has worked fine for over 200 years. Turning into districts is not the answer.
in a perfect world yes... but there is too much resistance for normality in this day and age. Democrats have to cheat to get elected. and they only way, again in this day and age, is to kill them publicly to send a strong enough messgae that even the most stupid will understand... just sayin...
In- person voting, with absentee ballots only available to active-duty military. One day voting on election day. Voter ID with a picture on it, has to be obtained in person only. Paper ballots only, with mechanical counting, not electronic, followed by one hand count. Automatic recounts afterward if it is close. Also, mandatory life sentences or the death penalty for election tampering. That might reduce cheating to a lower level than what we have now.
And open source counting systems.
In-person voting, with ID, for those who can. Exceptions: civilian expatriates, military service members, and those who plan to be traveling. A section for each of those categories follows.
Ballots are printed not less than 90 days prior to an election, serial numbered, and the location of serial number series tracked from the printer to the counting facility (more on that later). Any break in the signature chain of custody at any time renders the effected group of ballots void and they are to be condemned, their destruction documented and witnessed. No ballot lacking a signature chain of custody will be valid.
At the voting precinct, one ballot is issued to each voter, in person, with ID, no exceptions, by at least one worker and one observer from each of the major parties. Smaller parties capable of providing observers will be permitted to do so and, when they cannot, will provide an affidavit, along with their application to have a candidate on the ballot, stating that they will abide in the integrity of the major party observers.
Once completed by the voter, a ballot is placed in a sealed (except for a slot for insertion, of course) under the eyes of at least one other poll worker and one observer from each of the major parties as above.
At 8:PM local time the doors to the polling location will be closed to entry and only those remaining in line inside the location will be permitted to continue voting. As soon as the last voter leaves the location, the sealed containers. will be further sealed as to their slots. Signature chain of custody, by observers from each of the major parties, will be maintained.
At no time will ballot boxes be placed in hidden portions of a vehicle (such as the trunk), or in any private vehicle.
The boxes will be transported in the passenger cabins of police vehicles to the counting facility. There, the observers from the precinct will, in person, with ID, and signature chain of custody, hand over the sealed boxes which will be hand carried to the counting table(s) assigned for that precinct.
Only when all boxes from the precinct are physically present and documented will counting proceed.
A counting table will be staffed with one supervisor, one counter, one relief counter, and one observer from each of the major parties and any smaller parties capable of providing them (see above). Supervisors will unseal, open, close, seal, and mark as complete each ballot box, and gather the counts. Counters and observers will sit opposite each other; relief counters will be on-call elsewhere in the facility out of view of the counting tables.
Silence is expected. Expressions of courtesy (”excuse me” etc.) are expected, and calls for relief either hourly or at biological need will be necessary. Discussion of the ballots, trends in the voting, etc are strictly forbidden, enforced by the supervisors.
One box at a time will be unsealed and opened in view of all persons at the table, who will sign off on having witnessed it. A supervisor, in view of everyone at the table, will move one ballot at a time from the box to the table. Each counter will tabulate, on a form provided, the votes of each ballot. Observers will observe, but not touch, the ballots. At the other end of the table a second box for counted ballots will be in the custody of the other supervisor.
When all of the ballots have been tabulated, the tabulations from each counter will be compared. If they differ in any way, the full box and empty box will be physically transposed and the process begun again. The discrepant tabulations will be destroyed on the spot in view of all at the counting table.
When a box has been successfully counted, it will be sealed and placed in a storage area in the facility under guard, the single entry under direct observation. No box is to be removed from this storage area until all the boxes have been counted, the results agreed upon and reported.
Table tabulations will be kept at each table under the eyes of the bi- or multi-partisan supervisors. When a table (corresponding to a voting precinct) is complete, the counters, and relief counters will be relieved and the table rendered visibly not in use (folding tables folded, for example). The supervisors and observers will tabulate the tabulations, producing a single tabulation, which will be attached to the counting forms and reported to the next level.
*****
Civilian expatriates apply to their home precincts to have ballots sent to embassies and consulates. Ballots completed at the embassies/consulates, in person, with ID. Ballots returned by fastest means with the sort of postal tracking and return receipts I use when shipping valuable ebay merch.
Military: organizational voting officers appointed to request voting materials from home districts of service members within the command, sent to the unit headquarters, completed under the supervision (NOT direct observation) of those officers, in person, with ID. As an Army veteran, I believe Battalion-level is correct, run out of the S-1 shop, but with the duty assigned from among the Lieutenants according to the Duty Officer Roster. Other services have different organizational sizes, but a single voting officer temporarily relieved of other duties can deal with this for 500 to 600 servicemembers in a 30 day period. Ballots returned to precincts under the same standards as the expatriate vote, above.
Persons in the US who are traveling must* include in their travel preparations a visit to their county courthouse within 60 days prior to the election to apply for ballot, which will be completed in person with ID.
Completed absentee ballots gathered from diplomatic, military, and local government locations will be carried to the counting facility and sealed in containers according to the voting precinct. Signature chain of custody for these materials will be maintained.
*Failing that, they are deemed to have voluntarily chosen not to vote.
*****
That’s as far as I’ve gotten, and I have other things to do on a Sunday morning.
Bests to all! And may God defend the right.
1. Any system of elections works better than dictatorship. If that’s what you mean, then, yes.
2. The present system, involving mostly statewide voting, came in about 1832. So, the present system isn’t more than two hundred years old.
3. From 1832 to 1860, the country was increasingly divided on the issue of slavery. We weren’t able to end slavery peacefully, like they did in the British Commonwealth. Instead, we put 800,000 young men into their graves. We suffered from sectionalism and Jim Crow for more than a hundred years following that.
4. From 1876 to approximately 1960, the present system enabled the Democrats to steal all the EVs of the South. That wasn’t good. Under one-party rule, the states of the South were mired in poverty and corruption. Not until the Civil Rights movement did the Republicans gain traction in the South, giving voters a choice, and propel economic growth (the standard of living of the South is masked by the low cost of living there relative to Democrat-controlled states).
5. The present system allowed William Howard Taft to steal the Republican nomination of 1912, as a result of which Teddy Roosevelt ran as a third-party candidate, and the Democrats won the election. That wasn’t good.
6. The present system allowed the Democrats to steal the election of 1960. That wasn’t good. On the other hand, Jack Kennedy and Richard Nixon were both anti-communists, so I can see why Nixon didn’t contest that election being as we were in the Cold War.
7. The present system now allows the Democrats to turn cities and now entire states into one-party jurisdictions. That’s not good for those cities or those states. The people - our fellow Americans - who live in those places suffer increasing poverty and crime and declining municipal services. This included the collapse of the water system in Flint, Michigan. Democracy doesn’t work well in one-party jurisdictions, not here or in other countries.
8. The present system allowed the Democrats to steal this year’s election. That’s not good. The best way to keep any election honest is to have at least two strong parties, one being the check on the other. Each monitoring elections from the inside. The idea that, after the election, volunteer poll watchers and other citizens will report cheating and outright fraud is far-fetched. Yet, Trump is attempting to do just that. It is amazing the stink his team has already uncovered. We will see what becomes of his law suits.
9. In spite of - not because of - all the problems I’ve listed, the U.S. became the greatest country in the history of the world. And we will survive the mess of this election and, so, have an opportunity to get back to the business of making America great again. The next election is already scheduled. But, maybe, we can avoid set-backs such as civil war, paper money, world wars, entire regions of the country mired in poverty, and now rotting cities.
Voting should take a a concerted effort from the individual and it should only be allowed by tax paying citizens.
Punishment for fraud should be severe...one vote per legal citizen should be held sacred, assured recorded and able to be verified in person by every individual citizen.
Make the Presidential election day a National Holiday, requiring in-person voting.
100% ID required for in-person voting, that matches the DHS “no fly list” database.
When absentee ballot necessary — DHS produce all absentee ballots with right thumbprint area provided at the top of the page of each ballot sheet. All requests for absentee ballot must go to DHS, through USPS postcard with right thumbprint area provided. If thumbprint cannot be produced, a photo ID registration at local airport DHS office required.
DHS registers the voter, and registers the thumbprint from the USPS postcard.
All absentee ballots - with thumbprint included, must match the DHS database registration.
All absentee ballots must be mailed within 3 business days AFTER the final Presidential debate.
All voting machines must meet standards set by DHS and FEC — and approved by leadership of both parties in the Senate.
“publicly executing every last one of them who do it...”
Seriously, you are talking thousands, if not a hundred thousand or more executions. You are talking the democrat hierarchy on down to election officials and workers in countless cities/counties. This likely includes their enablers such as journalists and union leaders as well as current elected officials.
It would be a Stalin style cleanup.
5 political parties and nothing to impede any of them from winning. As long as we’re in this 2 party system elections are a formality and don’t actually matter. We’re just deciding whose turn it is to tell which lies. Break up toe duopoly
“Future elections”
That’s funny.
Serialized ballots, using the same anti-counterfeiting tactics as with our currency.
Each State/County prints their own ballots, again...serialized.
Key is managing the serial numbers; sequential ballots issued in sequence to polling places, with serials recorded and all accounted for. Tabulated out and tabulated on return. Shortages or overages treated as criminal activity, no exceptions. “Loss” of ballots treated as criminal activity, no exceptions.
Mail ballots limited to absentee and disabled unable to travel to polling place. NO broad swipe ‘mail ballots’. Absentee ballots require double check of signature, and thoroughness of the ballot, one from each major party.
Registration required ahead of election day, with the time limit set by the State. No more election day registration or provisional ballots.
Secured Statewide database of voters, updated in real time as the election proceeds, with direct comparison to signature on file.
Proper ID at polling station; driver’s license, passport, or State issued ID. No more utility bills, credit card statements and other such nonsense as ID.
No absentee ballots accepted not postmarked day of election or earlier, and none received more than three days after election date.
NO electronic voting machines can be used. Only scanners and OCR systems capturing to an archival database. If the damn lottery can isolate a single ticket out of 75 million, overnight, we should expect NO LESS from our elections. If Credit Card companies can validate an individual card, verify a purchase and approve it in SECONDS, then we should expect no less from our elections.
1. Voter ID Must have current address if you just move in.
2. Voter registration ends 7 days before election.
3. Small voting precincts. I suggest the elementary school your address is associated with.
4. Simple pre-numbered notebook with exactly the number of registered voters. Voters sign after voting. The last voter signs his/her name, followed by the words ‘last voter’, time signed, and initialed. xxx’s put thru any numbers not used.
5. After the polls close, the number of the last voter is transmitted to the election headquarters.
6. Paper ballots. The choices are circled. Much harder to erase an entire circle without leaving evidence.
7. Counting is done locally. All votes added up must match that last voter number.
8. Precinct totals collected in a pre-determined, but random order, unknown to the precincts. This prevents precincts who always seem to be “last” and always have “issues”
9. No vote totals released until all votes in the state are counted.
10. Person requesting mail-in ballot, checked against voting rolls. Must have been in the system for at least 60 days.
11. Mail in ballots envelopes must be notarized, but for free. Some sort of system for the state to pay for the notary. Notarized ballots were a required in some places around the country in the past. Voter paid for the notary. I think they stopped this because it was considered a poll tax.
12. Ballots kept separate by precinct for 2.5 years.
Nice job!
I would add that the number of ballots in the box at the polling station be recorded and that number is verified once the box arrives at the counting center.
Ideal voting set up?
We have it. One person one vote. In a country where every person, even the poorest walks around with a personal computer, anyone who doesn’t think we have the technology to have an efficient election is delusional
oops.. Forgot. Purple fingers!!
“First we must fix the Voter Registration System.“
Ugh. Really?
No. First we must fix the rampant corruption in charge. Donald Trump believes he’s can do it. So do all these desperate, bleating, foot-stomping characters who refused and continue to refuse to allow us to have him be the president
Pay attention.
Very well thought out. I suggest a few changes
Registration 3 months before election. The separation is the key, 3 months disadvantages no one.
Paper ballots, the most vital component. They are reviewable, a perminate record,
Count by hand or counting machines not connected to the internet. Pick up the damn phone to report totals.
Voter ID with picture a must.
Election day is one day. No absentee no mail in. Senate and House vote in person only.
Voter rolls purged every 10 years.
Voter rolls linked to the census. This is where you live at this particular time, so this is your voting precinct.
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