How about we Make Election Day Election DAY Again.
No excuses. No Mail in ballots.
(tiny exceptions on valid case-by-case basis)
No, the Democrats have a better plan. pre-filled out ballots and they’ll let you know who won before the election even begins.
How about we just vote in-person, except for military absentee ballots?
Why would the Democrats want a secure system? You’re assuming they want a different system than what happened — why would they? Our side needs to stop being so naive.
Nice try though.
You don't really believe those of us who live in rural areas have trouble accessing a copy machine do you?
Problem is, they send ballots to people who are dead or have moved. I dem finds that ballot, fills it out and sends it in or drops it on a box. Got a valid bar code but the wrong person filled it out.
That defeats the purpose.
Sounds good, and I appreciate the effort. But you still need “eyes-on”. Trust me - I work elections. If you don’t have bodies in seats to a) keep and eye on what going down and b) be ready to call it out, it’s meaningless.
Also:
1) End same day registration (unless you are legally ready to challenge every new registrant vote on election night)
2) Show Valid ID - a no brainer
3) NO un-solicited mail-in ballots allowed.
Unique serial number / bar code / q code applied to the mailer. Each mailer to be shipped with a small ink pad and require that each voter use the ink pad and put their finger print on the mailer.
Each mailer that is returned is photographed, front and back.
Mail in ballots opened only after the close of the polls. Each mailer is matched against the voter and observed by a election judge from each party. If there are deficiencies, the mailer and ballot are set aside for review.
Restrict all election tabulation equipment to US companies and US citizens only on their board.
Make it a crime under the US forgery laws to be in possession of a ballot for any state or federal election without authorization.
Require all ballots to be printed by US owned and operated printers. Prohibit the importation of ballots. Ballots to be packaged and tracked by lots of 100. Lots to be serial numbered. All ballot lots to be signed for and tracked.
I’ve got a better idea.
NO mail-in ballots except for active military.
Everyone who wants vote must register in-person during October. If you don’t register during October you cannot vote in November. (NO permanent registration.)
If you registered in October, you can vote on Election Day.
All votes tallied by midnight on Election Day.
Recount, if ordered, by midnight two days later.
THAT’S PRETTY MUCH HOW IT USED TO BE BEFORE COMPUTERS IN THE 1950s AND BEFORE. (At least in NY State)
ML/NJ
This won't catch harvested ballots that never reached the intended voter. It would only catch counterfeit ballots.
But even counterfeit ballots needs to have the name and address of a registered voter, and voter rolls are already computerized so duplicate voting is caught immediately.
The danger with the unsolicited mailing of ballots is that they can be intercepted and filled out fraudulently, and if the poll workers cannot or are told not to verify signatures, then the ballots get counted.
It is time to amend the voting laws so that if you wish to vote via mail-in ballot, you forfeit your right to a secret ballot. Your voter registration number will be printed on your ballot, and if it later determined that the ballot was cast illegally, the votes can be subtracted from the tally.
If you want a secret ballot, then vote in person and your ballot will not be associated with your voter registration ID number, but your identification was verified by poll workers looking at your Government-issued picture ID.
It would do nothing at all to ensure that the ballot was filled out by the person to whom it was addressed.
Prevent mail in ballot abuse. Don’t allow mail in ballots.
This already occurs in our state.
Voter requests ballot by a signed form certifying that it is their request.
Voter ID sticker with name, number, precinct information, etc. is applied to that request form and also to the envelope to return the voted ballot either by mail, drop box or in person.
Return privacy envelope has voter sign on the back certifying their vote.
Returned vote envelopes are processed comparing all information and ensuring certifications are filled out by teams of two people from different parties. When everything is good to go, ONLY THEN is the privacy envelope opened, ballot is placed into batch and counted anonymously with the rest. The privacy envelope must be retained for something like 2 years following an election along with other election materials.
Where the fraud opportunity could take place is when split handling procedures aren’t followed and you could have two processing ballots pull ballots from the batch marked for candidate X and fraudulently replace with ballots marked for candidate Y. In many cases, the other offices and votes would be a hodgepodge or all the same, if it was a reproduction. Controlling the printing and issuance of the official paper ballot materials is critical, too.
In our county, all counting is done at one central location by split teams who haven’t touched it at the precinct. All ballot containers are meticulously sealed with unique seals and certifications by the precinct election workers. Pretty much fraud proofed.
Here are a few of my suggestions to secure ballots in future elections:
* Ballot paper should be produced with security features such as a watermark, embossed, or embedded strips as found in our currency. Ballot paper can be produced with ultra-violet dyes during manufacture.
* Every paper ballot must be *PRE-PRINTED* (not printed at polling locations on desktop printers) and tracked and accounted for from manufacturing to being counted.
* Every paper ballot should be printed on a paper size that cannot be purchased at Office Max or other off-the-shelf suppliers. NO paper ballot should be able to be printed on a home or officer desktop printer.
* Every paper ballot should be printed with a bar code or QR code so it can be identified as unique and scanned only once. If paper ballots are scanned by optical readers it is simple and cheap to add unique optical-scan security features.
* Every paper ballot should be printed with consecutive numbers or a random algorithm code which corresponds to the bar code or QR code and is verified when scanned.
* The number of ballots printed must match the number of registered voters. 10% can be printed to accommodate a surge in provisional voting or damaged paper ballots. All damaged ballots must be retained.
* Every paper ballot should be easily visually identified as a mail-in or in-person by different colored paper and security number. Mail-in ballots should be printed MAIL-IN BALLOT in a color other than black for easy identification as a mail-in ballot.
Please feel free to debate the merits of each.
The prototype one of our state senators from Arizona showed seemed like a good idea to me...
https://patriotdailypress.org/2021/06/11/az-ballot-prototype-is-released-are-watermarked-ballots-the-future/