>>There really has to be a way to clamp down on double voting in two states.<<
I’ll toss in an idea of mine to see how people in here react to it.
We already have a national registry of citizens and legal non-citizens. It’s called Social Security. (The one thing I don’t know is if SS tags a non-citizen SS# as being non-citizen, but I would guess that they do.)
So, it would be relatively easy to have a national requirement that the Social Security database be made available to any state that wants to use it in the voting process. Only one thing would have to be added to the database, and it wouldn’t even have to be archived for more than a short time (like gun registrations are handled.) That one thing would be a short-term voting record for each SS#. It would be a simple yes or no for each election date, cancelled out a month after the date of the election.
Each state could then decide whether to access that database to confirm whether a voter:
1) Was a citizen of the U.S. and therefore entitled to vote.
2) Resided in the state, and the voting precinct, in which he was attempting to vote.
3) Was old enough to legally vote.
4) Was still alive to cast a vote.
These four simple checks would remove nearly all doubt that the person in question was eligible to vote in that polling place, and only in that polling place. Combining that with a photo ID law would prevent people from voting in the place of habitual non-voters as well. The photo ID could even have a tag on it prohibiting a person from voting if he was a felon or was not a U.S. citizen.
And finally, revert to a system where absentee balloting is not encouraged, but rather is discouraged instead (as it used to be due to the danger of fraudulent voting.)
With the spread of computers and wireless access, smart phones, etc., the above would be trivial to implement.
Sorry, the above post is a little confusing. As I wrote it I realized the archiving at SS wouldn’t really be needed. Just having access to the correct SS address on file for each individual voting would ensure that they only voted in one precinct.
If someone wants to vote where they go to school, or spend half the year in the South, they would need to change their permanent SS address to do so.
What is an ITIN?
An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service. It is a nine-digit number that always begins with the number 9 and has a range of 70-88 in the fourth and fifth digit. Effective April 12, 2011, the range was extended to include 900-70-0000 through 999-88-9999, 900-90-0000 through 999-92-9999 and 900-94-0000 through 999-99-9999. IRS issues ITINs to individuals who are required to have a U.S. taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain a Social Security Number (SSN) from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
ITINs are issued regardless of immigration status because both resident and nonresident aliens may have a U.S. filing or reporting requirement under the Internal Revenue Code.
Individuals must have a filing requirement and file a valid federal income tax return to receive an ITIN, unless they meet an exception.