| In My Opinion : |
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| ELECTION REFORM
This would solve several problems we now have, plus insure: (1) No double voting (2) No mistakes in marking ballots (3) Insure a paper trail for recount. THE REGISTRATION PROCESS: Each person of legal voting age would be registered on a life time bases. Just like social security they would go and register when they reached the age to vote. It would not be a state registration, and would not matter where they lived. It would be a US Citizen Voting Registration. Each person would be checked at the time of registering to verify their eligibility to vote. Their picture would be taken and affixed to their registration card. The card would be hard plastic like a drivers license, or credit card, and would have the information embedded in to the card. The card would have the name and address of the person printed on it also. Note: Revision 3/18/2007: Since this would require the passing of a bill to make this law, It would contain a clause that, "No information may be included on the voting card other then what is required to verify eligibility to vote, and access to the data bank with the card is prohibited for any other use then voting, or by any other then a voting machine." This would prevent the card from becoming a national ID, such as in the True ID law, which is objected to at the present time. The persons thumb or finger print would be included, and stored not on the card, but electronically encoded with the information in the data bank. This way no one could make a fake with their print, or just change the print on someone else's card to match theirs. ( See: HOW YOU WOULD CAST YOUR VOTE.) FELONY RESTRICTION: If a person is convicted of a felony they would be made to turn over the card. It would be canceled in the card bank, and after serving their time they could apply for their card back. Even if they did not have the card with them, it would still be canceled and could not be used. THE BALLOT: The ballot would be for the President only, the state candidates for federal offices (senators) and for other state related issues would be cast on a different ballot. The Presidential Ballot: Would consist of small encoded cards one for each candidate. (1) They could be mailed to each registered voter in the month before the election, and the voter would choose which he wanted to vote for and trash the rest. (2) Or the cards could be placed in boxes in the polling place, and you could pick up the one you wanted. Saving on the mailing cost and trash. HOW YOU WOULD CAST YOUR VOTE: The voter would go to the polling place, and insert his registration card in to a slot in the voting machine. It would read the card information in to a log and credit them as having voted. At the same time they would slip their finger into a slot for print comparison, and the comparison would be made with the print on file for that card. They then would slip the other card for the candidate into another slot that would read the card applying the vote for that candidate. The card would then be deposited in to a container. The cards could be counted by hand if a recount is called for, and compared with the electronic count. The reason I have added the finger print is because pictures can be changed, people change their appearance, and the guard who checks picture to person may make mistakes. SAFE GUARD AGAINST VOTING MORE THEN ONCE: A person could not vote twice, because the registration card would not be returned until after the election. It would be deposited in to another container, and the cards would be mailed back to the voters after the election is over. Or they could pick their card up at the polling place after the election to save on mailing cost. If they do not have a card they do not vote. LOSS OF CARD: If they lose their card they can go and apply for a replacement. The replacement card would have a change in the code to indicate that it is a replacement. So they can not use the original to vote twice, because all polling machines would have a list of original replaced cards in them, and if a original is inserted it would be ejected. It would not matter where a person was voting, if they inserted anything but the replacement, bells would sound and the card ejected. QUICKER and EASIER VOTING: There would be less time required to vote, because you would not have to wait for some one to find your name on a list, and sign in, and you would not have a ballot to fill out, you just step up to the machine and insert your registration card and your finger, then if all is well you insert your ballot. This way if one polling place was busy you could go to another. DATA BANKS: There should be two data banks in two different locations as a backup, and require two keys by two people one from each side of the political party's, to access the information. Polling places would have direct high speed links either by cable or phone line to the data banks. These would be used by no other traffic, and should require seconds to check an ID and print. For the MOST IMPORTANT OFFICE IN THE LAND it should be held with no other election at that time, have the state elections held on another day. Copyright by Gordon K. Glatz |
| Can The Way We Vote Be Improved? |
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