Pulling this from FecesBook to here, because, well, I control here, and there Fuckerberg screws with my shit.
A while back, I had a suggestion on true gun-rights compromise (https://www.facebook.com/notes/darryl-hadfield/gun-control-yes-lets-compromise/10157899810414763/) that directly addresses REAL gun safety.
Now, I have a suggestion for clean, effective voting.
EVERYONE gets a mail-in ballot.
The ballots are sealed in envelopes, which are in turn ALSO stuffed into envelopes, so the ballots are randomly sent out to voters.
Simple video provided online (Youtube, Vimeo, etc..) showing you how to vote. What’s that process? You have stubs you can tear off, so you physically deposit a ‘token’ for the candidate or issue you’re voting for. For political office, color code them akin to the candidate’s party affiliation; for issues, leave them plain white and put the issue number, and either “yes” or “no” on the stub. I suggest “yes” would be black text on white background; “no” would be WHITE text on a BLACK background. Maybe we also include a “no vote” option that’s just a blank piece of paper – blank except for your ballot serial#, that is.)
You tear off the pieces you DON’T want, rip them in half, and then dispose of them however.
When you drop off your ballot at the polling station, you rip off your ‘master’ serial number on the sheet that has your stubs on it. All stubs also have your specific serial number on them, so that in a worst-case scenario, you can bring your stub back and ‘claim’ your vote to validate it.
The ballot is only accepted when you provide photo ID and your tax documents to show a) who you are, and b)you have no outstanding debt owed to the government.
That second step is handled by using your government-issued photo ID (which the ballot collector visually correlates, and then uses that ID to check your tax records via government database(s) – no data is returned to them other than “yes this person is current” or “no, this person still owes”.
This gets you a three-way match that’s still anonymized – you are you because photo ID ‘proves’ that you are you (#1). That same photo ID shows an ID number that is used to look up your tax documents, which in turn validates if you’re eligible to vote or not (#2). The ballot has a serial number that associates YOU to your vote (#3), but that correlation isn’t possible without the stub that you yourself retain. When your ballot is cast, no further vote is accepted from your Photo ID number.
No ID? Ballot not accepted. No excuse for that anymore, ANY state offers a driver’s license, or a simple “Photo ID card” for various other purposes.
Not current on taxes? Ballot not accepted. If there’s an error? The same lookup should be available to you otherwise, prior to the election. It’s up to you to make sure your shit is settled up.
Multiple stubs for the same item on the stub? Ballot not accepted. Ballot person tells voter to go to the end of the line, and rip off and destroy any stubs they DO NOT want to vote for before they get back to the front of the line.
“Ballot Casting” means you take each of the remaining stubs off of your ballot, and toss (or ‘cast’!) them into the pertinent box(es).
Ballot counting gets easier – you can use weight to measure how many ballots should be there (inaccurate? seriously? give me a break. I’ve implemented systems that use more sensitive weight checks than that).
You get a cross-check of how many people voted based on how many ballots are accepted, and that value MUST correlate to how many votes are cast.
If the numbers don’t match up? Run an audit. Find out what pieces are missing, correlate that EVERYONE who has dropped off a ballot has in fact voted yes, no, or has abstained, for every issue, and has chosen a candidate or abstained, for every position.
This is a (mostly) LOW-TECH solution; it needs precision scales (and that’s VERY easy to set up, to calibrate, and re-calibrate).
It’s an EXTENSIBLE solution. If you want faster results or counting, you can put sensors on the box so that as each stub is inserted, the sensors read a serial number on the stub to verify it’s legit (and not just a blank piece of paper). Those sensors counts wouldn’t be considered “certified” – but would offer a fast count value for use in online systems.
It’s a 100% solution – you know how many people have voted, adn you have an easy way to assure zero fraud.
It’s an AUDITABLE solution – if there are issues with the vote count, publicize the ballot serial numbers for which there is an issue, after the initial counting is done, and then whoever has that ballot serial stub can come in and directly address their vote discrepancy. This can be anonymized through picking other voters at random at hte same time – with only the discrepancy vote getting a new ballot, and the other random voters getting a “thank you for your assistance” ballot.
It’s a HUMAN solution. It requires direct interaction between a voter and a ballot collector. Absent photo ID? Your ballot is not collected.
*edit* for those who cannot get to a polling station, perhaps use Notary Public staffers to address going TO those who cannot otherwise get to the polling station.
Can this system be gamed? Sure. Any system can. That said, it’ll be notably harder than what’s in place right now.
No idea how viable this is, but it seems like one way we can address the validity of our elections.
I was going to put it into a “FB Note” but… looks like they’ve shut that off entirely. Assholes.