Elections "can" be error-free...How?

[SoCalDem]

Hold Federal office elections separately. Each even-year cycle would have a maximum of THREE choices for each voter.

The states could hold their governor, state senators,councilpeople,referendum,proposition,local office-holder, etc election in odd years.

Most states end up having to have special elections in off years anyway, and that would totally divorce the most important races in the country..congress...senate..president from the rest of the mish-mash that requires the convoluted ballots..

The three(at most) choices, would certainly not require a ballot more complicated than a large index card.

Each voter would be told in NO uncertain terms, that there are to be exactly THREE marks (or TWO in years that are not a presidential election) on the card..

There should also be a "None of the above" choice by each category.

These would be easy to count/re-count...and would not be intimidating to people. We could even place a picture of the person, to help illiterate voters.

What the states do later in THEIR elections, is THEIR business, and I don't care if they have "problems" with their elections... they can fix those problems at the state level..

This would save a TON of money, and would be a great help in cutting down the line lengths too..

The cards could be encoded on the back and scanned, so a tally of HOW many voted were cast.. Before any votes are counted, the total number of ballots MUST match the numerical sign-in book count.

Why we make it so damned hard to vote is the real crime here

[In Truth We Trust]

1. Paper ballots.... NOW!!!! Paper Ballots Now!!!!

[sweetheart]

2. Frankly, after researching

I don't believe that the voting itself is as much the problem as
the registration systems, and the arcane rules about which precinct
one is allowed to vote at, as well, the number of voting machines
at each location.

I don't trust republican fraud systems, nor do i think much of the
NY fusion ballot to complicate things, or the massive number of
things to vote for, given local elections and ballot initiatives...
but it seems that the fraud is further upstream in the registration
process and the disqualification by partisan hacks.

In this past poll 180,000 dead people were still registered to vote,
to give an example of how the reg process is problematic... Then
with our modern society, people are all over the place, but we still
have 19th century requirements to show up at particular precincts
or have ones voting rights denied.

Finally, that the people who run elections are partisan is really
pathetic. There should be a non-partisan civil service running
the balloting, registration and counting, that the potential for
fraud is reduced... as it seems the human element, not the machines
are what is letting us down.

[SoCalDem]

4. As far as I am concerned, any citizen who can prove they live

in a particular district SHOULD be able to vote for "all three"..If they can prove they live in a state, but cannot prove their district, they should still be allowed to vote for senate and president.. (the official giving them a ballot could mark ..in their presence "none of the above" by the congressional vote...but they should be able to vote for the other two..

This is why I prefer that all voters/citizens should have a valid US passport.. That's the ultimate proof of citizenship..

I object to registration because it makes people too identifiable by party..

If they WANT to be identified by party, they could go to whichever party they prefer and just sign up on their own..

[sweetheart]

13. passports and national identity cards

The problem is that a passport costs money, and that 10% of americans
have them, means 90% would need to spend money to be able to vote,
a sort of poll tax, if you will, something that we champions of
the disenfranchised should be wary of.

Even then, a passport has no address in it, except what you write
there by hand, hardly an effective system of verifying living location.

I would support a free, voter registration photo-id card, for all
people who register. Simply put the equiptment at the polling place
to photo, print and laminate cards. Then have each arriving voter,
on proof of address, get a card, that will serve in future to entitle
such person their voting right.

It could have an RFID in it, and be un-impeachable evidence of
entitlement. Rather than computerized voting, i think the polling
places should have their registration computers connected to a
central database (or loosely distributed) that would allow people
to arrive at alternate places, and be "checked off" once they vote.
This would also prevent, multiple voting, as names were ticked off
in real-time once ballots were cast.

Regarding partisan registration, i do believe that the primary
elections should be entirely by postal ballot, mailed to the
registered person's home, so that the "reg card" is not labelled
with one's party.

[AllegroRondo]

3. "None of the Above"

Sad thing is, that might win some elections.

[SoCalDem]

6. That in itself would send a powerful message to the candidates

and the "machines" that run them :)

[Ready4Change]

5. Saddams elections were "error free".

.

[morgan2]

7. the best election method

is to just putting marbles/paper card in a bucket. Have the buckets always in public display, and count the buckets with members of both parties there. Simplicty is the key, you can always hide fraud in the details when the process has to repeated across the country. Everyone can understand this process, fraud can only be done on a small scale with complcity from both parties.

[On the Road]

8. This is Similar to the Taiwanese System

as described by dArKeR a few months ago. Small precints, paper, ballot boxes in sight, representatives of both major parties present, counted on the spot at the end of the day. No problems.

[morgan2]

11. the problem is everyone in government

is looking to hand out contracts to contributers. We never get the right answer, but the most expensive one. Yet another reason the people are disillusioned with politics.

[On the Road]

12. I Completely Agree

the money angle has completely corrupted the system.

[whistle]

9. That's as simple as it gets and declare even year election. . .

. . .days a paid holiday with the voting receipt. That would most certainly get participation increased substantially.

[SoCalDem]

10. Thanks.. You understand it too.. I agree on the day off..but I can

see employers balking.

That's why the simplicity of the ballot would help.. It would not take hours in line..

and if you found yourself in SanFrancisco on business and still wanted to vote, you could easily still vote for Pres & Senate, even if you had to skip the congressional district election that time.

Absentee ballot requests could be kept in a statewide database, that could be located immediately when one signed in. That would prevent anyone from voting more than once..

[patdem]

14. Give up 'Dead Presidents Day' for 'Voting for Future Presidents Day'

How cares about Lincoln and Washington???

[loyalsister]

15. Not true

Human error (as in spoiled ballots due to voter mistakes) is a fact of life

[SoCalDem]

16. If a person "makes a mistake" when there are only THREE

people to vote for, well...... I won;t say it, but....

and with only two or three votes per card, just HOW hard would it be for each precinct to count them?? Not very !!

and if an error were detected, the cards would exist and be able to be recounted easily :)