We don't need MACHINES to vote..

[SoCalDem]

Machine voting is the PROBLEM..not the SOLUTION..

We just need to change the WAY we vote:)

Simplicity is the solution.

We need to make polling places mimic NEIGHBORHOODS..Keep them plentiful and small.

There are plenty of unemployed/underemployed people who would love the opportunity to make some money working at polling stations.

City/State elections should be in ODD numbered years. That would allow those important issues to get the attention they deserve, without the "clutter" of congress/senate/presidential election "frivolity"..This would also allow/force the media to cover stuff that actually matters to the people of a given area..

As a Californian, I don't give a rat's ass about who ends up on the city council of Boise, Idaho, or who are the New Mexico state senators or whether there's a street light in front of the court house in Podunk, Arkansas,BUT I DO give a rat's ass about who they send to the US senate, congress or the White House. It IS important to me that the person who got more votes, gets the job....so "how" they vote DOES matter to me.

The Odd/Even election system makes it very difficult to cheat in the VOTE or the count.

Even year elections would be SOLELY for US congress and /or senate, presidency.And there would be a box for NO vote/write in

A maximum of FOUR choices..that's IT !

a 5 x 7 index card with check-boxes immediately followed by names...in alphabetical order and a sharpie.. That's all that's needed.. easy to count...easy to store...easy to recount.

The "card" could be a 3 column variety with vertical preforations for each office, for even EASIER counting...

Voting would take very little time, and should not be a burden for anyone. More polling places, easy ballots.

[evlbstrd]

1. And make it a three-day weekend.

Three days off, parades, parties, and three days to vote.

[Fiona]

2. I have to disagree that there are plenty of people

willing to help with voting. Polling Places are constantly understaffed, and even when they offer incentives, it's a challenge to find enough people.

I've been a poll-worker and it's really really difficult to find people.

[SoCalDem]

4. If there were MORE polling places and they were smaller

the local input might draw more people. I think lots of people get intimidated..

[Fiona]

9. I don't know...

I live in a small town. We have plentiful polling places. I worked at one just around the corner.

I think what's most intimidating is that it's an all-day affair. Literally, you get there to set up before the polls open, and you don't leave until well after they close. There are no shifts - it's a 14 hour day, at least.

We have the same volunteers every election - and they're all very old, retired people.

I wish more people wanted to get involved, but it is difficult.

[SoCalDem]

11. That's why smaller is better.. Instead of a polling place

that might serve up to a thousand voters, how about 4 places that would serve no more than 250 each..

smaller is better:)

[Fiona]

14. well

you're talking about increasing the number of polling places 8-fold, at least. And that requires 8 times as many people. For the same shift. It's impossible.

[SoCalDem]

15. It "was" impossible to send people to the moon too

:)

If voting took place from Fri-Sunday the first week of every November, I am sure that accomodations could be made.. Perhaps "hiring" high school seniors from government or civics classes, and granting them extra credit..like a field trip..

We have to think outside the box here..

[Fiona]

17. We agree that voting

should occur over a weekend. I'm only arguing the narrow point about the ease of getting volunteers to work at the polls. I know it's difficult to do so.

[divineorder]

26. The Difficulty Now in Getting People to Work The Polls

Is that it's on a Tuesday. Working people work on Tuesday, students go to class on Tuesday. Even the unemployed have to at least be looking for work on a Tuesday. I don't know whether or not it's true everywhere, but polling workers are paid. But getting time off, and that including the time necessary for training, on a weekday is difficult. Friday-Saturday-Sunday polling allows people to moonlight as a poll worker without asking for time off from their other job. Students could do it without missing classes. Even the already unemployed know that you don't really look for work on the weekend-nobody who hires works those days. And a 14-hour day is no problem when it's a Saturday and you don't have to go to work the next day, or Friday and you can sleep in late the next day, or Sunday if you are unemployed and you can just get up later that Monday or skip it altogether.

Do you realize that America is just about the only country that votes on a weekday? Russia and everywhere else has Saturday or Sunday balloting with results on Monday morning when people go back to work.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Regarding the hand-counting, if

Republicans and Democrats could each send two people to each precinct for the four of them to hand-count, I'm sure each party could find volunteers.

[Fiona]

13. I'm definitely in the minority here

but I don't see hand-counting as a viable alternative.

The most important things in the world are not counted by hand. Machines count money.

Banks don't use hand-counting. Casinos don't use hand-counting. The IRS doesn't use hand-counting.

Anybody can tell you that if you want to accurately count tens of millions of items, machines do it faster and more accurately.

The problem is the reliability of the machines, and I think there ARE solutions to that problem. Open source for machines. Full chksdsk scans of every machine on the morning of election day to ensure they contain the right code. Random checks that the source code on the machines is the approved code. VERY stiff penalties for anybody found tampering with such code (I'm talking 30 years to life). Small hand-count reality checks against the machines. A law against proprietary ownership of such software. It can be done.

Handcounting is JUST as prone to fraud as machines, if not more. Machines just make it faster.

[SoCalDem]

16. Faster does not mean safer or better..

Would you prefer the Fastest heart surgeon, or the slowest, most careful one?

Voting is not an emergency.. The "elected" ones do not run over and commandeer the desk of the defeated candidate ..There is plenty of time to count and verify..

The media should be told to go pound sand..or look for some shark to watch..or some missing girls..

[KnaveRupe]

19. The media can report the exit polls.

They've always been astoundingly accurate until 2000, then they've MYSTERIOUSLY failed every national election since then. I suspect that with your system, they'd go right back to being accurate again.

[Eric J in MN]

20. People who receive a withdrawal from the bank hand-count the money.

People who receive money from a casino hand-count the money.

Regarding elections, if the hand-count is PUBLIC, done by a pair of Democrats and a pair of Republicans while others observe, it is much more difficult to rig than if a machine's Central Tabulator just tells everyone the grand totals.

[A Simple Game]

6. Making it a national holiday could help.

Tuesdays are a day of work for most people.

[SoCalDem]

8. First Friday through Sunday of every November

:)

[Is It Fascism Yet]

22. Voting by mail, and only by mail, is a good solution

and works in some state or other, I forgot which, but I think it's Washington. It has a proven track record of working fine there. So what if it takes longer to count the votes, who cares, so long as they get counted.

[SoCalDem]

23. Oregon?

:) I think that's the one:)

Mail would be ok, but a weekend works too.. that would ensure that poll workers had ample hours, and there could be reasonable hours set so that everyone could participate without long lines:)

[Is It Fascism Yet]

25. yeah, that's the ticket, Oregon. Gotta love it. Any system that actually

gets counted would be good by me.

[A Simple Game]

3. i agree whole heartedly.

How many voting booths could you buy for the cost of one machine, along with the maintenance and security for it? Could eliminate a lot of long lines.

[SoCalDem]

7. With this system,

all you would need is small cardboard dividers..and a cup of sharpies.. No storage issues to contend with..

The states could order diamond-studded platinum, nukulur powered Diebolds for their school board/state referendums/state legislator/governor elections, and I wouldn't give a crap.


But National elections should be standardized and easy.. In areas where language is an issue, a Picture could even be added..,of each candidate...

[Kalish]

10. How else are people gonna make money off it though?

Huh?

[SoCalDem]

12. Money off of it?? Like the electioneering con-men?

:)

[KnaveRupe]

18. And to sell it to the republicans,

make everyone who votes dip their finger in purple ink. They eat that shit up. :D

Actually, joking aside, we should be looking at something like Swiss Voting. Y'know, there ARE other democracies in the world. How do all of the nations of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and all of the other established democracies manage to have elections without ES&S or Diebold?

And, in fact, the purple finger thing would be interesting... reduces the need for such stringent checking of names in polling places. Those lists exist in part to ensure that people aren't voting multiple times in different districts. If a purple finger legitimizes Iraqi elections, the cons can't really be too pissy if we use it instead of massive voter rolls here....

[Zorra]

21. Right on. And Canada already has an effective, efficient model we

can look at for ideas too.

[Rainscents]

24. Howard Dean said today on Randi Rhodes, we need to vote like

Oregon... All paper ballots! No machines! Any machines is used in Oregon that cannot produce accurate vote counts, it's against the law to use in Oregon! I hardly agree with this 100%!