IF YOU WERE IN CONTROL OF CONGRESS, HOW WOULD YOU REFORM THE VOTING PROCESS?
- Would you require everyone to show proper ID to vote?
- Would you mandate that only legal American citizens be allowed to vote in an American election, including school board elections?
- And finally, with proper checks and balances in place, would you consider automating the voting process so that more citizens become involved?
Would you require everyone to show proper ID to vote?
Every American citizen is required to have a picture ID to enjoy the privileges of driving a car, cashing a check at the bank, buying alcohol or firearms, etc. Doesn’t it only make Common Sense that every American citizen also be required to present proper identification for the privilege to vote?
To provide transparency in the election process and to prevent voter fraud, we need to start on the local level. Along with providing proper identification, we should require all polling locations to provide their local results to their county officials, the state, the federal government, each political party, and the media.
We should also require that they post the results on the web. This will give the American people total transparency! Anyone would be able to verify the results, and there would be no chance of a rigged system. Simply take out your calculator and add up the district or county totals to get the state totals, then add up the state totals to get the national results!
Would you consider automating the voting process so that more citizens become involved?
With careful auditing, we could even bring our election process into the 21st century. A two-part voter identification and verification system would be installed to ensure that the person casting the ballot is truly who they say they are and is entitled to cast their vote for the candidate. We might want to even consider adding facial recognition. A cross-check system would also be put into place to prevent someone from voting multiple times.
By making the process easy, more Americans will participate in the affairs of their government. We simply watch and listen to the candidates’ views on TV and/or on the National Campaign Information Website (NCIW), then cast our ballots. We would be able to vote directly on the NCIW website, over the phone, or through a special app on our mobile devices. Those without access to a phone or a computer could gain access and vote at any public library.
To prevent hacking, a three-part audit system would be put into place.
One system would be set up strictly for collecting the data and relaying the results to all local, state, and federal government-designated entities; all designated political parties; and all designated media outlets.
The second system, a separate automated system, would then access that data and send out confirmation notifications to all who voted, either by email or text message.
The third system would be set up to receive reports of possible hacking. Voters could review their confirmation notices for accuracy and immediately report any discrepancies to an independent third party.
All three systems would be carefully monitored by representatives from both political parties.
Here are some other ideas we should consider:
- We should carefully monitor attempts at gerrymandering (redistricting) or manipulating the boundaries of a district to favor one political party over another.
- Congress needs to be well-staffed with the brightest congressional aides. If they’re there to work for the American people, let’s keep them and make sure they’re adequately paid. If they’re there for any other reason, let’s fire them! We need good managers and staffers on Capitol Hill if we’re going to get things fixed.
- The “spoiler effect” is when three or more candidates are competing in an election and one of the candidates wins without the majority of votes. Either one or more of the candidates pull votes away from the top-runner, which sometimes gives us a candidate that the majority of the people do not want. We may want to consider changing our current voting system to either score or approval voting.
With score voting, you simply rank each candidate from 0 to 3 (with 3 being the highest). You would never be forced to choose between the lesser of two evils ever again. You could even rank your first and second choice candidates both with a 3, and the person you definitely don’t want in office with a 0. The candidate with the highest score wins.With approval voting, you get to vote for all the candidates you like. If there are five good candidates in the primaries that support your view, you vote for all five of them. - Once we enact campaign reform, we might want to revisit Super Delegates and even the Electoral College.