Via USPS

For those who have not noticed we are in an election year. Now don't worry, it's just mid-terms so we only elect every member of the House of Representatives and 33% of the Senate so no where near as important as the presidency *insert parentally LOUD and sarcastic eye-roll here*

Now who should you vote for? Don't ask me I'm not you. How should you vote? Now that is why were here!

 

*Pulls out my soap box, grabs megaphone*

 

"Friends, Romans, Countrymen..." Wait, wrong speech :-)

Right now we have some very loose and mostly no-set-definition buzz words floating around elections, "election security", "election integrity", "voter integrity." So what could these mean?

Election security:

• Could refer to tightening security from mark on ballot to count/recount.

• A lot has been said about making ballots un-copyable, from elaborate watermarks, to holographic printing to prevent photocopying and mass dumping of ballots into the system, so we have that aspect as well. 

Companies that are licensed to print election ballots use a specific type of metallic ink that can only be detected by the optical scanner. The anti-counterfeit marks (3 to be exact) are hidden in the ballot timing tracks and code channel, (the thick black bars that surround the margins on the ballot). The marks are specific to whichever election vendor’s election layout software and election technology are used, and each election definition uses a unique code channel specific to that election. These marks can be printed on pre-printed ballots or on ballot on demand.”

• Then we have "secure the election equipment!" Yeah, about that, voting machines, tabulators, etc, are air gapped all ready. The equipment is bulky, sometimes heavy, and without the correct passwords not easy to hack. "But Maura, what about that hacker that PROVED it could be done a few years back?" They were in a computer lab, they had unlimited access to an obsolete machine, and it was neither quick nor clean. If a "malicious voter" tried that any election official would have them arrested before they got halfway into the system—by the way, you won't find visible or easily accessed ports on a modern election terminal for a reason.

Election integrity: this one makes a bit more sense to me. We want the election process to be honest and clean. I don't see any real argument against that, but how different factions want to achieve this is a different matter altogether.

• “Montenegro, 53, allegedly submitted more than 8,000 fraudulent voter registration applications between July and October, as well as allegedly falsifying names, addresses and signatures on nomination papers under penalty of perjury to run for mayor in Hawthorne.”

• “The settlement agreement, filed with U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real, requires all of the 1.5 million potentially ineligible registrants to be notified and asked to respond. If there is no response, those names are to be removed as required by the National Voter Registration Act.”

Voter integrity: here we get back to my Ballot Zombie and Ballot Harvesting articles. Weather you believe the issue exists or not (many of the commenter's back then blatantly don't think it exists—you know who you are) is irrelevant to the facts, numbers of known zombie voters, and what people believe is truth.

• “...but there were stranger reasons: 198 were rejected because the voters were dead”

• “Controversy over unofficial mail ballot drop boxes set up by the California Republican Party at churches, candidate headquarters and other unauthorized locations”

• “Credible evidence was given to us that people were harvesting ballots,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to The National Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat. “This information was provided to us and they said there's a witness, a 'John Doe.' And so we're looking at subpoenaing that person to get the information.”

• “In all, the analysis showed 119 dead people have voted a total of 229 times in Chicago in the last decade.”

• "Applications for vote by mail ballots came into her office from people who they determined were deceased when those applications were filled out," State's Attorney Robert Berlin told NBC5.”

So what is to be done? I won’t rehash my ideas in the aforementioned articles I will toss out two seemingly unrelated ideas. (now would be a good time to strap on your motorcycle helmet)

Vote by mail: This is not a new concept as Oregon has been doing it since 1987 with great results. So how does this make voting more secure?

• Absolutely no more ballots can come in than went out

• Every elections office knows exactly how many ballots went out—this number should be publicly posted for optimal trust

• As the mail comes in each voter is immediately checked off to prevent possible duplicates. Federal law mandates that if you don’t vote in two presidential cycles you can be purged and this could quickly clean the rolls

• Equipment can be set up to scan for duplicate addresses in the data base then homes with multiple voters can be checked and “no longer at this address” cases can also be purged—technically already possible, but remember Alice (you do remember Alice don’t you?) is not a data base manager.

• Ballots returned as undeliverable can be investigated as to why

• Disabled and elderly voters can vote from their own home

• If done as strictly “mail return only” we essentially eliminate ballot harvesting

• With USPS tracking technology the elections office knows that each ballot was delivered and when it was picked up—will there be mistakes? Yes, but not many...I hope

• We eliminate “Election night fear mongering” aka “Exit poling” and thus the urge to vote just because your choice is losing

• By all the ballots coming in to a central location you eliminate the time lag from precinct to counted and most likely end up knowing exactly who won by mid-night on election night

• No waiting in line to vote!

• No potential bomb and death threats to poll-workers

• No fighting your way past electioneers to cast your vote—I never have understood them, I’m there to vote not be convinced to vote for someone or something

• No more getting to the polls and going “who is this?” or “what is this proposal about?” because you can research the mystery topic

• It eliminates the cost of finding and reserving a polling place

• It eliminates the cost of elaborate voting machines and multiple tabulators, as well as keeping all that equipment up to date and certified

Why not vote by app from my phone Maura? Honestly the technology and security just aren’t there yet. Remember the Iowa Caucuses in 2020?

From CNBC

The Iowa caucus debacle represents one of the most stunning failures of information security ever.

This failure was delivered by the same Iowa Democratic Party officials who have said for the last four years they were “ramping up” their technology capabilities, convening seemingly endless security task forces to ensure foreign powers did not disenfranchise voters, and collaborating with federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security to make sure everyone was in the loop on voting security.

On that note Caucuses would probably need to go away as well as they aren’t compatible with Vote By Mail

Ranked choice voting:

Basically we eliminate the arguments, “voting for the lesser of two evils” and the “you’re voting Libertarian?! That’s just throwing your vote away!” So for those unaware in the United States we actually do have more than just two political parties that run for offices. The major players are:

• Democratic

• Republican

• Libertarian

Known or lesser known are:

• Green Party

• Socialist Party of the United States of America

• Constitution Party

• I’m sure there are others that I am not familiar with

In a ranked choice system you choose who would you like to see in office, then a second, third etc. so a ballot could look vaguely like this:

 

The upside of this system is it favors third parties so it could better reflect our nation’s actual beliefs and may even force us to be much more diverse. The reason for including Ranked Choice with vote by mail is the pressure to vote a certain way is taken off the voter as they can see who is on the ballot, research the people, and choose who they want based on their own beliefs.

No matter where you stand politically, we should be able to agree that our system of voting is due to come forward to the 21^st century and it should reflect our current way of life. Having to go to the court house to cast a vote may have been good in 1787 when it could take two days to get there—that’s why we vote on Tuesday. We live in a modern world where we no longer work Sun to Sun but 08:00 to 17:00 plus our after-work lives and commute times. Standing in line to put ink on a piece of paper, to feed it to a vote tabulator, just doesn’t make sense anymore.

"We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."
- Thomas Jefferson