We're all fed up with the voting process. Do we really have a solution? Or do we just have some band-aids we're promoting?
How many ways are there to fix a vote? Robert Kennedy, Jr. listed over 200 in his recent article.
There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to dealing with crime. You can punish the wrongdoer, or you can try to change the circumstances that lead to the wrongdoing. Being progressive, to me, means trying to accomplish a better world through the second, more difficult and ultimately more rewarding channel.
You've heard it before: "I go to the ATM machine and take out $20. The bank always knows how much I took out and what my balance is. Why can't they make a reliable voting machine?" Then we duck and grumble that they don't care or they're all corrupt. Clearly it's more complicated than that. You have to please the states and the counties, which all have different rules. That is difficult to do.
From an earlier diary:
IF IT'S BROKE, FIX IT! ELECTION OVERHAUL CALLS FOR HIGH-TECH APPROACH
It starts with the Internet... and creating a national vote. Create a website that is for national elections. Call it something like americavotes.gov. Who can vote for President? Anyone with a driver's license or a state issued ID over the age of 18. States have laws dealing with people who are not allowed to vote, but the national government does not (as far as I know). The web database tracks users by their state, driver's license, Social Security number, age and address. The Social Security number, name and age are enough to positively identify a U.S. citizen of voting age(1). Include the address and state ID because this will allow for states and counties to join in later with local elections. And it'll help citizens to track and verify the vote without compromising the all-important Social Security number. That's it! Then people can log in and register to vote for the national election. On Election Day (or Week), the citizen will come back and vote for President.
The vote should be public and open, and Open Source (2). That way it can't be rigged. If I vote on Tuesday at 10 a.m., I should be able to check back at 10:01 and see how I voted. In fact I should be able to see how everyone voted (Name, County, last 4 of state ID listed straight down the page and searchable). And I should be able to see who's winning. Right away. Privacy in voting is sacrificed to protect the vote. This, truly open, vote will then be trusted by the people. I believe in my heart that if this can be accomplished people will once again be excited about the political process.
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Notes:
(1)There has been a lot of discussion among progressives about what identification, if any, should be required for voting. I have never understood why it is important to allow people to vote w/out ID. If there is an issue with the cost of ID, then let's direct our activity at that cost, not at the need for an ID to vote. You have to be able to identify a person and verify that a person votes only once.
(2)I'm a big fan of open-source programming and I think that any new voting technology should be created using open-source code.