Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Ballots

I have an agenda for the ballot in the future, and here it is:

(1) No machine voting without a paper trail. We need some way to check the results.
(2) Preferably, get rid of voting machines. If hand-counting is too tedious, states should adopt an optical scanning system like the state of Maine has (or at least Augusta has). The names of the candidates are listed, with a broken arrow on the right. Simply complete the arrow to the right of your preferred candidate. There is a space at the bottom to write someone in. If someone is written in, then that ballot must be hand-counted, but most ballots can be machine-counted. And yet, there isa paper trail if anyone suspects hanky-panky.
(3) Make it easier to get ballot access in states like Oklahoma and North Carolina. Also, every state should allow write-ins. Personally, I think that for Presidential races, more states should adopt a rule that a person will automatically be on the ballot if they can get ballot access in enough other states so that they have a theoretical chance of winning without write-in votes; that would allow candidates to get access in a large number of states to truly become national candidates.
(4) I also think that more states should adopt the system used in Maine and Nebraska, where electoral votes are based on Congressional district, except for the wo votes awarded based on Senatorial representation, which are based on winning the state.

The federal government, though, should not be involved in this for the most part; bcause voting is a state issue.
However, there is one thing that it can do under the Fourteenth Amendment. It can require unifrom voting within a state. In other words, every precinct within a state must have the same voting system, even though it may differ from other states.
It seems to me that the current voting system is too rife with possibilities for abuse, even if no abuse has occurred.

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