ELECTION REFORM

 ELECTION REFORM

WE ALL DESERVE AN ELECTION SYSTEM WE CAN TRUST

Elections are critical to the success of any democratic government. Honest and clearly legitimate elections can only be conducted and accepted by the population if the elections and their results are auditable. Elections must be 100% verifiable. There cannot be a system were the results need to be accepted on faith in the process or the people in charge of the elections. It is clear this is not presently the case with our election system here in Pennsylvania or in many other states. It is time to put into  place a full proof auditable system of elections.

1. General mail in voting is to be eliminated. It allows multiple opportunities for fraud, abuse and is not verifiable. 

2. Absentee voting with cause is allowable. This would accommodate the handicapped, nursing home and hospitalized persons, the military, and persons required to work out of their voting district on the general election day. All first time applications for absentee ballot would need to be affirmed by a physician, nursing home administrator, superior military officer or work supervisor. All absentee ballots would require the identification number of the drivers license or state Identification. This would assure their place of residence.

Applications for absentee ballots would be kept for 24 months from date of the general election. Absentee ballots and applications would have an identification number coinciding with a number on their voter registration. This is necessary to have an auditable system.

Absentee ballots would be required to be received 10 days before the general election. Absentee ballots would be opened by teams of representatives of all political parties involved in the election. These representatives would be vetted and supplied by the political parties. Each team would stamp the ballots as complete and genuine and be initialed by the team, each team would have a team number. The ballots that they approve will be counted by the team and placed in a sealed container with a result of their count. A copy of their count will be placed on the outside of the container and each team member will keep a copy of their totals. On the general election day, all teams will be present to add their totals to general count and verify they are correct. All these ballots will be kept for 24 months from the general election.

3. General election ballots will also have a number placed on them coinciding with the number on the voters registration. This could be a number from the registration or coinciding with the signature record at the voting place. Ballots are to be counted by teams made up of individuals from all political parties involved in election. Ballots are counted at the precinct level and all ballots are sealed in boxes by the teams with a copy of the results inside, outside and kept by members of the team. Results are then communicated to county. All ballots will be kept for 24 months after the general election.

 Election Audit

Before any proclamation or certification of the results of an election an election audit team made up of representatives of all political parties involved in the election shall conduct a random sampling of districts for audit. These teams will be vetted and supplied by the political parties. They will begin their audits with both sides picking 6 districts or precincts in their county for spot auditing. This would be accomplished by picking 50 ballots from each selected district, identifying the voters and contacting them to verify their votes. If the results are 100 %. in all districts, no further action would be needed, if not there would need to be a more complete audit.

Registration

Registration may be performed as now, requiring Identification and also a group of auditors composed of representatives from all political parties to work together to assure addresses and voters are real. Registrations will be purged if voter does not participate in 2 consecutive presidential elections, or any other elections. Voter will be notified that his registration has lapsed with instructions as to how to re-register. 

The goal of this system of voting is to have an opportunity for representatives of both parties to work together and insure that everyone is satisfied that an honest and fair election has taken place. It should insure that the election results are recorded in a timely manner, without any doubts as to the validity of the vote. With precincts limited to 2000 voters, hand counting should be accomplished in several hours. This would eliminate the cost of electronic voting machines which have a high level of distrust by voters. This is a simple, less costly and fully auditable system that all Americans can and deserve to trust.

originally published 11/2/21