Voting idea, humbly reposted from another thread

[jayctravis]

Every voter should draw a sticker at random when he or she approaches the voting booth. The sticker has a 20 digit serial number and the date of the election. The voter affixes this serial number to his ballot and votes, retaining the card the sticker came from which has the same serial number on it.

All votes are posted on a website by serial numbers, and the list of votes are published in a paper almanac. Nobody knows what number you got, because the sticker is drawn randomly.

All votes would be accounted for and verifiable and countable by anyone who wishes to verify the results and their own vote.

[NoSheep]

1. Brilliant!

:hi:

[noamnety]

2. I love this

Personally, at this point I'd rather give up the secret ballot in return being able to verify my vote because my confidence in the system is at zero. But not everyone would - this would be a good compromise.

[tx_dem41]

3. I assume there could be no mail-in type voting under this system...

...I could see a problem with citizens living abroad...insignificant numbers maybe...but then again...

[fob]

7. Answer to that is to print 5 random numbers on the ballot in duplicate

and you peel off ONE of the 5 and stick it on your ballot just below your signature and keep the other for your records. The other 4 can be returned to use once the ballot is returned.

Like this;

Random #1 12345 affix to your ballot 12345 keep for your records
Random #2 23456 affix to your ballot 23456 keep for your records
Random #3 34567 affix to your ballot 34567 keep for your records
Random #4 45678 affix to your ballot 45678 keep for your records
Random #5 56789 affix to your ballot 56789 keep for your records

Where the NUMBERS are stickers.

[tx_dem41]

8. If you return the other 4....

don't "they" know what number you picked, and thus how you voted?

[fob]

9. No, the numbers were generated randomly so as long as they

don't unseal your ballot and copy it down they won't know. The other four will go back and can be reused once verified that it has not already been chosen/assigned. There will be no list of the random numbers so someone seeing the remaining 4 will have no clue what the missing 5th one was (unless they know the random number generating algorithm and how to use it).

[jayctravis]

10. I suppose they could make the stickers like

stamps...with a sealed cardboard sleeve, so they could mail you a sticker without knowing what number was on it.

It seems there's always a slight chance of someone knowing your vote if you mail it, but they work with so many that the point would be moot. Point is *you* know your serial number and the ballot can be verified.

[NJCher]

4. wonderful idea

Thanks for reposting it--I missed it the first time around.


Cher

[Greyskye]

5. Saw this idea in the other thread...

...and thought it was brilliant! As noted above there may be some issues to work out regarding absentee voting; but even if this was implemented only for 'in-the-booth' voting it would be a huge step forward compared to the current process. Recommended!

[Boredtodeath]

6. Simple answer - Palm Beach County, FL 2000

Once you leave the voting booth, your ballot cannot be changed.

Remember all the signed affidavits that the butterfly ballot caused error in balloting?

Remember the response to those affidavits?

I'll remind you - "Tough, learn how to vote!"

Even if that "stick" proved your ballot was WRONG, no one would change the ballot you cast in the booth.

[jayctravis]

11. I suppose then there would have to be a way to challenge

your own vote. Perhaps there would be a government form which requires you mail in the card that matches with corrections if your vote somehow tabulates incorrectly.

I guess that would cause people to scream "Oh, you can change your vote after the fact!" Perhaps a five dollar donation to the election fund would be the penalty for resubmitting your vote.

Dunno.

Logistically, the stickers and tabulation would be handled by a neutral group. I suppose there would be a bar code on each one that read the serial number and then the votes are scanned into a database that can be published online in searchable spreadsheet form. Almanacs would be available in bookstores and kept in libraries for reference.

Vote ran twice? It's immediately obvious if the same serial number pops up twice when searched for, or any duplicate serial numbers would be discarded.

Perhaps instead of a vote challenge the neutral auditing body would simply keep track of people who submit that their vote was missing or counted incorrectly. There would be a window of error that would automatically void all the ballots in that precinct if exceeded, triggering a revote.

[retnavyliberal]

13. Carbon-less copy as your receipt

put your half of the sticker on your copy. If then something fishy comes up, you show your copy?

[Name removed]

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[jayctravis]

14. I don't know...about federalizing...

The idea is that ballots are not scurried away in boxes to be forgotten about in disused stairwells. Every single vote or missing vote therof is visible and countable to anyone who wishes to scrutinize them.

[Name removed]

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[jayctravis]

16. Hmm.

Yes, I suppose if someone wants to do a CARRIE and stuff the ballot box...that would require quite a bit of work. What we're worried about is someone running ballots through a mystery machine and it coming up with something ridiculous. If they were programmed to shift votes electronically, the fudged votes would have to go *somewhere* on the spreadsheets, and it's likely that people would notice if their vote was counted differently.

Maybe it's a matter of scanning the ballot twice...once for the official numbers and once through a different machine for the audit, controlled by a completely different neutral body who manages the website. The ballots could even be paperport scanned for visual inspection...i mean my bank lets me look at any check I've sent them in jpg form.

...Or we could just get lots of purple ink.

[Name removed]

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[Mnemosyne]

18. .

:hi: Good idea jay!

:kick:

[NMMNG]

19. Sounds good to me

Not only will that end the possibility of thugs stealing the election, but it will end the possibility of parties questioning the outcome. No muss, no fuss.

[many a good man]

20. I don't see why this is necessary

Voter verified paper ballots, machine lockdown and auditing, triple-redundancy, and mandatory random hand-recounts are sufficient. Adding more cost and complexity will make it less likely to fly.