What Are the Odds of Election Reform? And What Reforms Would You Like to See?

[Bonn1997]

I'll start but others know more than I do. I'm curious what people think about the odds too.

(a) legislation requiring a paper trail for all voting
(b) legislation making it harder to purge voters
(c) legislation requiring more voting machines so that there are fewer lines

[dipsydoodle]

1. Term limits

for both Congressmen and Senators.

[bluestateguy]

2. Election Day as a national holiday

nt

[Bonn1997]

4. That's a good one too. Do you think it will happen?

[hobbit709]

3. d: public hanging of corporate lobbyists.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Have one address for absentee ballot requests per state...

...and make it illegal to distribute request forms in the state with any other address.

During the 2008 campaign, the Republicans sent Democrats absentee ballot request forms with the wrong addresses. Some Democrats probably didn't vote because their absentee ballots never arrived.

The one address per state could be "Nearest Election Office" the way that Netflix DVDs are return-addressed "Nearest Netflix Shipping Facility."

[MarjorieG]

6. Paper trails aren't meaningful, only hand-marked, software independent ballots, and outcome still...

bleak. How do we get rid of the junk, poorly designed and made machines we own and the private companies that service them, badly. It's an unfunded mandate for states, and we don't get what we need in transparency, observable elections.

Congress doesn't know what to do, as there isn't technology that works (or works simply). Anything electronic requires more auditing, testing, than elections boards are really able and willing to do, with a reasonable amount of chains of command and protection for the vote.

The electronic databases, mandated by HAVA, are a real matching problem. Disenfranchisement by typo to other databases of the DMV, etc. Purging unavoidable and legal.

We prevented a worse outcome because of all the attention this time. Momentum to Obama, by even the GOP. We can't be this vigilant for every election, and each is important for maintaining good government. Many are saying we still lost a few percentage points.

[PuppyBismark]

7. Election Day on Weekend

A National Holiday is too expensive. Just move the election to Saturday or Sunday, or both.

It is time to have elections on the weekend. This will allow many more people to vote on election day and allow boards of elections to hire more competent poll workers and most employed persons cannot take a work day off to man the polls. Most other governments have elections on the weekends so they do not conflict with working days. In addition, it will reduce the lines at the polls as most individuals vote before work or in the evening. I am a election worker and my observation is that most people vote in the morning before work. We had a total of 450 voters for the day, 300 of them had voted before 9:00 am. In the morning we had lines but after 10:00, nobody had to wait for a voting machine.

[TexasObserver]

8. 1 a standard federal ballot for federal offices 2 on paper 3 counted separately 4 no registration

Registration is about stopping people from voting.

Anyone with a driver's license should be able to vote on the strength of that, unless it indicates lack of citizenship.

[abumbyanyothername]

9. National Elections Separate From All Other Elections

Especially ballot issues, propositions and referendums.

The ballots are too long.

The whole proposition mechanism needs to be reformed in California and other states.

[tabbycat31]

26. my ballot was not long

we had president, senate, house, freeholder, and local offices wtih 2 initiaves on it. It took me 2 minutes to vote (of course I came with my sample ballot filled out)

[Cleita]

10. One thing that we need that no one brings up ever is that we need

accounting principles applied or a double entry system. The way it's done, which is single entry, invites fraud and cheating because it's easy to get away with. Ballots need to be numbered and logged as either submitted or voided. Voided ballots will still be logged as voided in the place for the number. This prevents "lost" ballots. Then they need to be counted twice, once by each party. If they don't agree then a non-partisan group needs to recount them again until they have a consensus. If ballots are rejected, both parties need to agree that the ballot wasn't readable or whatever to not be counted.

[Realityhack]

13. I think the reason that is not mentioned...

is that numbered ballots makes it VERY hard to maintain an (actual) secret vote system.
I think voter intimidation could be a problem.

This is solvable if you assign (stamp) the ID numbers after ballots are separated from the voter. So something like assigning numbers to each ballot as they drop into the ballot box. However, if the number is readable (by someone) while the voter is still there... you have a problem.

[Cleita]

15. The numbers have to be printed on the ballot before the ballot is handed out,

or it can be compromised. No one needs to compromise the secrecy of the ballot if the voter puts the sealed ballot through a slot in a locked box himself. When the locked box is opened for counting, all a numbers checker needs to do to check off if the ballot was submitted or voided. No names or votes need to be visible. When the ballots are counted there need be no names so there wouldn't be any compromise of the secret vote. Also, all blank ballots that weren't used for that precinct need to be kept as well until the counts are verified. Right now my ballot isn't secret because I have to vote by mail and I have to sign it to be sure it's counted.

[Realityhack]

16. True... except...

If you did want to know how someone voted the poll worker handing out the ballot would have access to the name and ballot number.

I think it is a good idea but I wonder if it would introduce problems in practice. Maybe not. I also wonder if the presence of the number would make voters *think* it could be tracked to them even if it can't (most people are surprisingly stupid). and that is all it takes for voter intimidation.

[Cleita]

18. If that's true then my whole precinct should be intimidated because

we have no idea if the poll worker who opens our absentee ballot isn't taking names and addresses from the envelope and taking a peek at the ballot before it's put through the scanner. Everyone, I have talked to in my precinct (neighbors) so far all voted anyway. This is not an insurmountable problem. It's doable. Incidentally, my forever red county turned blue this time.

[Realityhack]

20. I think I might have worded that a little too stronly.

IMO it is just a matter of implementation. If done correctly then I don't think there would be much of a problem. But voter intimidation is real and I would like to avoid making it easier etc.

So I am really just a nitpicker who agrees with your idea.

[Realityhack]

17. To clarify...

I like the idea. I think implementation is everything. But I would love to see such a system in place.

[abumbyanyothername]

19. Some think that secret ballots are part of the problem

I think it was in the New Yorker where I read an article that discussed the fact that secret ballots are a relatively new innovation. Originally, people voted in the open, where they could be counted upon to vote the public interest as they saw it, rather than their strictly private, selfish, interest.

[Realityhack]

22. I totally disagree.

IMO a return to open ballots would be a grave mistake.
I don't think the normative social pressure of open voting makes for better decisions. I think that is idolizing the past in the worst way. I know at least one person in MA that would not have voted Obama if he thought for a second that his family would know how he voted. I believe if we returned to an open vote that voter intimidation would skyrocket.
Many of us will stand up and vote our conscience despite public pressure... but it is a tiny minority.

[abumbyanyothername]

24. Well I don't have strong views one way or the other

but I do think that more community discussion of political issues in the absence of partisan positioning or even worse, name calling, would be a good thing in our society.

[liberalpragmatist]

11. Quite a few

(1) Election Day as a federal holiday or a weekend (Sat/Sun)
(2) Universal voter registration
(3) Uniform ballot regulations

And, more ambitiously...

(4) Abolition of the Electoral College (or passage of the National Popular Vote pact)
(5) Redistricting reform (abolish gerrymandering)
(6) Permitting multi-member districts if elected via cumulative vote or the single-transferable vote (a proportional system -- I wouldn't mandate it, but I would support letting states draw multimember districts if they wish).
(7) Instant-runoff voting in elections for single-member constituencies (i.e. senate, single-member house seats)
(8) Easier third-party ballot access.
(9) Full public financing

I know... I can dream.

[Realityhack]

12. (a) and (c) should go and be replaced by...

Federally specified Paper (machine countable) ballots.

My list would be:

(a) Federalize the presidential election (yes I know that would require a constitutional amendment... I know it won't happen... I just like the idea).
(b) Federally specified Paper (machine countable) ballots. (no butterfly BS. Complete the arrow works well. Open standards are a must)
(c) Require all ballot batches be counted on two separate machines made by different manufacturers. ANY discrepancy results in a full manual count of the affected batch and impounding of both machines.
(d) Better regulation preventing voter purging. Perhaps mandatory prosecution and mandatory minimums when it happens.
(e) Require all votes be counted and reported regardless of margin of victory.

Odds... around 0.

[Realityhack]

14. forgot... I support election day off as well. n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

21. Here are some that I like

http://www.hostdiva.com/liberalchristians/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=29&limit=1&limitstart=1

[w4rma]

23. Paper ballots, mandantory audits of every election, more polling machines / employees to eliminate

lines. Decertification of every single solitary DRE voting machine in existence.

[tabbycat31]

25. I posted this as a blog entry

I'll copy and paste it here, but a shameless plug for my blog (http://outspokenliberal.blogspot.com) cause I need more readers guys :-)

Before the next major election, the Help America Vote Act needs to be revised. If I held public office, I would make the following changes.
1) Require precincts to have 1 voting machine per X number of voters. That number will be the same in urban and rural districts, democratic and republican districts, rich and poor districts.
2) Allow early voting for all 50 states. Base machine capacity to assume a 25% turnout for early voters.
3) If a state requires a government-issued ID card to be able to vote, make it free of charge for people to get. In NJ a government issued ID card is $24, which could mean the difference between eating and starving for a low income household.
4) Any electronic voting machine must have a voter-verified paper trail. Two receipts would print, one for the voter and one for the machine BEFORE casting the ballot, and have the voter verify that their vote is counted correctly. Since voting machine companies can produce ATM machines that can print multiple receipts easily, I don't see how this would be a problem.
5) Any company that wishes to get in the business of voting machines must be non partisan. All executives and the company itself would be banned from making any political contributions to any campaign.
6) Allow voters without transportation to use public transportation free of charge to get to the polls.
7) State, county, and local officials should not purge voter registration roles within 6 months of an election. Require the official to attempt to make contact with every purged voter, barring an official death certificate.
8) Allow people to register to vote at the polls.

[Realityhack]

27. I say... no voting machines.

My complete the arrow and bubble fill paper ballots required a whopping black marker to complete. Very cheap, and you can move people through so fast it is unbelievable. The voting booth is much simpler etc. And they are machine countable... if the standard were open you could have multiple counts from separate counting machines plus manual audits.
Why mess around with electronic voting at all? What is the benefit?