Paper And Pencil Ballots, Period!

[Dinger]

Cheaper and more reliable.

[DireStrike]

1. Ink please, not pencil.

Can't we just have paper like scantrons in school? Everybody has experience with them and they rarely make mistakes. Especially if you don't change your answer.

[Dinger]

2. Yes, Pen It is. I Agree.

[proudbluestater]

6. There is evidence of t ampering with Optical Scans

I'm unsure of which state, but I believe in Florida they found the black boxes to be functioning normally, but the optical scans were giving Bush way more than expected. Leave it to Rove to screw with those. Nobody would expect tampering in them.

We use them in my little burg here, they are great machines. So long as crooks don't hack into them.

[bearfan454]

9. Optical scan goes to the GEMS program also n/t

[seanlsims]

3. Paper and PEN!

Pencil marks are much easier to change than pen. :think:

In our neck of the woods, we use black marker on paper, which is then run through an optical reader.

[newyawker99]

24. Hi seanlsims!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[silverweb]

4. Yup, I agree.

Although I'd make it pens or markers rather than pencils, but that's just me. And all ballots hand counted, monitored, witnessed by representatives of all parties concerned, and videotaped the first time.

We really should make this a grassroots issue at the local level and start a massive campaign to promote it.

[proudbluestater]

5. Like Oregon, we should then simply MAIL them in

No more disenfranchising people based on race, ethnicity, income.

A one-month long election period. Ballots may be mailed OR dropped off in a locked box, securely fastened, in your local city hall or, in a large city, multiple locations.

Paper and pencil. NO FREAKING requirements like Katherine Blackwell and Florida keep adding after the fact, like birthdates, checking the box regarding your citizenship (after you have already answered the question once), whether you have been judged mentally incompetent.

EVERYBODY GETS TO VOTE AND ALL VOTES ARE COUNTED. With a one-month time frame, there will be no need to for anybody to stand in any line or be disqualified.

Sample ballot

Bush
Kerry

THAT'S IT. THAT IS ALL WE NEED.

[Dinger]

7. Good One Proudbluestater!

I think ALL U.S. citizens should be able to vote. Even future felons and war criminals like bu$h... (yes, I think felons should be able to vote.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9785-2004Aug17.html

[shraby]

8. Paper ballots with pen, then put in a box

that's sitting in the middle of the room. If the box gets full, another box is stacked on top of the first one. When voting is done, the ballots are then counted in that room in full view of spectators and designated observers from the parties that are on the ballot.

State elections separated in time from the federal election and no proposals on the federal ballot.

[Dinger]

11. Yessssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

[meisje]

10. Hammer and chisel on rock!!!

[L84TEA]

12. DNA ONLY!

[Eric J in MN]

13. Plain paper, hand-counted.

Make the precincts smaller and have fewer races/intiatives per election if necessary.

[oscar111]

18. pen, paper and "Video count"

Video tape the counting.
Clear plastic boxes.

Should each paper be signed by the voter for future accounting/auditing?

Q. Mail can be stolen. I like the convenience, but can you solve the mail theft problem? I can see GOP thugs in a PO at night ,helped by their appointed postmaster, picking up a bag of mailed back ballots from a black area and tossing it into a furnace.

Ordinary mail theft by carriers happens weekly somewhere in america. You just dont hear about it.

[NuttyFluffers]

14. and above all, alliteration!

:D

you don't know how hard i tried to resist.

[whistle]

15. I agree, can be counted just as quickly and much more accurate

...I also feel that no results should be reported from early poll closings until all of the polls have closed. Also election day should be a holiday so everyone can vote.

[DELUSIONAL]

16. Also -- no party indicators of VOTER on ballots, cards or envelopes

What I mean is in some states I understand that the registrars can tell when the absentee (or mail in) ballots the party affiliation of the voter -- which is marked on the outside of the envelope.

In Washington State -- we don't register as a Dem or RepubliKKKlan -- if you go to the caucus and sign in then you may be intensified with a party. I like the caucus system on the primary -- because the RepubliKKKlans can't decide by vote fraud which dem candidate will run against a GOPig candidate. (Which perhaps happened in Florida dem primary Gov race 2002).

It seems that identifying a ballot on the mailing envelop or when the person checks in in one place where fraud can happen -- right now the GOPigs seem to be in control of counting the vote in most places or control who can vote at the sign in. Take all party ID away at all levels -- and take away one level of fraud.

[Boswells_Johnson]

17. I'm fairly new to the DU

and I'm not meaning to sound facetious, but...well...here in Canada, there's a non-partisan agency that is accountable to Parliament that runs our federal elections. There is one type of ballot--paper--nation-wide, and all are counted by hand. The count can be viewed by representatives from any candidate, and they can make objections.

I guess I just don't get how the Republicans run your elections...Is there a US federal agency for elections?

[L84TEA]

19. I say standard across the board... NO COMPUTERS

I say Presidential ballots should be separate from all other party's.

[Carolab]

20. Marbles in a jar! n/t

[Cronus Protagonist]

21. If it's good enough for the Pope (God on earth and all that)....

It ought to be good enough for us. Actually, I like the idea, except I would use many colored dice - they don't roll off the table easily and they kind of seem, well, appropriate these days.

http://www.kucinich.us/dkdu.html

[Cronus Protagonist]

22. RFID - one in every ballot

They should all be placed inside a black box for safety, that no one's allowed to look in, sealed all around except for a slit in the top for the ballots, that gets welded shut at the end of polling.

Then we could count the ballots by passing them in front of a reader, no need to open the box - the reader would tell us who won!

/sarcasm

Show your support for the president, wear a FUCK BUSH button!

http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

(We usually ship same or next business day by first class mail. Orders over $25 will get a free multi-media CD)

[yourout]

23. National paper ballot for president.

The same ballot mailed to every eligable citizen with only the presidential choices. Everything else handled at the state level but administered by a federal agency.