Reply #11: Easiest solution ever...and business opportunities for printers everywhere [View All]

SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Jul-21-08 04:37 PM

Original message

We don't need new ballots, we need a new definition of "ballot"


States run elections, and within the states, counties run elections. I understand the need for those entities to be able to design their own, BUT....

and it's a BIG BUT.

Those local elections are important ONLY to the people who live there, and most of us don't give a rat's ass about which candidate wins the 13th district selectman spot, or who becomes the 4th city council member of a small town in Alabama.

We DO care, and we care a LOT, about which person wins a particular state's election when it comes to NATIONALLY HELD OFFICES.. Offices like congress, senate and of course, president.

THEIR VOTES AFFECT OUR WHOLE COUNTRY..

Those offices are too important to trust to the whims and vagaries of local "ballot design".

Too many states have been sold hunks-of-junk, and were told that they are accurate ballot counting, recording devices. Maybe those states are willing to use them for their elections, and I am all for states doing what they want...

BUT

I don't want them using them for anything BUT their own elections.

Nationally held offices are different. Those votes deserve to be cast in a uniform NATIONALLY ACCEPTED fashion, and counted by humans, in a manner that allows transparency and unlimited recountability.

A 5 x 7 ballot on heavy cardstock and a sharpie pen is all we need..

This ballot for all states would do the trick..and for easy counting, the vertical gray parts would be perforated....

On the bottom corner, they would be numbered, so each polling place just needs to write down their beginning number and the ending number, and account for all the cards they have..

A bank money counter, could easily be calibrated to count the number of cards at the end of voting, and then once torn apart, they could easily be stacked in groups of 10...by candidate... A team of 5th graders could do it..

The whole counting/end-of-day procedure could be CCTVed and totals tallied, and recorded on tape....Cards secured by sheriff's department..Once this is done, the localities could do whatever they wanted with the non-national office ballots..

For those who say it would be too HARD, or people couldn;t figure it out, I say..BS.. Every parent has managed to figure out the school "packet" that kids bring home every year, and most people have figured out how to fill out a contest form for a free jet-ski or tv. The people sitting at the tables just need to hand each person a ballot and a card.. The Card is for national offices, and the ballot it for everything else. If people only want ONE..the card, then officials need to soul-search a little and ask themselves why people don't care about their local issues..