A VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS FOR ALL UNITED STATES CITIZENS
FIRST: We should amend the US Constitution to abolish the electoral college and institute direct popular elections for US President. This way, every state would be in play during the Presidential election season.
SECOND: We should add an amendment to the US Constitution making the act of voting, and the counting of an individuals vote, a protected right for all United States citizens. This would allow individuals to bring federal suit against their state government when their voting rights have been abridged.
THIRD: Once our voting rights have been constitutionally secured on a federal level, state and local government entities should not be granted final authority to decide for us on the methods and means used to register voters, screen voters at the polling stations or to cast and count our votes. The voting process doesn't belong to the states, or to political parties or to local government administrations. It certainly doesn't belong to a handful of private corporations. Ownership of the voting process belongs to all the people and is nontransferable. Governments instead should obtain our consent as to the means and methods we wish to employ in casting and counting votes. Voting practices and procedures should all be subject to approval through statewide public referendums.
FOURTH: Federal law should require that every vote cast must be recorded in writing on a visible paper ballot. When it comes to casting or counting votes, democracy only exists on paper. We can only agree on a vote we can see.
Electronic voting machines, if they are to be used, must be required to print out "official paper ballots" -- not just receipts. The "official" vote count should come from a publicly witnessed hand counts of those paper ballots in any race where any candidate requests a hand count (no legal threshold limitations). The computer tallied vote count should only be sufficient, and become the official tally, if all of the candidates for a particular office accept the outcome of an election based on electronically counted votes. A hand count of official printed ballots should be any candidate's right, not something for which they have to file a law suit. A candidate should be entitled to request and receive hand counted ballots in a specific polling places, or in specificed voting district or in an entire county or state. The ability of a candidate to validate the vote count anywhere and any time is precisely the sort of checks and balances we need to have full confidence in our democracy.
Brian Lynch Mine Hill, NJ
Brian Lynch is a social planner and child advocate from Northern New Jersey with a Masters degree from Rutgers University. He became interested in voting issues following the 2000 Presidential election and has been active on the Internet over the past 6 years to raise public awareness on voting and other social issues.
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