Two changes in regulation are required. First, the paper forms voters fill out by hand would be designated the ballot of record. This means those ballots would be the official record of votes. Second, Florida law would be changed to allow the hand counting of paper ballots.
Simultaneous a) optical scan counting and hand counting of optical scan ballot with b) the hand counted paper ballots serving as the ballot o record.
Each process checks the other and the entire process serves as both a tabulation of votes and a simultaneous audit, conducted in the open by citizen’s not private concerns
Advantages
This approach has a number of significant advantages. Combined, these changes return power to the people.
- Citizens control the process: The counting of paper ballots would be conducted by citizens, in full public view, on election night. The volunteers would live in the locality where the race took place and represent a cross section of the population. This was done for over a hundred years with far fewer questions about elections than we have now. It’s feasible and a proven success as our history shows.
- Citizens regain confidence in the process: Instead of a crew of experts from private corporations (the voting machine companies or other vendors) or public officials who disdain inquiries, this approach involves citizens conducting the count that determines the winner.
- Cross checking between hand and machine count: The complaint about hand counts, complaints from those who sell e-voting machines, is that human error occurs when humans count votes. They forget that there is both human error plus a capability for human avarice at play in the handling and programming of voting machines. Our democracy was built on human hand counts and tabulation of voting results. By putting citizens in charge, errors will be caught and corrected on the spot.
- Reduced post election controversy: Close elections or elections with nonsensical outcomes are difficult to recount due to state laws that make recounts difficult and often expensive. When recounts take place, the recounts often lack common sense like Virginia’s refusal to allow examination of optical scan forms in 2005. The simultaneous hand counting and machine checking creates a situation where the necessity of recounts is greatly reduced.
Winners and losers
The big winners with this plan are the people, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, Greens, etc. Anyone involved in the political process who wants to fight for their cause on a level playing field would come out ahead with citizen counting of paper ballots in public view.
Voting machine companies like Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia would soon leave the field. They’d be denied the ever expanding market for increasingly expensive and complex voting machines.
The members of national and state legislatures would lose out because their control over voting would disappear. The citizen count makes the process available to everyone and eliminates the need for experts who stand between those elected and those who elect them speaking a language that only the experts can understand. We the people could actually understand our elections once again.
Elections were conducted with hand counted paper ballots throughout the history of this country. The fact that California was able to count its very long ballots and produce quick results for decades proves the point. Those who say some hand counts take weeks simply don’t understand that the rest of us can read and remember. Canada, Ireland, and England are just three countries that have efficient election systems with citizens voting on paper ballots, hand counted on election eve.
A fair, honest and fully viewed process of voting and vote counting is one of three pillars necessary to continue the improvement of our great experiment in democracy. The other two are the elimination of private money in campaigns, a most obvious form of legal bribery, and the vigorous enforcement of voting rights legislation to allow all citizens to vote without hindrance.
This proposal goes a long way to solve the problems of Florida 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006. It would be the crowing achievement of the Crist administration and set an example for the rest of the nation.
This proposal would provide a voting system that proves that those taking office are actually elected fair and square. Right now, we have no such guarantee.
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