I Humbly Suggest A Constitutional Amendment

[Syrinx]

I'm certainly no lawyer, so if you are one, help me refine it. But I think something like this should be in the Constitution.

All elections for public office shall be conducted with paper ballots and pens,
with which citizens shall mark their choices. Ballots shall be counted in public
view. No electronic device shall be substituted for paper ballots. Said ballots
shall be archived under guard until all questions decided by their contents have been rendered moot by time.

[Abelman]

1. Yeah

It's great. If we ever get the majority back somehow, we should definitely work toward it.

[tandem5]

2. Have to federalize voting before you do that... n/t

[Scooter24]

3. I think we need to have separate ballots

One solely for president, and the other for senate/local elections.

For the presidential ballot, they should have a picture of the two candidates and next to their picture and name, a bubble. The voter votes for their candidate by filling in the bubble and then submits it. To count them, the pile is fed thru a machine for a first count. The machine would separate the ballots by candidate. Then EACH BALLOT GOES THRU A MANDATORY RECOUNT BY HAND. A tabulator would receive a stack of ballots, count them and verify that they are marked for the person who the stack was intended for, and write that number on a form. If the two counts are off, then that stack is flagged for a two-person panel (one Democrat, one Republican) to count them and agree on the tally. Once all the stacks are counted, those numbers are added for the final result which should also match the first run thru in the machine. Each tabulating room will be monitored by a representative of the county, a democrat, a republican, and a police officer.

Sounds logistically difficult, but it's a good checks and balances system. The first count can be used for purposes of reporting the tallies. However, the mandatory hand counting in every precinct should counter any fraud by the machines. When all the counting by hand is finished, then a final number is submitted to the Secretary of State's office. Each party would be free to report the totals to their respective parties HQ as well. It's just time consuming so naturally would take maybe a few days to complete. Funding should be immediately provided by congress to every state for every county for every precinct.

Stack A (2000 ballots) is fed thru the machine. Counts 1200 votes for Kerry, 800 for Bush. Stack A-Kerry goes to get counted. The tabulator counts 1200, writes the number down, seals the votes. and submits it to the bipartisan panel which records and verifies the numbers match. Stack A-Bush goes to another tabulator. He counts 700 for Bush, and 2 votes for Kerry. He writes that down, seals the votes and then submits it. The panel notices the error and breaks the seal, they both count it to verify the numbers, see that it is correct, and write the updated tally down. Repeat for Stacks B,C,D,E.......

Am I making any sense? LOL
It's a pipe dream :)

[Bucky]

4. How can this be an amendment? How does this intrude into pvt lives?

If you're not going to have the government needlessly intrude into the private affairs of American citizens, how can you expect any Republican to take this amendment seriously? Maybe if you attached a pee-test or a mandatory recitation of the Ten Commandments into this amendment it might get some bipartisan support.

[althecat]

5. Love it...

That would solve all problems.. and probably save you millions and millions in the process....