Just Fix It!

In 2018 Tony Evers ran a successful campaign for Wisconsin Governor and defeated incumbent Governor Scott Walker. One of his slogans was “Just fix it”, referring to fixing the roads. Having just completed a contentious election with far too many charging that the election was stolen, it’s time we work to fix our election process to bring back trust and to restore faith that all elections are conducted openly and honestly.

Each and every article about the 2020 election I read from the mainstream media contains one or more of the following disclaimers, meritless claims of voter fraud, baseless accusations of voting irregularities or the declining trust in our elections driven by Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud. We need to accept the results of this election and just move on. Alrighty then! Let’s move on and fix some our voting vulnerabilities. The following are some common sense suggestions that could help reclaim our faith in our election system.

·         Millions of ballots are preprinted before each election, usually comprising the number of registered voters plus an additional 5-10% for any newly registered voters.

·         This leads to millions of ballots printed that are expected to go unused and must be destroyed.

In order for ballot fraud to occur the following elements must be present:

·         Desire of an individual or individuals to commit the fraud.

·         Ability of the individual(s) to commit the fraud.

·         Opportunity for the individual(s) to commit the fraud.

The only factor that we can actually affect is to reduce or limit the opportunity for fraud to occur. Unfortunately, blank ballots at polling places offer the opportunity for unscrupulous actors to engage in fraud. The following are suggestions that may reduce the opportunity for fraud to occur in our voting system.

·         All citizens eligible to vote should have a driver’s license or an identification card provided by each state.

·         These official documents are embossed with a picture of the cardholder and a barcode on the reverse of the DL/ID.

·         The photo and barcode are unique to each individual issued the DL/ID.

·         For further security, each DL/ID should have an imbedded chip, similar to the chips imbedded in credit cards.

During early in person voting and on election day, the voter must present their ID to the poll worker. The poll worker confirms and documents that the voter is on the voter roll and will cast a ballot in that name. With the information contained in the barcode and imbedded in the chip, the DL/ID would then be scanned at the site, and a unique ballot would be printed for each voter at the polling place. Printing a ballot should take 15 seconds or less. One voter, one ballot. No extra pre-printed ballots are necessary. No leftover ballots laying around the polling location. This would also eliminate confusion during Spring Elections that have various school districts, county races and other local races. This technology already exists. Each ballot printed would have a barcode unique to each individual that votes. Any ballots, found to be cast by an person ineligible to vote, could be readily identified, removed and deleted from the vote totals. This would also eliminate the additional ballots that could be fraudulently completed and scanned, what is commonly referred to as “ballot stuffing’’. As an example, unscrupulous individuals at polling locations could access the voter roll, enter the names of persons who had not voted, complete the unused ballots in that person’s name and then scan each ballot as if it were cast by that person on the voter roll.

In addition, voting should be consolidated to the Counties, eliminating the inequities in early in person voting and reducing the cost of the new technology. It would be fiscally impossible for each municipality to fund new equipment, maintain that equipment and to have early in person voting consistent with the larger municipalities. To enable voters outside of County seats, a number of satellite voting locations, run by each County, would need to be set up.

Mail in voting should be limited to:

·         Members of our armed forces overseas or stationed outside of their voting district.

·         Indefinitely confined individuals, confirmed only with a physician’s note and necessary to presented at each election, unless that individual is deemed permanently confined.

·         Those traveling abroad during early in-person voting and on election day.

·         Each mail in ballot must be properly completed with a witness signature and the witnesses’ current address.

·         Clerks “curing” improperly completed ballots is to be expressly prohibited.

Mail in voting, although each ballot is barcoded, allows for unscrupulous persons to complete ballots sent to them in error, fraudulently requested or stolen from common areas where mail is delivered. Increased mail in voting increases the opportunity for fraud, since there is no way to be absolutely certain those ballots were cast legally. In addition, the voter roll must be up to date and anyone who is no longer living at their registered address, has an invalid address (PO Box, no such address, etc.) or deceased must be removed from the rolls. With same day registration, it is unacceptable to have a voter roll that is out of date.

Our vote, that enables us to choose who represents us in our government, is one of our most sacred rights. This is not the time to stand pat and forgo utilizing the necessary solutions that have half of the population questioning the results. Without faith in our elections, we cease to have a Constitutional Republic. Granted, the technology upgrades will be costly, but we must have elections that our citizen’s respect and trust. Unfortunately, far too many continue to question the validity or have lost that trust in our election process. That is unacceptable. We must remedy this or we all fall.

“Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process.” – Hillary Clinton