First, obviously elections need to be fair or there's no point in having them. So no double voting, no impersonating someone else, no voting if you're not eligible, etc. Hopefully we all agree on that.
That said, if reasonable precautions are put in place to prevent those things, why NOT make it easier for eligible voters to vote? Why not have a national holiday when there's a federal election? Why not send all eligible voters a mail in ballot and have drop boxes located throughout a state? Do you think states are incapable of telling if someone has voted twice?
First, obviously elections need to be fair or there's no point in having them. So no double voting, no impersonating someone else, no voting if you're not eligible, etc. Hopefully we all agree on that.
That said, if reasonable precautions are put in place to prevent those things, why NOT make it easier for eligible voters to vote? Why not have a national holiday when there's a federal election? Why not send all eligible voters a mail in ballot and have drop boxes located throughout a state? Do you think states are incapable of telling if someone has voted twice?
First, obviously elections need to be fair or there's no point in having them. So no double voting, no impersonating someone else, no voting if you're not eligible, etc. Hopefully we all agree on that.
That said, if reasonable precautions are put in place to prevent those things, why NOT make it easier for eligible voters to vote? Why not have a national holiday when there's a federal election? Why not send all eligible voters a mail in ballot and have drop boxes located throughout a state? Do you think states are incapable of telling if someone has voted twice?
You see, the problem isn't that mail-in voting is bad. It's not. The problem is that so many states haven't set up the laws, the procedures and the process to make mail-in voting safe and secure...and they don't have the time to do it in less than 3 months.
How many states, that do not already have established mail in voting, do you think have...
1. The reasonable precautions put in place to prevent those things you spoke of in your second sentence?
2. The procedures that took other states up to seven years to develop?
3. The time to put those procedures in place before this year's election?
Tell me...how many of those states that haven't had mail in voting for years will be counting ballots that arrive days or weeks AFTER election day? How many of those states will allow a "box of ballots" that are "discovered" in a mail room somewhere?
Or tell me...how many states have a LAW that says that any ballot that comes in after 7:30pm on election night...the same time the walk-in polls close...will not be counted?
You see, the problem isn't that mail-in voting is bad. It's not. The problem is that so many states haven't set up the laws, the procedures and the process to make mail-in voting safe and secure...and they don't have the time to do it in less than 3 months.
My bad. I should have clarified that, although the upcoming election is certainly a factor in my posting of this thread, I'm not talking about specifically implementing relaxed procedures for this upcoming election. I'm talking about philosophically, in general, for all elections, not just this one.
Complete BS... EVERY state has had to comply with the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act since 2010 (thanks Obama). For the math challenged, that's 10 years.
Every procedure needed to expand this to every voter is already in place.
We should not be mailing out ballots to anyone who did not ask for one. That encourages fraud and vote harvesting (which is amazingly legal in one-party Corruptifornia now)
I don't know all the specifics of California's laws and procedures.
But what about if:
1) there are authentication mechanisms in place like, you need a personal PIN and your SSN to authenticate your ballot
2) the state maintains an online tool where you can log in with your multi factor authentication and track the status of your ballot, see who you voted for, etc
3) any voter can contest their recorded vote within a day or two of the election, in which case it turns into a provisional vote and is not included in the vote total until the conflict is resolved
Wouldn't that deal with the issues you raise? If you get a PIN (like everyone does when they get a debit card from their bank), and someone physically intercepts your mail in ballot, they still have to know both your PIN and SSN to authenticate it. If they do you've got bigger problems than your vote getting hijacked.
And with ballot harvesting, if you can log in and check that your vote has been counted as you intended to cast it, doesn't that solve any issues related to that practice? If the actual voter can verify that their ballot was cast correctly, what does it matter who drops it off?
Do you think we can put all of that in place in 2 months with 100% coverage? I don't.
My bad. I should have clarified that, although the upcoming election is certainly a factor in my posting of this thread, I'm not talking about specifically implementing relaxed procedures for this upcoming election. I'm talking about philosophically, in general, for all elections, not just this one.
Yeah the internet access thing is definitely an issue (and I think it should be a bigger political issue both for poor urban people and rural people).
But lots of the same kind of thing can be done over the phone. Doesn't have to be SSN either.
Voting is an important decision so I'd argue that there is such a thing as making it to easy.That said, if reasonable precautions are put in place to prevent those things, why NOT make it easier for eligible voters to vote?
Because it'd be expensive, wouldn't help a lot of people and is totally unnecessary.Why not have a national holiday when there's a federal election?
Again, that is unnecessary. Why not just make sure there are enough polling places open long enough on election day and save mail-in voting for those who really need it, allowing the necessary security measures to be limited and focused?Why not send all eligible voters a mail in ballot and have drop boxes located throughout a state?
That is a terrible idea. Creating a database linking individuals to their vote and then putting it online!?! That is the exact opposite of the private and anonymous principles behind modern elections.2) the state maintains an online tool where you can log in with your multi factor authentication and track the status of your ballot, see who you voted for, etc
Voting is an important decision so I'd argue that there is such a thing as making it to easy.
That is a terrible idea. Creating a database linking individuals to their vote and then putting it online!?! That is the exact opposite of the private and anonymous principles behind modern elections.
First, obviously elections need to be fair or there's no point in having them. So no double voting, no impersonating someone else, no voting if you're not eligible, etc. Hopefully we all agree on that.
That said, if reasonable precautions are put in place to prevent those things, why NOT make it easier for eligible voters to vote? Why not have a national holiday when there's a federal election? Why not send all eligible voters a mail in ballot and have drop boxes located throughout a state? Do you think states are incapable of telling if someone has voted twice?
That is a terrible idea. Creating a database linking individuals to their vote and then putting it online!?! That is the exact opposite of the private and anonymous principles behind modern elections.
First, obviously elections need to be fair or there's no point in having them. So no double voting, no impersonating someone else, no voting if you're not eligible, etc. Hopefully we all agree on that.
That said, if reasonable precautions are put in place to prevent those things, why NOT make it easier for eligible voters to vote? Why not have a national holiday when there's a federal election? Why not send all eligible voters a mail in ballot and have drop boxes located throughout a state? Do you think states are incapable of telling if someone has voted twice?
Lawmakers understand the need to enact security measures to protect voting integrity but strangely encounter stiff resistance from opponents who don't want voters inconvenienced in any way. Soldiers risk their lives overseas to protect American freedoms but some lazy civilians cannot seem to be bothered with the inconvenience of voting securities.
so i mail you a ballot....
only your 78, are starting to suffer from dementia, and instead of even asking you how YOU want to vote, you daughter or granddaughter fills it out and sends it in because EVERY VOTE COUNTS....
if you dont think this happens across the country, you are naive....how many times? who knows....but should it happen?
in homes, nursing homes, retirement communities, etc
I want every voter to have a say in the elections...they get ONE VOTE
I want their vote counted right along with everyone elses.....
ANd i know we can do it safely if the damn governors and feds could get their **** together
Extend the voting time to two weeks....have people come in throughout that two weeks that way there are no LONG LINES, and no one has to be inconvenienced
Any volunteers that normally work that have preexisting conditions, we need to of course replace
Send actual voter workers to EVERY nursing home, retirement community, or place where the residents would have a tough time getting to a polling station....they can help the residents, and make sure they are actually voting themselves
This can be done....
Lawmakers understand the need to enact security measures to protect voting integrity but strangely encounter stiff resistance from opponents who don't want voters inconvenienced in any way. Soldiers risk their lives overseas to protect American freedoms but some lazy civilians cannot seem to be bothered with the inconvenience of voting securities.
But people have all kinds of different situations, right? Like, if you have no kids, a job you can do from home, flexible hours, a car, a printer, and you live near somewhere that renews your id and/or processes your absentee ballot, it's not real hard for you to make a copy of your id, print out an absentee ballot application, fill it out, buy stamps or envelopes if you don't have them on hand, or physically get yourself to your polling place if voting in person.
On the other hand, if you don't have a car, don't have a printer, have a job where you are on call or have a highly variable schedule, have multiple kids, have a sick parent that you are the caregiver for, or any of a thousand other issues, it gets a lot harder. Right?
Doesn't everyone who is eligible have an equal right to vote? Why should one person have to expend 10 times the effort that another person does? Doesn't that skew elections and therefore policy toward people that are already in a good position, in effect making the rich richer and the poor poorer? Is that how you think our political system and society should work?
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