The United Peoples Of Earth

During the 2000 U.S. Presidential election there was a big fuss over voter fraud, voter disenfranchisement, and faulty voting machines. After thinking long and hard about the issues I am proposing a new system that is both efficient and secure from all angles. There are three main areas in the voting process that I target. (Pay attention election boards of the world.)

I. A More Secure Voting Machine

Every polling place should use a standard electronic voting machine. The production and distribution of these voting machines as well as all supplemental hardware and software should be managed by a government organization as opposed to a private organization for greater security. The machine should provide a simple and easy to use method of voting such as a large font, multilingual touch screen and should yield two paper trails. One of the two paper receipts are for the voter and the other for the polling place to be kept as a hard copy backup. Each paper receipt should have a printed bar code on it that corresponds to the results the voter cast. The voter should be able to see the printout that the polling place keeps to reduce the chances of computer error. Each voting machine in a polling place should connect to a central server in the polling place to store the vote tallies. This connection should not be wireless nor should it be accessible outside the polling place. This server will contain several redundant hard drives. These hard drives shall be escorted to destinations at various levels of government for the votes to be calculated and verified. For example if you live in the EU you may cast several votes that apply to the local, regional, national and international level. Therefore at least four hard drives would be required as votes will be verified by four different bodies of government.

If several hard drives fail, a good hard drive can be used as a backup until blank replacements can be installed. If all the hard drives fail the polling place can quickly scan the bar code printouts to back up the information once blank replacement hard drives are installed. Furthermore, hacking the system will be extremely difficult from an outside source due to the fact that voting systems will be on a closed wired network.

II. Increased Voter Identity Verification

A central voter registration database should be created that holds a registered voters name, polling location, and an ID number. Ideally the ID number should appear on a government issued photo ID. For most people this would be a Drivers License or government issued ID. When the polling places servers are loaded with the required ballot information a government body overseeing voter registration will distribute the voter information to the respective polling places. When a voter goes to vote they will be required to present their government issued photo ID to verify their identity. Once done the voter will sign into the voting machine using their ID number. After they have cast their vote they will not be able to cast a second ballot nor will they be able to cast a ballot at another polling place as their voter information is stored at only one polling location.

III. Increased Voting Efficiency

If a person has access to the internet and a printer, they should be able to go a government run website that contains all ballot information for the various polling places. This website should be vigorously tested for security on a daily basis. On this website a voter may cast a ballot and print out a voting receipt with the barcode corresponding to their vote choices. For security purposes this ballot will not be recorded as an official vote but the voter will be able to bring their voter receipt to their designated polling place. Once there and after the voter has verified their identity they may swipe there voter receipt, verify their vote and leave. This should greatly reduce the time it takes to vote and shorten voting lines. The voter should receive a copy of their receipt as recorded by the voting machine and so should the polling place as if they filled out their ballot at the polling place.

Whether a voter swipes their ballot or fills it out at the polling place they should have the option to change their vote prior to finalizing it. The reason being that if a voter changes their mind or made a mistake during the voting process, they may correct their ballot.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 2:03 am by Joseph Sileo and is filed under TUPOE Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.