Baloney. All peoples have had paranoids among them for all of human history. Those who would corrupt a constitutional honest process by using 'paranoia' as an excuse to silence or control any who oppose them ARE a threat to our democracy.
I disagree. In many of the fraud cases that have come to light -it is months or years after the incident. At that point, it is already done and then who knows how many other incidents similar have gone undetected?
Except tapes can be altered, damaged, destroyed. I think video surveillance is an excellent idea, but I still want paper ballots hand counted by people under supervision of official representatives of all interested parties. Those representatives will received certified copies of the final count to use as evidence if the numbers reported are different.
The short answer is most people think their vote will make no difference. They vote because they are expected to vote. Since they don't like wasting their time voting, they certainly are not going dig up proof of citizenship, show up in person at the registration offices weeks before an election, have papers notarize for absentee voting, etc.. Multiple surveys show more people vote when the process is easier and less when it's harder.
Hand counting paper ballots is a terrible idea and just plain crazy. The hand vote counting process in the 19th century was complex, unstandardized, and vulnerable to corruption. Counting practices varied from precinct to precinct. Every time a large batch of ballots was counted, you would get a slightly different number. Machine counting is far more accurate and consistent. Also the time required to hand count 150 million ballots with dozens of items to be counted on each ballot would take months if not years because every time a batch is counted it has to be recounted until the counts agree. In a highly contested election with numerous recounts, it would impossible.
Please return to reality and name all those indicted for conspiring to pervert an election.
Please list all elections whose results have been proven to have been perverted by a clandestine conspiracy of individuals to all cast bogus ballots, and the identity of the conspirators
Video monitoring of vote counting is used in many vote counting centers and has been for years. A lot of centers have gone to web monitoring and recording which allows all interested parties to observe all parts of the counting process from handling ballots at arrival to storage after counting. In some centers they have made web monitoring available to the public.
I will consider this. But I know too many computer programmers who have confided in me that a computer can be programmed to do just about anything you want it to do, and it would take other experts in the field to detect any hanky panky. Even to the point that you simply produce the data you want, switch out the hard drive containing the same data but without the reprogamming footprint, and nobody would ever be the wiser. I just think taking electronics out of the equation and going to a more primitive filling out a paper ballot and hand counting the ballots is the only way the electorate will be confident of an honest and legitimate vote.
Almost all European countries and Canada hand count paper ballots. They rarely do not complete the count within a few hours after their polls close and they have far less problems and far less suspicions re their elections than we do in the USA.
Off topic and irrelevant to the topic. Do have a pleasant evening.
I agree with all except 2 and 4. The right to vote is a constitutional right and this implies a right not to vote. None of the above is implied when you do not vote for any candidate or for any issue.
Again I appreciate your confidence in an electronic system. But the fact is millions of voters now do not trust the machines. I am not particularly paranoid about them, but I have no way of knowing whether that machine recorded my ballot as I voted and I always wonder. I just think paper ballots and hand counting is the way to go.
We vote for a single position. Those are easy to count. We also have a LOT of polling station. Last Provincial election, my polling station was in my building. At the end of the night, they probably didn't have more than 300 ballots to count.
But that would take a federal holiday away from those who are needed to work the polls. We have survived as a nation for more than 200 years and a record number of people went to the polls in the last two elections without making election day a national holiday. People who want to vote will find a way to vote. I think making election day a national holiday is way down on the list of changes that need to be made.
