Of Voting and Elections, Things That Must Be Done Now by 6IXSTRINGJACK

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Of Voting and Elections, Things That Must Be Done Now

POSTED BY: 6IXSTRINGJACK
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 15, 2016 17:13
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Tuesday, November 15, 2016 5:13 PM

Now is the time to finally put a few things to bed. These are voting issues that plague us every election to one degree or another. I, for one, am getting sick of hearing about these every 4 years, and truth be told I don't feel that everything is fair, or at least I never walk away from an election with certainty that things weren't fixed on at least some level.

Two of these issues I feel very strongly that I have good solutions for, the last one, I admit that I'm at a loss. I simply do not have the knowledge necessary to come up with a plan, although I do admit I believe the system is flawed and needs to be revised.

In no particular order of importance they are as follows:

1. Verifying, once and for all, if there was any notable voter fraud in the 2016 election so we can all stop bitching about it.

2. Ensuring that voter fraud would be all but impossible in future elections.

3. Deciding what to do about the Electoral College.

(Oh, and BTW, I do not view Democrats busing people to polling places as any type of fraud so long as they are legitimate voters. There is no reason why Republicans can't put out that same effort once the other issues are cleared up.)

1. Voter Fraud / Election Fraud:

There is a very simple way to do this, although it will take a couple of steps and will likely cost some money.

First Step: Create two, and possibly even three teams of people to investigate this issue (Dems, Repubs, Independents). When the results are tabulated by each of the teams, they can then be viewed by the other teams, as well as available to the public for transparency.

Individuals and who they voted for would not be made available to the public or to the teams investigating, as doing so would violate one of our basic individual rights. Because of this, we could never get a 100% certain voter accountability, but with the steps outlined below we would know within a very close range how much, if any voter fraud took place.

Second Step: Compare the database of registered voters to social security numbers in the database. Then compare this database to the voters that came out and voted. Any vote that was counted that does not have a social security number behind it is thrown out.

Third Step: Use the Postal Mover File Database to remove any votes from social security numbers of people who have moved and do not currently reside where the vote took place.

Fourth Step: Merge the Social Security "Death File", and purge any votes that were made by people who are actually dead.

This will no doubt cost a little money to do, and it will take a little bit of time, but I believe with the division we see today it is money well spent. We need to have faith again as Americans that the vote is actually not being rigged.

2. Preventing Future Voter Fraud:

Immediately send out Voter ID cards to anyone who remain on the Voter Registration lists AFTER the database purges mentioned above have been completed to the satisfaction of all parties. Anyone who registers to vote in the future and has a valid SS# will then receive one of these cards as well.

Allow anybody at any time to print out a new one on the spot off of the internet. If somebody happens to be homeless, they can go to their local DMV at any time and request one, so long as they can prove they are who they say they are.

These cards will not have a SS# printed on them, but they will have a barcode that once scanned, can not be used again in the current election anywhere else, so it doesn't matter if somebody prints 100 of them.

Make State ID's free to the public. Only charge money for Drivers Licenses. This way anyone can get a legal photo ID to vote with at zero cost to them, even if they do not drive for whatever reason.

Require the Voter ID and the State ID/Drivers License when you go to vote.

This has to remain fair to everyone so nobody can claim that this is a means to single out minorities or poor people.

Any able bodied American who wasn't abroad for Millitary or School should not be able to mail in their vote, period. If you can't be bothered to go to a polling place, you don't deserve to get a vote. My grandma is 84 years old and at least 125lbs overweight and she got out to vote. Unless you're on hospice or in a hospital bed, you should not be allowed to mail in an absentee ballot.

The last thing that would have to be done, and it makes no sense to me why it isn't already being done, is that the Death List and Mover List be purged from the database of voters every two years, at least 1 month before any Presidential or Mid-Term Election.

(If I've missed anything here, please share your ideas).

3. The Electoral Freakin' College:

Hoooooo Boy! This one is a real stumper.

We can't just go with a Popular Vote. The following link, although just an estimate of the 2016 turnout now, explains why:

http://www.electproject.org/2016g

California alone had an estimated 13,600,000 votes in 2016. I think the greatest argument against a straight Popular Vote would be the fact that The votes in California, according to these estimates, would equal the votes of Wyoming, District of Columbia, Alaska, Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Hawaii, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, Idaho, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, New Mexico, Nebraska, Utah, Nevada, Arkansas, Kansas and Mississippi combined. These are the states with the lowest estimated amounts of voters.

Of these 21 states, 12 of them voted Republican for 53 Electoral Votes, and 9 of them voted Democrat for 35 Electoral Votes.

So if we include California with the 21 lowest populated states in the country, the Democrats would win by a landslide in both the Popular and Electoral Vote, even though the Republicans would have won 12 states compared to the Democrats taking only 10 states. The Republicans 53 electoral votes in 12 states wouldn't even beat California's 55 electoral votes, and then you'd add the 35 more from the other 9 states.

Now if you take California out of the equation, the 2-10th most populated states have nearly as many votes as the 11th to 31st states.

In all, this means that the 11 most populous states in America would have the exact same voting power as the other 40 (39 + D.C.).

I agree that something needs to be changed. I just don't know what it is, or how it should be done.

Keep in mind, Democrats, that times do change. As we're already witnissing now, I believe that there is going to be a seismic shift in both the Republican and Democratic parties in the coming years. I think as both parties re-define themselves there may even be a legitimate 3rd party that rises as well. The Popular Vote has looked good for Democrats in 4 out of 5 of the most recent Predidential Elections, but it is in no way won by so much to assure Democratic Victory every time.

If there are laws to make sure that only legal citizens are able to vote, systems can't be cheated by some of the methods outlined above, and Republicans do their job and grow with the changing demographics in America today, you could find the situation turned on its head and be wishing we still had the current electoral college we have today 20 years from now.

The complete opposite could be true as well. I'm just playing devil's advocate here and mentioning that we don't have a crystal ball and have no idea what the next 20 years will bring us.

If the Electoral College is changed, it can't be changed in a way that only reflects how things have gone in our own, relatively short lifetimes. It has to reflect not only 240 years of voting history that gives us a very good look at how things do change over the course of 2 1/2 centuries, as well as project for how things could change in the next 2 1/2 centuries.

It has to be changed in such a way that we're not having this same conversation every 4 to 8 years. It has to mean something.

Personally, what I would like to see is an Electoral College that somehow ensures that candidates spend more time talking to everyone in the country at rallies as opposed to spending all of their time and money in only 20 or so states. I'm almost 40 years old and although I've lived in both Democrat and Republican states, I've never once lived in a state where my vote for President really mattered at all.

THAT, I believe is the biggest flaw with the Electoral College today.

What do you guys think?

Am I full of shit? Do I have at least some good ideas here?

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