Proposal: A Better Way to Vote

The spectacle of watching people having to wait in line for hours to vote is unworthy of a modern democracy. I propose a cheaper, more secure, and faster way to vote.  

 

On turning 18, the prospective voter would register as usual with appropriate identification. S/he would be issued a unique identifier created by an algorithm that would identify the voter’s precinct. This identifier would be entered into a database. Data would be kept on the total number of voters in each precinct and other data uploaded online into a secure database. This identifier would be used to assign the appropriate ballot at the time to vote.  The voter would create a personal PIN that only s/he would know. 

 

At voting time, the length of which could be determined by local ordinance or state legislation, the voter would log into a secure site, enter his or her unique identifier and pin #. That would retrieve the appropriate ballot for his or her location. The voter would vote and submit the ballot at which time the unique identifier would be tagged as having completed the vote, preventing its use by anyone else. The link between the actual ballot and the identifier would be broken thus securing the secrecy of how an individual voted. All transactions would be encrypted. Should anyone steal an identifier, they would still need the PIN, but even if they had that, when the voter tried to vote and was told s/he already had, a visit to the county clerk’s office would start an investigation into that situation.  

 

For those without a computer or smart phone or needing assistance, they could go to the county clerk’s office or some other designated spot, like a library or post office, where secure terminals would be made available with assistance on their use.  Should a voter lose or forget his ID and PIN, a trip to the County Clerk’s office would issue him a new one and have the old one deleted.  Voters who died or moved could be removed from the system almost instantly.  

 

This system would reduce the need for judges, would provide for almost instant results, cost far less, permit ballot changes almost up to the date of voting, eliminate the need to go to a polling place, make voting by armed forces personnel around the world easier and faster, eliminate the need for absentee ballots, and be far more secure.  Blockchain technology could be used as further security by generating public ledgers, preventing any wholesale altering of result totals.