Friday, November 6, 2020

If the U.S. had 21st Century Elections

One may think that the 2020 election was rigged or not.  But one thing is clear.  It is still being run with 19th Century procedures.  The uncertainty, the claims of fraud in voting and/or counting are all the result of the use of antiquated data integrity methods.  How should the election be run?  Well, I'll tell you. 

Registration should be made by appearing at an official state office and providing proof of identity, proof of eligibility to vote and proof of address.  Once this is done an account is opened in your name where you will choose a e-mail address and password.  This website and account is where you will vote.  We already know how to secure this.  If I log into Netflix on a different interface, I will get a notice on my e-mail.  If I change my password, I will get a notice.  In other words, I may get hacked, but they really can't keep me from knowing.

Next, varying by state, I will be notified that voting is open.  This may be a week or two before the election date.  I can make my selections immediately and I can change them as I wish up to the 'polls closed' date and time.  Every time I save a change, I will receive an e-mail to inform me.  At any time, I can save a copy to my computer, date stamped.  Sensible people, right before the 'polls close' date and time, will go in, verify the integrity of their ballot, freeze it and save a certified copy.  

This will also, automatically, be sent, with a coded identity to each campaign office.  The purpose of this is that the official vote totals should agree with the copies received by the various campaigns.  If they do not, anonymous tracing of differences will find the causes of discrepancy.  The State election offices will have a conversion table, coded identity to e-mail, so that individuals with a discrepancy will be notified with official vote that they can compare to their saved and certified vote.

Through this process, vote count error can be reduced to zero.  However, given the process, the discrepancies should be close to zero.

Now, one of the things that is constantly brought up by Democrats is that the process is too burdensome for the lower income people.  Actually, that is a disingenuous argument because even homeless people usually have a cheap smart phone.  SNAP and Medicaid recipients get cell service for free.  Basic burner smart phones can be purchased for $10.  Just the same, every official state office or agency can and should have the facility to update a person's account for them.  It is a red herring argument and should be ignored.

I'm sure that data security experts can improve upon this.  After all, it is just off the top of my head and I am not a data security expert.  What I know is that my bank gives me very secure data and update capability already.  Vote integrity is fundamentally an easier process.

I am on a path to renouncing my U.S. citizenship and in anticipation, I do not participate in voting through a U.S. Embassy.  This is more a matter of the U.S. being a laughing stock as it condemns the election quality of other countries while it clearly cannot assure its own.