Every time we have elections in the US, we all end up complaining about the many anti-democratic things - long lines on too few precincts; difficult registration; gerrymandered districts giving an unfair advantage to the party that did the gerrymandering; and especially election fraud by various methods including hacked voting machines. I'm sure that you can think of even more.
But these things are not necessary. There are solutions using the technology of today. I will propose a solution in simple terms without going into all the technical details. However, as a former database programmer, I have considered those and see this as a secure and reliable voting system.
1) Everyone with a social security number over 18 years old and not a felon is automatically registered to vote.
2) All voting will be done over a two-day period by computer, connecting to a voting database at the social security servers. Most people will be able to vote from home and even from their phones. Once a vote is posted to their Social Security account, they will not be able to vote again.
Centers will be available for citizens without computer access and assistants will be available.
3) Voters will be able to access their SS page to verify their votes.
4) At the end of the voting period, tabulation software will be issued to various public agencies and news outlets. The code for this tabulation software will be reviewed and certified by the leading database companies and by representatives from schools of computer science. These will tally the total votes for each candidate or proposition. If there are discrepancies, they will be investigated before results are confirmed.
5) There will no longer be an electoral college. The total popular vote will prevail.
6) Congressional districts will follow county lines wherever possible.
The above measure would eliminate almost completely the current anti-democratic factors in our current voting situation.
I used to do database programming and can imagine the technical steps needed to create secure software - but I doubt that many of my readers would want to read the minutia. If someone thinks that it is impossible, I would like the feedback but otherwise I submit this brief proposal to inspire new thinking....
