I Propose a New Constitutional Amendment

I truly believe that America needs a constitutional amendment that outlaws computerized programmable voting machines and restores our confidence in voting.

When you pushed the "VOTE" button Tuesday (providing that you didn't vote early using a paper ballot) how did you know that the choice you made was the choice that was tabulated? I know I didn't and that really concerned me and It should concern all voters, too. What can we do to stop all this uncertainty? Do you think we should revert to totally paper ballots? Can a machine be produced that allows for votes to be made and counted, but cannot be manipulated in any way?

Should a separate panel, commission, or committee be set up to explore this and present its findings to congress and then be voted upon by the people of America? Would that vote itself be corrupted?

Somehow, I believe we need an amendment to the constitution to make any illegalities that are or may be used to stack the vote be implemented.

Your thoughts?

I would personally like to see all electronic voting booths have the ability to print a receipt when voting. The electronic aspect would allow for quicker tabulation and reporting. The receipt would be verification to the voter. The receipt could be either singular or duplicate and be dropped in a secondary ballot box and use in case of recount or randomly to verify accurate electronic methods.

reply to post by Wolf321


I think that private companies need to get out of the election/voting business. We need to nationalize the proceess. It's not ideal, but at least companies can't be bought off.

Adding to your idea of a receipt, I think it should also have a tracking number on it.

If the USPS can track a package, we should be able to later on look up our ballot and see how we voted. This would ensure that people knew their votes were being counted, and counted correctly.

Originally posted by Wolf321
I would personally like to see all electronic voting booths have the ability to print a receipt when voting. The electronic aspect would allow for quicker tabulation and reporting. The receipt would be verification to the voter. The receipt could be either singular or duplicate and be dropped in a secondary ballot box and use in case of recount or randomly to verify accurate electronic methods.

When I read this I immediately thought of the US Postal Services tracking numbers that they issue. That technology could easily be adapted to recording votes. And, the USPS never seems to run out of numbers. Just hope that scientific notation isn't used, I get lost trying to figure those out.

I certainly agree with you. Some kind of verification really needs to be implemented.

Every receipt would have some unique number associated with it. I don't know how the postal system tracking works, but a voter receipt could easily create unique number based upon the date, state, county, precinct, time and voting machine being used.

I don't think we need a constitutional amendment for this, just another election rule.

Originally posted by Wolf321
Every receipt would have some unique number associated with it. I don't know how the postal system tracking works, but a voter receipt could easily create unique number based upon the date, state, county, precinct, time and voting machine being used.

I don't think we need a constitutional amendment for this, just another election rule.

This might make counting easier and more accurate but isn't there a danger that it would eliminate privacy and enable the government to know how each voter voted?

Originally posted by Wolf321
I would personally like to see all electronic voting booths have the ability to print a receipt when voting. The electronic aspect would allow for quicker tabulation and reporting. The receipt would be verification to the voter. The receipt could be either singular or duplicate and be dropped in a secondary ballot box and use in case of recount or randomly to verify accurate electronic methods.

This is a decent idea.

For those of you who haven't seen -- a handful of years back, HBO released a documentary (not the movie-- there was a similarly-themed movie around the same time) about the scandal over the Bush Jr. Election, and the allegations of miscounts, and it talked quite a bit about the possible role of Diebold's voting machines. If you haven't seen it, it is very much worth the watch. Wish I could remember the name. Maybe I can look it up. 90% chance it's available to be watched online somewhere, as most of the decent docs are....