Endless Contention

Anyone who has followed my previous posts will know I’m an ardent proponent of range voting and it’s multiwinner analogue reweighted range. What I have not spoken to as much, however, is the issues surrounding election procedures and security. These things are in many respects just as important as the voting method employed. Unfortunately in the US, such issues have been relegated to vociferous partisan squabbling. Fortunately, I think there exists a set of proposals that would satiate the concerns of both parties that upholds the principles of universal suffrage in practice as well as election integrity.

Voter ID rules

Most countries have some form of voter identification requirements at least for registration, and often times at the place of polling. The primary source of heated disagreement in the US is whether or not to have mandated Voter ID at the time of voting. That said, some states don’t require a government id for registration either. Much of the disagreement from Democrats stems from the fact that such strict voter ID requirements (as have been imposed in states like Texas and Wisconsin) have acted as de facto poll taxes. I agree with this concern wholeheartedly, but this issue can be rectified without abnegating the use of Voter IDs where its arguably appropriate. For the approximately 11% of Americans and 25% of Black Americans that lack voter ID, imposing an unfunded mandate like that will often prevent them from voting at all.

Voter Registration

To increase turnout and streamline the process of voting for first time voters, a system of automatic voter registration should be adopted (with an opt-out provision). Anyone who has interacted with a government agency, whether it be their local DMV or their benefits office, should be registered in the voter roll in the state they reside. This would increase voter turnout, since people who were unaware of the registration process or who would have been dissuaded by having to manually register would be in the system. Ideally, this would be expanded to Federal agencies such as Medicare and Social Security.

For those not automatically registered, they should be able to register online with any government issued photo identification as well as two forms of alternative identification. These would include documents such as a birth certificate, house deed, banking/credit card statements, student photo identification, and tax returns from the previous year. All registered voters should subsequently be issued a notification card with the time and place they shall vote that they must present at the polling place to vote. In lieu of this, a voter should be able to present any form of government photo id at the polling place to vote. Voter registration needs to automatically update when someone moves as well and cull inaccurate and duplicate entries from voter lists using predetermined automatic methods.

In the event that a voter hasn’t been registered prior to the day of election, same day registration should be allowed as long as they present the required documents at the polling place. For those wishing to vote by mail, they will be required to send the notification card with their ballot when they mail it. To reduce the burden of obtaining documentation for low income people, fees should be waived for any government documentation required for voter registration if the person has no ability to pay.

Universal Vote By Mail

Vote by Mail is often lambasted by some for being a vehicle for mass voter fraud, but the UCLA’s Voting Rights Project released a paper in April 2020 concluding otherwise. Furthermore, another 2020 paper by Stanford’s Democracy & Polarization lab found that the partisan effects were neutral and that overall turnout received a modest bump of approximately 2%. All registered voters should be sent a mail in ballot automatically. 4 states already do this: Washington, Oregon, Utah, and Colorado.

On top of this, a robust ballot tracking system should be implemented; voters should be able to see the status of their ballot through an online portal and state election officials should be able to track the ballots to see if they’re lost or stolen. In the event of a signature mismatch on mail in ballots, voters should be automatically notified and be permitted to submit photo identification to rectify the situation.

Election Security

In identifying weak points for fraud, cyberattacks, and other means of compromising our election system by both domestic and foreign adversaries, there are two primary areas which we should focus:

1. Voting machines
2. Post-election audits

Regarding voting machines, there needs to be stringent standards applied to their operation. It should be required that

1. Only individual voter-verifiable paper ballots be used
2. Voters are permitted to inspect and verify their own ballot after marking
3. Disability shall not be an impediment to voting and reasonable accommodation be made that ensures the privacy and independence of their vote cast so they may participate equally
4. All machines be manufactured in the United States and approved by the Election Assistance Commission and that if they fail to meet guidelines that they be immediately decertified
5. Any wireless components are prohibited

All elections should undergo routine risk-limited audits post by election officials. Monies should also be provided for the purpose of state and federal agencies to conduct periodic threat assessments of election infrastructure and for helping states and municipalities in implementing safeguards to found potential threats. To prevent voter rolls from being hacked or lost, digital and paper backups to voter registration roles should be made regularly with the former being on removable media that are isolated from the internet.

Finally, Elections are to be administered and oversaw by public election officials only; governments shall not delegate their role of election oversight to a private vendor of any kind. On top of that, the EAC needs to be fully funded and our election infrastructure must be permanently designated critical infrastructure under the DHS.

Moving Election Day

The United States is one of only 9 of 36 OECD nations to have elections on a weekday and one of only 7 not to designate it as a holiday. The US should move election day to a Saturday and make it a holiday in line with most other countries.