And the results of the third count are?

Can you believe that in the 21st century, in the land of nano technology and space science, the atom and the quark, where we can whip a 75 pound chunk of stainless around the moons of Jupiter, we cannot seem to count election votes accurately every time all the time.  

Just look at your television news or your local paper and media during the most recent election (and we have another coming up).   Did you hear about any discussions or heated arguments about “challenges” or “recounts” or “verification of absentee ballots” or other similar discussions?  Of course you did.  This is not rocket science, this is simple math (how many for or against).  Presidential elections have “hung on the dangling chad” (double entendre intended).

In this recent election, when asked “electronic or paper” I replied “who makes the electronic machines”?  The election official looked at me quizzically and said “I don’t know”.  So I said paper.  But after carefully coloring in all the circles on my paper ballot what happens?  You then insert it into the electronic counter made by the same unknown manufacturer that will now determine our future. While the paper goes into the trash.   But, how do we know for sure the machine did what we asked it too.  Probably 50% of the folks never thought about it since their candidate won.  But if I was the Nefarious Bill instead of the Citizen Bill, I might reprogram all the voting machines or force you to use my software.  Seems to me that we can do better and provide more security for what is one of our most valued liberties and responsibilities.  The Vote.

Accordingly, as is the practice of CitizenBill, no complaints just solutions.   Let me present the concept of e-vote-verification.com. 

In my voting future, elections are done over the internet using your social security number as the reference.  There will still be limited voting at city hall like what we do now for those who chose it (but it will likely fade away quickly like phone booths).  Don't have a social security number?  Why not?  And really I don't care about anyone without one.  No SS number means no vote as you are likely not an American citizen.  I don't know one American citizen without a social security number or an ID (but that is a different subject).  If duplicate SS numbers are entered or you have a bogus number or are a felon, these votes will be dropped into a "suspense" area and not counted unless absolutely needed.  Simple math, no fraud, easy stuff.

So no matter what method you used to vote, electronically at the polling place, internet (of course it is secure who told you it wasn't?), telephone, paper ballot scanned, etc., at the end of voting you will be given a paper receipt with a “randomly generated number”.  

Immediately following all elections, the e-voteverification system will  send all results to the servers and the results will be tallied almost immediately.  This is simple math, addition, no complex formulas needed.  The system will be totally updated  (again almost immediately) and by entering in your unique “receipt number” on the website you will be able to see AND CONFIRM “your vote”.  This simple “check” will provide all the security vote “balance” we would ever need. 

And of course if this is not your vote, there will be a procedure to address that as well.  Simple plan for simple folks.  Do not even leave your home to vote. And in addition to the security and verification that this system provides, I would also bet it is way less expensive than the present system since we will not need to rent a bunch of polling places or hire judges or transport ballots.  Like using a word processor instead of a typwriter, this system will pay for itself in one election.  I will try to work on "candidate check" (like spell check) in the future, one thing at a time.


God bless Citizen Bill and his family and friends.