8/17/2020 Election Reforms

Long before this b.s. conflict over mail in voting was manufactured, I have always wanted a major overhaul as to how we vote. I would love to see in-person voting stretched to a number of days, at least 4 or 5, maybe as many as 7. That way no matter what people’s work schedules are, there would be some point in time where they could go to the polls. The second aspect of this proposal is that all the states would open their polls on the first day simultaneously, and close the same way on the last. So if polls close on day 5 at 9:00 p.m. on the east coast, they’d close at 6:00 on the west coast, etc.

In a scenario like this, Saturday and Sunday would be perfect days for volunteers to help elderly and other people with issues getting to the polls to do so. I imagine busses picking people up and delivering them to their polling places.

And while I would propose that counting ballots should be strictly prohibited prior to the last closing of the polls, I would not object to some method where each political party with a candidate in the national election knows which person registered in their party hasn’t voted yet, and can take an active role in getting people to the polls. But ballot harvesting AFTER votes have been counted? Not at all. If you don’t want a party tracking whether you’ve voted or not, register as an independent. If you want mom to make sure you’re up in time for school, so to speak, register with your preferred party. After a day or two maybe they’ll call you, find out you don’t have transportation, and help you get to the polls.

As for absentee voting, all ballots would have to be postmarked by the close of business on whichever was the first or second regular business day for the post office during the election cycle. So presuming a five day cycle, in person voting would start on a Friday, and run through Tuesday. Absentee ballots would have to be postmarked either Friday or Saturday.

I would not at all object to people requesting their ballot by mail and bringing it to their polling place filled out already. But I would check all voters for IDs, and proxy voting, a person or organization bringing multiple ballots, be they for an organization or a family, would NOT be allowed.

I doubt ANY of this will ever happen. But if it did, I bet a lot (allot for Gail, LOL) more people would participate and, speaking for myself, I’d feel a lot better about both the integrity of the process AND the higher participation.

One last thing, anyone busted for voter fraud, tampering, or other violations of voting laws and voter’s rights, should forfeit their own right to vote for some specified period of time. If a man votes twice because they registered in two different jurisdictions, maybe they can’t vote for 4 years. If another person is caught destroying 1000 mailed absentee ballots, or something like that, they should lose their right to vote for life.

Every citizen should have one vote and only one vote and every citizen who so desires should use it.