1. Registered voter lists need to be kept up to date. Whether a voter changes party affiliation, moves to a different part of their state, to a different state, is convicted of a felony and loses eligibility, or becomes deceased, with today's available technology, there's no excuse for the kind of stuff we saw in many states this year: mail in ballots for 10 and 15 different people who no longer reside there sent to addresses, etc. While there are some people who don't file one, I suggest that somehow the information on our tax returns is a good starting point for ensuring our voter registration is up to date and more importantly, that our local, state, and federal registration rolls are accurate.
2. We ought to have a national standard for, and a requirement to have a voter identification card. Absentee and vote by mail voters can use whatever identification number is on the card to certify it's their vote.
3. There was never a time I wouldn't have said vote by mail is an invitation to fraud. I don't like it at all, but I suppose it's here to stay. A postmark should be required, and the postmark deadline should be several days before Election Day, enough time so that ballots, with perhaps some exceptions in very limited cases wouldn't create the post Election Day counting nightmare we see this morning. There is no reason whatsoever that justifies counting only Election Day votes, and saving mail in and absentee votes (or vice versa) for counting afterward. Election Day is Election Day. If you want to mail it in, then mail it in time to arrive BEFORE Election Day to be counted on or by Election Day. The 12 days bullshit going on this cycle in North Carolina is an embarrassment and unacceptable.
4. Speaking of counting nightmares, there ought to be a better method for counting ballots and allowing access to observers than fighting in court over who can and can't observe, and where they can and can't observe from. I don't know how exactly to fix this, but it's broken.
5. Could we make Election Day last for 24, 48, or 72 hours and close all the polls in all the states at the same time? And let's consider either making Election Day a national holiday, or moving it to the weekend. A 48 hour period on the first Saturday and Sunday in November would be ideal.
Look, the fact that we are still counting many votes for the first time, not a recount, but the first count, is ridiculous. It's an embarrassment. And now that we're 5 days past Election Day, every hour that passes creates new opportunities for chicanery: Malarkey, as the senile man is known to call it.
A note while closing: my recently adopted home state, Florida (our home state since 2016), was an embarrassment and fiasco in 2000 during the famous Bush-Gore race with it's recounting, hanging chads, and post-Election Day legal wrangling. In the 20 years since, Florida has mostly figured it out. Perfect? No. Room for improvement still? Probably so. But as bad as all that was, all the votes got counted on Election Day and over the course of that night. For Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina to still as of this writing NOT have an initial, comprehensive tally of votes is an embarrassment. Election officials in thos states ought to be ashamed.
Now stop reading and get back to counting!
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