The Secret Ballot is The Problem

[voternm]

Internet voting is more vulnerable to the SAME threat that are
possible in poll voting using memory chips, software, and central
tabulators.

The problem is the secret ballot. If people had rights as
Constitutionally directed to hold elections and exercise power over
the government, then the secret ballot would have never been law.

The secret ballot is a mechanism that justifies corruption of
elections because it makes corruption possible on many levels.

1) Criminal election influencing by employers to spouses is still
possible with no consequences. If an employer or personal group or
relationship influences a voter there are no consequences, because
there are no laws to protect the voter. Every major employer makes it
well known who they favor and if you don't agree, you run the risk of
being out of work.

2) The voter can not check how their vote was counted and that
facilitates election manipulation after the vote was cast. Imagine if
you could NOT check your bank account debit and credit transactions.
That is the corrupt election unaccountable election system we have
today.

3) Disenfranchisement of the voter from their vote and the
election process. The secret ballot assumes the voter is a criminal
and prevents the people from being able to check their vote in the
totals cast or tally the totals used that determine the election.

4) Voter apathy is the consequence of the secret ballot because it
is "trust US elections" in principle and people feel like there is
nothing they can do to change government or the people running
elections can do whatever they want and the voter is helpless to
challenge, observe, or change what strangers do with their vote.

We need a published record of all the votes cast with random
numbers associated with the voter. Each voter should have a random
number issued when they sign the poll book and after the election is
tabulated (hopefully hand counted paper ballots) then the voter could
check how their vote was counted.

Further, each voter could tally the entire election by adding up
the totals used to determine the race they are interested in.

This would contribute greately to ending apathy and getting the
people involved in the process and issues.

November 11, 2009 11:00 AM