One Ballot, One Day

I wrote a whole spiel on this in the past, though it's lost in some archive or gone completely at this point. But voter fraud must be taken seriously, and actually addressed by Congress to a degree that it results in some kind of action (I know it's hard to imagine, but humor me for a moment and try).

One Ballot

When I think of equalizing the value of each individual's vote, with it there must be a system in place by which our votes can be equally cast. On Election Day, across the nation we experience variously (un-)trained volunteers running variously (in-)accessible polling centers using variously (in-)operable machines employing variously (dis-)organized ballots offering variously (under-)funded candidates depending on variously (in-)equal state-specified registration requirements which are then (mis-)counted by variously (in-)secure machines and reported by variously (not!-)unbiased secretaries of state which are then translated into variously (dis-)proportionate numbers of electoral votes per state with which we then decide a variously (completely-)inept president.

Many different kinds of elections are held on Election Day, not just the federal one for President and Vice-President of the United States; we also cast votes for positions ranging from members of Congress to the local school board, and register our approval (or lack thereof) of local propositions. These elections - and their ballots - of course vary by state, county, city, town, and so on, and is completely necessary. But are we such environmental conservationists that we must include our federal election in the same ballot? A federal election should be run by the federal government, and each citizen must be able to vote in a way that is equal to any other. There must be one ballot, identical to each other in every detail, from the list of candidates available to their order on the page. There must be one set of regulations for registering one's candidacy and representation on the ballot. There must be a number of accessible polling places, machines, and trained personnel proportionate to the area's population.

And there really ought to be a paper receipt available for the voter. Not that this alone prevents fraud, but it could be used in a way to help deter it. And there ought to be police that monitor polling centers to help prevent the tactic of individuals coercing voters to not vote. And there ought to be the ability for absolutely anyone to vote early by mail, with such absentee votes only opened and counted on Election Day. And there ought to be same-day voter registration. And there ought to be pie. Lots and lots of pie. And most importantly, there must be a holiday named

Election Day

It is mind-boggling to me that the day in which the United States exercises the fundamental act of electing its representatives is not a holiday. Not only should it be a day which recognizes and celebrates democracy in action, but it should be a day which enables us to actually vote. When people are forced between the choice of skipping out of work or voting, something is wrong. In our last federal election, a great number of voters in Ohio - and in other states - were forced to wait in lines for hours just to vote (and imagine being one of those told, when finally checking in, that you can't vote at the polling center). In the worst cases, in the black and/or Democrat-heavy areas of Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo - as well as on college campuses, of all places - potential voters were made to wait as long as ten hours to vote. That's somewhat heroic, to me, that people - here in the United States of Apathy - would be so determined to vote that they would wait ten hours, sometimes in the rain, to boot. But you can imagine how many gave up (according to Wikipedia, a bipartisan study measured that anywhere between 5-15 thousand voters left before voting). I bet somewhere, someone ended up losing their job because they decided to vote instead of show up to work.

By the way, the average wait to vote in Ohio in 2004 wasn't so bad... white people ended up waiting an average of 18 minutes to vote, and black people waited an average of 52 minutes. Still, that is kind of a long time just to walk to the back of the bus.