In Nevil Shute’s book, “In the Wet,” a dying soldier speaks about his “past” in England, though it sounds more like a possible future. In the world described in this book, everyone is entitled to one vote, but certain laudable acts earn you additional votes, up to a max of seven. As I began to think about voting rights, I was reminded of this book. While some may think the idea of earning more votes may make sense—it does to me, depending on what constitutes praise-worthy accomplishments—I don’t think anyone really supports a person simply cheating to vote more than once. It’s really a crime to steal/coerce ballots from others so they can vote twice or more; or any other method of affecting the true results of an election.
Fairness
As equal citizens of the US, we are entitled to one vote. It isn’t fair for anyone to have more than one and it isn’t fair to steal someone’s vote. I think most people would agree, but when you have politicians who literally cannot do anything else but rule, they aren’t happy with not being able to control the outcome. The rules they impose aren’t really okay.
Needing to show ID to prove you can vote seems a no-brainer, except that the Left keeps trying to politician-explain (polsplain) that it hurts minorities. The apparent reason is that it’s too hard for minorities to get an ID. Given that it is easy to get an ID card from the DMV, even if you can’t get a license AND that so many situations in normal life require an ID, it’s hard to believe the racist trope that minorities can’t or won’t get an ID.
Proving who you are is critical to ensuring one-person-one-vote.
You also should have to show ID when you register, and, I believe, every few years, to validate that you haven’t moved and that you are who you say you are. I remember a friend telling me that ACORN registered her daughter without any ID. They didn’t care if she had a right to vote. Permanent absentee voting should require regular checks of your ID. Too many people who move have found they can vote twice. They shouldn’t, but some do.
We saw counties where the number of votes collected exceeded the number of voters. Given that we rarely see more than 60% of voters actually voting, this is clear evidence of fraud. There are many more cases that were simply ignored.
Stupid Voting
Voting in person should come back. It shouldn’t be mandatory, but definitely encouraged. I get it; I too love to vote on my dining room table and mail the ballot in. But while it made some sense to have more absentee voting during Covid, it doesn’t anymore. Given the lengths people in many countries to vote at all, it shouldn’t be made so easy that you have to do almost nothing. It’s a privilege and a right, but that doesn’t mean governors should mail out ballots to everyone. If you don’t care enough to make the effort to vote, do we really want you voting? People like that probably don’t do any research and thus, especially on initiatives, vote stupidly. It’s a fact.
As an example of stupid voting in CA, we had a bill to “legalize abortion” at the last election. Except, that wasn’t exactly what the bill said. When you dug deeper, the actual bill allowed abortion up through time of birth, which most people wouldn’t support. No limits on abortion at all, which could mean that you could demand an “abortion” after the baby was born. The deeper issue is that if you have a “right” to an abortion, can you force a doctor to kill your baby? Gavin Newsom seems to want to control doctors—his latest bill is to punish severely anyone giving “misinformation” which includes telling people how to treat Covid in a way that actually works. I expect a test case of someone trying to make a doctor kill her baby as it is coming out of her uterus. Appalling. But the bill was voted in by a good margin.
Changes Needed
People in memory care units shouldn’t vote. They can’t understand it, so whoever fills out the ballot is getting a second vote. Similarly, strangers should not be able to come in and “help” people in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. If people need help, the aides can help them, as well as determine whether or not they can understand what they are doing. I envision a meeting where each item is discussed so the residents can understand what they are voting on.
No one should be able to harvest ballots. It isn’t hard to drop your ballot in a mailbox or have a neighbor do it for you. Strangers should never be involved in voting. Ballot machines should never be connected to the internet, and poll watchers should be allowed to determine if this is happening.
Voting should be a single day with absentee ballots required to be delivered by that day. It isn’t a hard burden. The total should be completed no later than the next day, with no extensions. Polling places must have a posted closing time and abide by it. If poll watchers want to watch, no ballot counting can be done without them present, to ensure integrity. When there is a problem with ballot machines (ex. AZ), manual counts must be done. If people can’t vote or their vote doesn’t register, again, the ballots must be hand-counted.
We also need to look at states where things just work and force every state to emulate the process. We don’t need hanging chads as an excuse for getting the “wrong” results, nor do we need one place having those old “pull the lever” machines, while others have paper ballots. Let’s assess what the best voting practices are and publicize those ideas to all states. States wouldn’t be required to change, but if the processes are better, then most would be likely to want to adopt them. At the same time, both parties should be allowed to examine machines before and after an election, verifying the accuracy and fairness of the vote.
Term Limits for Everyone
I wasn’t a fan of this initially, as I didn’t think we should get rid of our best people. However, we have too many people entrenched in office who are only acting in their own best interests, on both sides of the political aisle. So perhaps another approach would be that you get benefits and salary while in office, but when you leave, you get nothing. No retirement benefits including the President: … No nothing. Add to that, some reasonable guidelines for term limits, ensuring that no one can stay in political offices more than 10 years at the federal level, excluding the Presidency. Knowing that they have to leave office and do something else, (and that they won’t be showered with tax money), perhaps we’ll get better people who want to serve us, not just themselves. I wonder what people like Feinstein, Shumer and Biden would have done if they couldn’t keep running forever.
It's time to tighten up voting. Though “studies” were done showing no fraud in 2020, I don’t think most people believe that. There were too many problems and issues that were never explained. Even 2022 was suspect. People stop voting when voting appears not to matter. Make it tighter, tougher and more bulletproof and then, we can be sure that the vote results are real.
All great common sense ideas. I like term limits for a myriad of reasons but probably most because it would require a certain amount of thought when people vote rather than just marking a familiar name.