To ensure honest Federal Elections the process needs to be changed: so in accord with the reference quoted below I submit the following:
“ The Constitution of the United States:
Article 1
SECTION. 4.
The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for
Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each
State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at
any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as
to the Places of chusing Senators. “
We need a law which implements the following suggested policies:
A. A policy that supports the individual and the rights of each state to administer and run the election in that state.
B. Timely results with minimal opportunity for manipulation of the numbers..
A.1.To support each state: if the legislated voting rules or process of that state are not followed: the federal government should NOT accept any electoral college results or candidates voted from that state. Neither should the federal government accept results if the procedures were changed during that election cycle, to give the citizens a chance to review and learn the process in order to comply with the procedures.
A.2..& B.1Counting & Reporting at the polling place or Precinct Level: At a precinct where voters can be identified; that is the starting point of the individual vote.
B.2. Each precinct should report the number of registered citizen voters on the roles at the close of the precinct polls the day of the election.
B.3. Also reported should be the number of votes cast for each candidate for federal office and the total number of ballots or cast votes cast for that federal office.
B.4 If there are multiple candidates running for the same office the winner should be the candidate that gets the most votes: a difference of one vote may determine the winner even if here is no clear majority.
If the total number of votes cast for a federal office from a precinct exceeds the number registered of citizen voters in that precinct: that is evidence of fraud thereby invalidating those votes: therefore none of the votes from that precinct will be counted toward the county and state totals for the federal office. While these precinct reports may be submitted electronically: if a local voting machine is connected or has the capability to be connected to the internet; it should not be registered as a valid local voting machine
This information should be publicly available within eight hours of the close of polls.
This procedure supports the states right to legislate their voting process; while making the results valid in a timely fashion. Totaling the votes in determining the results becomes a simple addition problem.
Absentee (mail in) ballots should be requested by the voter and returned to the precinct before election day.
As the integrity of the voter rolls is of paramount importance:
A. If a voter misses three or more election days without voting; that name should be removed from the voter rolls. This would require that citizen to re-register to again vote.
B. At voter registration: valid address and Proof of citizenship should be required before accepting that addition to the voter rolls for federal elections.
If there is no verification of voter eligibility or the number of eligible voters in an area, no election results can be known to be accurate.
The posting of “early results” may influence those in other places and later arriving voters; therefore no posting of results should take place until all polls for that office are closed. IE state offices may be published when the poles close in that state; Federal offices when the poles close in Hawaii.
Paul R Schlehr
P.S. Personally I would like to see a voter registration card with:
a. A picture of the voter. Identification
b. A punch out when that voter votes Prevents multiple votes be that person.
c. A change of address even within the precinct should require that person to re-register.