Just so there are no misconceptions this is not a piece supporting one theory or another, or who won and who didn’t win the last presidential election. I am sick of all the bickering on social media over it, it’s been two years, and every now and then on Facebook I come across some inane arguing over Biden or Trump. Instead, I am going to focus on what in my opinion is broken with the election system as a whole.
Back in 2020, I believed that the blockchain was the way to go, but it appears that we aren’t ready to embrace that sort of technology. That’s too bad, but such is life and we just have to roll with the punches.
What is Broken
It would be impossible to list every little problem but here are some of the things that seem to be the most pressing:
- Scale: National elections are huge each state has millions of ballots to cast and count
- Fraud: While it might not be as widespread as some might think downplaying its significance is a mistake
- Security: Election security is atrocious
- Uniformity: Specifically the complete lack of uniformity
Scale
The sheer size of the national election has seen exponential growth from a few hundred thousand in the first election to over 155 million in 2020. Oh my God did people ever cry foul when Trump lost? The whining on the losing side was nauseating but the winning side was not gracious either. But allegations of fraud aside the problem is just the sheer number of votes that have to be tabulated is enormous.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the more data you have to process and the more hands the data goes through the higher the chances that errors can occur. Yes, we have the technology to help with that and strict procedures but even that has problems that need to be overcome.
Fraud
It is an incontestable fact that voter fraud does happen. According to the Heritage Foundation’s voter fraud database, there have been 1,396 proven cases of voter fraud resulting in 1,191 criminal convictions. But this isn’t strictly a one-sided problem which is to say that both Republicans and Democrats have committed voter fraud. I counted 46 instances in 2022 alone from the database. Just use your favorite search engine and use this search term: “voter fraud not widespread” and you will find a plethora of news articles downplaying voter fraud.
To be clear they are not saying that it doesn’t exist, just that it’s not a problem because it’s rare or not widespread. I’m afraid I wholeheartedly, have to disagree it is very much a problem, not enough perhaps to sway an election but a problem nonetheless, and dismissing the problem is in itself part of the problem. For the vast majority of people, perception is reality, and even if that perception is proven to be wrong it is still a reality to them. And the media isn’t doing anyone any favors with their headlines.
For example, this headline: The Myth of Voter Fraud(Brennan Center For Justice), was the very first result from Google using the search term “voter fraud not widespread.” I did, however, read the article all the way through and was underwhelmed. The first sentence after the headline, “Extensive research reveals that fraud is very rare.”
To their credit, they did provide links to the sources they used which I am grateful for because one of my Elementary School teachers use to say to the class, “Pretend I am from Missouri and show me.” They did, and I was unimpressed but see for yourself and decide. Source
One of the cited sources comes from a 2016 article from the Washington Post entitled: There have been just four cases of voter fraud in the 2016 election (by Philip Bump). I’m not going to bash this journalist or question his integrity; however, he did get the number wrong. Perhaps he didn’t know about the Heritage Foundation’s voter fraud database but I do know that the database was in existence in 2016. Of the four cases, he cited only the one from Illinois was in the database and there are just over 50 confirmed cases in 2016. The fact that the other three cases were not in the database shows that we just don’t know the extent of the problem. To downplay it is irresponsible at best.
Security
I am just going to come out and say it, US Cyber and Election security stink to high hell. This is not a conspiracy or gaslighting it is undeniable fact. We just absolutely suck at security and there doesn’t appear to be any change in sight. Electronic voting machines are especially vulnerable video from CNN and the NY Times show just how easy it is to compromise a voting machine. Even an optical ballot tabulation machine can be compromised.
Uniformity
Diversity is a good thing, most of the time, but insofar as the Election System is concerned, uniformity and consistency need to be the order of the day. By diversity, I am in no way referring to cultural or racial diversity, I mean specifically, the way the election is held, from the formatting of a paper ballot to the machines that tabulate them and the way security is conducted.
Solutions
As a former drill sergeant of mine once said, “A complaint without a solution is called whining.” So in keeping with that philosophy, I present these suggestions to fix it:
- Use paper ballots and bar codes to indicate the preferred candidate and keep the format uniform.
- Use the same tabulation machine everywhere without exception.
- Have uniform security measures.
- Do not sell old equipment to the public, destroy them!
- Keep election systems standalone, especially source code. By standalone, I mean off the world wide web with no connectivity.
Those are just the top five suggested solutions but the one suggestion I have, I believe to be of paramount importance. Take the planning, implementation, and drafting of the bulk of the legislation out of the hands of the politicians and special interest groups. Something this important just should not be left in the hands of partisan politicians and special interest groups with political agendas. I’m not going to accuse them of being crooks but I am going to say that I have no confidence in their ability to get it right.
I suggest that a national symposium of experts in the fields of technology, information security, physical security, law, etc. be assembled to discuss the problem. Then select from amongst themselves a panel that will then be granted the power and resources from Congress and the President to: review the procedures of the States, hold a national technology competition that adheres to specific standards set by the panel, determine the best practices and standards for a uniform election system. Then write the bulk of the legislation to go with it.
Despite all of these suggestions I am not advocating that the Federal Government take over the elections, on the contrary, I want the states to continue to conduct their elections but in a more uniform way that increases security and confidence in the elections. But I do want the Federal Government to step up and get the ball rolling, it’s clear that they aren’t coming up with solutions so let the professionals who know what they are doing handle it.