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Election fairness seems to be an increasingly contentious topic in the U.S., with many on the right alleging that democracy is being undermined via election fraud and many on the left alleging it is being undermined via attempts to disenfranchise people and throw out legitimate election results. Meanwhile, independents and supporters of alternative parties see a system that has long discriminated against them. Here are a few proposals for maximizing election fairness and security that don't just side with the left or the right:
• except for voters out of the area (e.g. overseas) or disabled (e.g. bedridden), voting should be done in person on Election Day
• voting should not require government identification; rather voters' fingers should be dipped in ink to deter repeat voting in the same election, as is done in some countries
• all candidates should have the same number of words in voter pamphlets to present their platforms
• candidates should not be charged any fees for ballot access or to have their statements published
• all party-based ballot access restrictions should be abolished
• all write-in votes should be counted, with the name of each such candidate published in the results with the number of votes received
• electronic voting should be abolished, and all ballots hand-counted (computers too subject to hacking or biased programming)
• custody of ballots should be videotaped and the video streamed online from the moment a ballot is submitted to the moment it is counted
• all candidates should be included in official debates and given equal time
• all government-funded media should be required to give equal coverage to each declared candidate
• multi-round elections and debates should be used to winnow initially large numbers of candidates that would presumably result from the implementation of some of these reforms
• seats in legislative bodies should be allocated on the basis of proportional representation as is done in some countries (e.g. a party whose candidates receive 5% of the votes gets 5% of the seats)
There is one thing I tend to see as a vulnerability that I never see addressed: reporting the results as a race. When the votes are cast and the counting begins, the result is already decided and it's just a matter of finding out what it is, I don't see any utility in gradually reporting partial counts as if it were a race, and I think that creates a vulnerability in that it tells a potential malicious actor exactly how many votes they need to add in order to flip the result without being too obvious. The longer the counting takes, the more of a vulnerability this becomes.
Now, if results were reported after the counting was done, a potential malicious actor would have to accurately guess beforehand how many votes they are going to need, and that is much more difficult to do.
This seems like an obvious fix, and would also maybe save us from tedious Election Night coverage that all the networks do with reporting every single miniscule change in the race over the course of hours and also racing to 'call' an election as quickly as possible. Would be nice to just be able to tune in once at like 11 p.m. when outcomes are known and just get a brief report reflecting said outcomes, and which are still in flux.
Although I admit that the 2016 election was amazingly high quality entertainment for me as the unexpected Trump win became apparent through the slow tally of the votes.
I'd guess, but I do NOT know for certain, there's probably some kind of rules around gov't transparency that requires results to reported as quick as possible, even piecemeal ones, so this probably will not change.
But as you say, avoiding these periods where some outcomes are known, some remain uncertain, and there are brief windows in which malicious actors can attempt to flip an outcome once they know how many votes they must fabricate would really shore up faith in overall election integrity.
I just doubt there's any way to ensure that all states get their counts done at approximately the same time, and having periods where some outcomes have been determined but not reported yet while waiting on others to catch up can make it look like there is something being hidden anyway.
I hadn’t thought of that. It seemed obvious that the media circus was business as usual for American stations. But it’s quite plausible that there’s something pushing early reporting.
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