Election Day
Today dawned wet and dreary. I hope this is not indicative of the outcome of today's election. Well, I suppose half the electorate will say it is and half will say it is not, regardless of the outcome, since this country seems to be pretty well split down the middle politically this year. I voted bright and early this morning and, even in our small town and at my teensy polling place, they had lines before they opened for the first time ever. I'm worried. I wonder how long it will take to finalize the vote this year. Regardless of the outcome there are bound to be doubts as to the validity of the vote. There seem to be even more problems this year than in 2000. I don't get it. We shake our heads at third world countries with all their election fraud and yet, are we really any better? Why is it so hard to make sure that the person voting is entitled to vote, is the person they say they are, and that they haven't already voted? In Idaho you don't have to show any ID. Maybe that's just here in Bonner County, but I just pointed to my name on the list, signed it, got my ballot and voted. No ID. My coworker got an absentee ballot application for her bedridden husband, took it to him to fill out, and returned it for him. She didn't show any ID, no one witnessed to make sure HE voted, and no one asked her for any proof of anything. How easy would THAT be to defraud? In Idaho you can vote absentee up to the day before the election. You don't have to have a reason, you just go vote. I remember in California - maybe it has changed - you had to have a reason to vote absentee, like you weren't going to be in town, and proof of that reason. You couldn't just randomly vote absentee because you didn't want to go to the polls. Now, I am fine with the way we do it here, so long as it's documented. What struck me was that my son's name was listed on the rolls under mine where anyone could have claimed to be him and voted in his stead, and he'd voted absentee yesterday. So, what would happen if someone did come in and pretend to be him? Would they throw out his absentee ballot? They couldn't toss the phony ballot could they? How would they know which one it was? Now that is a problem.
Why don't we have a national database of registered voters using our SSN? You would have to produce photo ID to vote, you could vote anywhere in the country - no need for absentee ballots in most cases - and you would get marked off immediately via computer so you couldn't vote twice. Why is that so hard? Your vote would count for whatever state you lived in regardless of where you voted. Seems pretty simple. This whole issue needs some serious work.
Go vote!
