Cartwright—The instances of voter fraud in the last couple of elections is indisputable.  We had the whole Dallas Cowboys football vote in Ohio, even though I don’t think any of them were residents of Ohio.  Half of the Walt Disney character roster voted.  We have precincts where move votes were cast than there were registered voters.  And I was here in central Florida for the 2012 election.  We had a judge keep the polls open past established hours so that people could vote.  They were still voting the next day and the election was over.  All of this was fraud, but no has seemed to have an interest in investigating it and prosecuting the perpetrators. 

The solutions to stopping voter fraud are very simple and my colleagues here have hit on some of them.

First, you should have to show a valid government issued photo ID to be able to vote AND you should have to be able to prove your residency in the precinct.  There should be no registering by mail or on the internet.  The whole argument against showing photo identification is an implicit endorsement of voter fraud.  Anyone who is eligible to vote in America can get photo identification. You can’t open a bank account or a utility account without a photo ID.  In fact, you can’t do much of anything without photo ID anymore, so this is just a copout for those who want to be able to rig elections by stuffing the ballot boxes.  If you’re not able to register in person, perhaps we can even send the sheriff, a couple deputies, and a representative from the election commission to your house to verify your identity, fill out the paperwork, and get you registered to vote.

Second, the absentee ballots should either be eliminated or issued only under the most extenuating of circumstances and with ample proof of the reason for needing the absentee ballot.  We all know when Election Day is.  Be prepared to go vote on Election Day unless you’re serving our country overseas or in the hospital.  There’s no excuse for not being able to vote on Election Day.  The polls are open enough hours that anyone can vote.  When I was a kid, everything was pretty much closed on Election Day.  Maybe we need to go back to that.

Third, let’s talk about the process of voting on Election Day.  We need police presence at every polling station so there is no voter intimidation.  Once you get inside, you must show a government issued photo ID AND your voter registration card.  Once your name is matched to the log of eligible voters and they have ensured you didn’t vote by absentee ballot, you get to dip your finger in the ink and put your fingerprint next to your same and signature in the register.  The ink will wear off in a couple of days and should prohibit anyone from coming back to vote again.  Once you’ve done all this, you get to vote.

These simple procedures should curtail voter fraud immensely.  No system is foolproof, but these measures should help keep our elections fair.  Any objections to these simple measures can only be deemed subversive.  If you are an honest person and you’re eligible to vote, you should have no problems with this.

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