Why couldn't we have the option of downloading our ballot from the internet right now?

[LaMouffette]

And then delivering it in person to our local election board? When we deliver our ballot in person, an official there would check our name off their list of registered voters. This would be a way around all the postal service sabotage that the Mango Menace is trying to pull off.

Plus, I think ALL of us are ready to vote NOW. We don't need to see a presidential debate. We don't need to see another political ad on TV or online.

Anyway, I just thought of this and thought I'd throw it out there. I'm probably not thinking of some large loophole that the Republicans would use to cheat anyway if ballots were downloadable.

[DenverJared]

1. You don't want that

That is grotesquely insecure and will leave room for Russian hackers to take over the election.

They will download all the elderly, disabled and recently dead people's ballots and vote for Trump. They have hacked the voter rolls already.

[Phoenix61]

6. It said deliver them in person and have them

checked against a master list.

[mr_lebowski]

14. The same list would be used at the dropoff point as would be used in the system that

would allow the ballots to be printed in the first place.

I don't know if you want to lose the security step that it's involved in delivering the ballots. For one reason, the PO knows who lives where to some extent and will return many ballots as undeliverable if the person doesn't live at the house anymore.

More importantly, this process means the only ballot(s) you could fraudulently submit is the ones that got delivered to your house in error.

If you could print ballots off the internet, a single fraudster could cast a much-wider net.

[gristy]

17. Yes. Security of ballots and our vote arises from the use of multiple checkpoints. n/t

[jorgevlorgan]

2. Almost as good, I think most states let you attain and fill out a ballot in person.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

3. Can't make it too easy to vote!

Too much democracy, and could lead to even more.

[grobertj]

4. Internet Voting

Better still, why not allow internet voting. Surely someone is smart enough to prevent illegal votes.

[redstatebluegirl]

9. Good grief we can't even protect major corporations from hacking.

This would be easy and easy to hack, not for me.

[gristy]

18. There is a convenient sarcasm smiley that you could find useful

But welcome to DU, regardless!

[tinrobot]

5. Because people can hack their way into downloading other people's ballots.

1) Download a bunch of ballots, possibly from people who don't normally vote.

2) Fill out ballots for your candidate.

3) Election stolen.

[LaMouffette]

10. Actually, I meant download a generic, non-personalized ballot.

Kind of like being able to download tax forms from the IRS, or pick up IRS forms from the library or post office. So hackers could hack away to their heart's content. They would only get a generic form available to everyone.

These downloaded ballots would have to be delivered in person at the local election board. An official there would check your name off the list of registered voters and no one else would then be able to vote using your name.

But this would probably require checking each person's ID to make sure that a bunch of Republicans aren't downloading a bunch of ballots and then voting Republican for all their neighbors! And some people don't have an ID, which could be disenfranchising.

Hmm . . . maybe if you could add your phone number for verification on your voter registration application. Then each downloaded ballot turned in by hand could be verified by a quick phone call. If they call you and ask, "Did you turn in a ballot today?" and you say, "Hell, no!" then that ballot would be discarded.

Just thinking out loud in writing here!

[SheltieLover]

7. Please check state laws! Not all allow hand delivered ballots

TN does not allow anyone to hand deliver mail-in ballots to any location.

Other states may require usps post mark.

[Hekate]

8. Our political electronics are incredibly insecure and hackable, that's why. We have 3 nations...

...subverting and sabotaging them: Russia, China, and Iran.

I would not be too quick to endorse this glamorous idea.

[LaMouffette]

12. I agree 100 percent! Voting online is absolutely out of the question. But what I meant was

just downloading and printing a blank, non-personalized ballot, like going to the library to pick up an IRS tax form. Fill it out, then turn it in to the local elections board.

But there are probably still loopholes in this idea that I'm not thinking of. I just wish so much that we could all just vote now. Today. This very moment. Before the asshat-in-chief does any more damage.

[gristy]

19. Might work, given that that's no problems with the tax example you give

Certainly we don't see people paying gobs of other people's taxes.

[Sogo]

11. Neither party has a nominee yet....

....for one thing....

[intrepidity]

13. I agree with you

Just make ID required when returning the ballot, so that those WHO DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT can vote this way, in order to lighten demand on those other venues where ID is *not* required.

I don't see why or how this would be a problem.

[MissMillie]

15. Don't want that option

electronic voting can be hacked

[frazzled]

16. First of all, the ballots aren't ready yet in most places

For the presidential race, there's still time (*Kanye!!*) to get on the ballot. But more importantly, in most places there are tons and tons of other races. Typically, we have a large number of judicial races, and at least 50 judicial retention races.

More important, you shouldn't be able to just download a ballot to mail in. It has to be accompanied by an official envelope that is bar-coded and requires a signature to be matched to your personal voter registration signature. It's what makes mail-in voting safe. Like these:

[pansypoo53219]

20. probably not water resistant. need the right paper for the counting machines.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Wherever you return it to, would need the ability to scan it to see it's a genuine ballot

eg you haven't made up a similar-looking one but with a different name somewhere that then screws the process up. That's more than optical scanning to find the marks for the votes.

[LaMouffette]

22. Good point!

Still. Hmm . . . I just wish we could do an end-run around De Joy and not have to rely on the post office not being completely sabotaged by him and Trump by Election Day.

What if the generic ballots had a bar code? Last time I bought concert tickets online, I printed them out at home and they came with a bar code that they scanned at the venue. Same thing with airline boarding passes.

I suppose the barcode could be hacked online, too, but the whole key to it would be returning the downloaded, printed, and filled-out ballot in-person to your local Election Board, with a photo ID. They could then scan the bar code to make sure it was legit and check your photo ID to make sure that YOU were legit. If you don't want to or can't show a voter ID, then you would have to do voting by mail and hope that (1) they are able to get your ballot to you in a timely manner, and (2) that your filled-in ballot will arrive through the mail to the Election Board in time.