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Part 3 – How Votes Must be Counted: Transparency, Honesty, Verifiability

President Trump’s Commission on Election Integrity provides the framework to undo the last 40+ years of unverifiable computerized elections (which are actually illegal, according to at least three US Supreme Court decisions, because of the SECRET nature of such computerized “counts”. See the Three Supreme Court Decisions on the menu bar of WatchTheVoteUSA.com — https://www.watchthevoteusa.com/u-s-supreme-court-decisions)

What must be done for the Official Election Count:

The following policies would ensure a transparent, verifiable election as far as humanly possible. The principle aimed at is listed at the end of each number. The principle is more important than the specifics suggested, although we believe the specifics suggested are sufficient to achieve the purpose. However, we realize that more ingenious ways may be devised by others to adhere to and fulfill the principle stated.

(It should be noted that the term “scrutineer” is a synonym for “vote-counter”, or for anyone on each team of designated vote-counters, whether that person is counting or officially observing the count in that cycle, — although we will often write “scrutineer / vote-counter” below since the term scrutineer is no longer a well known term in the USA.)

1) The official election count must be conducted exclusively using Hand-Counted Paper Ballots.

(Principle: Something tangible must be available for the recount, but MORE IMPORTANTLY for the original count.)

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2) The official election count must be computer-free, and machine-free.

(Principle: secret counts must be made illegal. No one can see what is happening inside a computer, therefore such counts violate three standing Supreme Court Decisions: Reynolds v. Sims, 1964; US v Mosley, 1915; Wesberry v. Sanders, 1964. (See https://www.watchthevoteusa.com/u-s-supreme-court-decisions))

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3) In the official election, all ballots must be counted at each local polling place where the ballots were cast BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.

(Principle: Anyone who wants to remove the ballots from the public sight before they are counted must be suspected of wanting to switch or alter the ballots before they are counted.)

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4) Each neighborhood polling place must use easily read paper ballots.

(Principle: The ballots must be clear to anyone who can read, not impossible to decipher like the IBM punch cards that were used for decades in many jurisdictions, such as Cincinnati, Ohio.)

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5) After each ballot is cast, it must be placed by the voter in a ballot box, a transparent plastic box which is kept continuously throughout election day in the sight of the election judges, the voters, any press, any officially designated observers, and any of the public who can comfortably fit into the polling place and wish to be present.

(Principle: the ballots and ballot box must never leave the public sight until all phases of the official election count are concluded.)

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6) Immediately upon the close of voting on election day, all ballots must be taken out of the ballot box in full public view, divided up by the election judges to the respective teams of scrutineers.

(Principle: All ballots must be counted in full public view by the officially designated teams of scrutineers, or counters.)

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7) There are to be four scrutineers assigned to each set of ballots, which in many precincts will be approximately 50 ballots. The number of ballots in each set in each precinct is to be determined by the approximate number of votes that a team of scrutineers can process in approximately two hours. From each team of four scrutineers, two scrutineers are to do the counting in the first round of the official count for each set of ballots, and the two other scrutineers in that team are to observe the count in the first round of the official count for each set of ballots. In the first official count, Scrutineer #1 calls out the votes on each ballot while scrutineer #2 observes that scrutineer #1 is accurately calling out the chosen candidate(s) in each race; scrutineer #3 marks down the votes for each candidate as they are called out by scrutineer #1, while scrutineer #4 observes that scrutineer #3 marks down the votes accurately. At the end of the process, scrutineers #1 and #3 switch places with scrutineers #2 and #4, and re-do the count. When the second count is done, the official count is over. Watch the Vote got this idea for the scrutineers switching places and conducting a second count of each set of ballots from an article by Sheila Parks written circa 2006 entitled, “Hand Counted Paper Ballots”, referenced in our “Resources” Part 7 in this report packet.

(Principle: all ballots are to counted in public, in full public view, before they leave the public sight.)

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8) Video devices must be invented or adapted specifically to videotape and preserve the sights and sounds of what each team of scrutineers are doing. There must be a place on the table where each ballot is placed as the scrutineer is calling out the vote, and another place opposite this where the sheet is placed where another scrutineer is marking down what the first scrutineer calls out with regards to which candidate gets that vote. Above both the ballot and the sheet where the votes are being marked down, a video camera hangs which records the sights and sounds; that video camera records the action and streams it over the internet so that anyone at home anywhere in the world can watch the count of that team at that polling place / precinct. It also projects the action onto a wall or screen nearby so that anyone in the hall can observe what is happening with the count by that team. It may not be obvious to the ordinary person how this can be done, but to technicians and programmers this would be simple. As 2016 Republican Primary Presidential candidate Ben Carson said (paraphrase): “We could count votes honestly, if we wanted to.”

(Principle: Even if all four scrutineers on a team wish to cheat, they cannot do so because what they are doing is being recorded in real time for observers both inside and outside the polling place. Also, the video-recording is preserved on the internet for future recounting by anyone who wishes to do so, using the same technology wherein live video-streams on Youtube are also preserved after the live-stream is over.)

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9) One side of each ballot would have a large pre-printed number on it, which was placed there when the ballots were printed by each county Board of Elections. To insure anonymity for each voter, once a voter signs in the stack of ballots is placed so that the ballot number is facing downwards towards the table. The stack of ballots is cut once by the voter like a deck of cards, and then the voter pulls out any ballot they want, and then proceeds to vote. After voting, the voter places the ballot into the ballot box.

(Principle: no one can tie the individual ballot or the ballot number to any individual voter.)

10) The scrutineers (counters) are to be chosen approximately two weeks in advance by a random process from the willing, eligible voters in that neighborhood precinct, such as pulling names out of a hat in the neighborhood polling place in full public view with public witnesses and any of the neighbors from that precinct invited to be present to watch the random selection process. Each scrutineer would be paid $100 for about 4 hours work on election night, so the job would be attractive to many people. The late Jim Collier, author of “Votescam: The Stealing of America”, suggested that one spot at each neighborhood polling place would be reserved for a high school senior over 18, or a college age student, so that the next generation would be trained as to how to keep elections transparent and honest.

(Principle: The count in each precinct would be conducted by randomly selected members from each neighborhood precinct. This truly keeps the count decentralized and out of the hands of anyone, anywhere trying to rig the count from a central location, as is now possible by the three mega-election vendors ES&S, Hart InterCivic, and Dominion, who processed 96%+ of the USA vote in the 2016 Presidential election.)

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11) There are 200 to 300 votes cast in an average size neighborhood precinct, with about 30 contests on each ballot. This means that the average neighborhood precinct will need 4 or 5 teams of 4 scrutineers each – with each team of scrutineers counting about 50 to 60 ballots each. Sufficient trial runs, which should be conducted in various locations across the nation, would reveal exactly how many votes (as opposed to ballots) each team of scrutineers can process in approximately two hours, and then enough teams would be designated in each neighborhood polling place to process all the votes on all the ballots within approximately 2 hours.

For instance, because of the number of contests on each ballot, the number of ballots given to a team of scrutineers in a densely populated county[,] housing a large city like Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York City – – would be less than the number of ballots given to a team of scrutineers in a rural county in Iowa, Kansas, or Nebraska. To be more specific, the ballot in a large, densely populated county may have one hundred contests to vote on, where a ballot in a small county may have 30 contests to vote on, and so on. In any case, each team of scrutineers should be given a set of ballots which contain a number of votes which the team can process in approximately two hours.

The notion that we as a nation can’t figure out what is a reasonable vote-counting workload for a team of two scrutineers in two hours is preposterous. We can indeed figure out what such a reasonable work load is.

Such obstructionist objections are raised by those who are either brain-dead on how to conduct a legal, transparent election, or by those who are beholden to the powerful coalitions insisting on easily-rigged computerized elections, or by those who do not want a legal, transparent election, but rather want to maintain systems which pave the way for a handful of people to rig elections from a central location.

(Principle: Each team of scrutineers, who are beginning their vote-counting work as the voting hours at the polling place closes at 7 PM or so, should be given a workload which normal people can handle in two hours.)

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12) A fresh team of people are brought into the polling place at closing time to count the votes. This team are NOT the same people who have been acting as election officials to help the voters sign in and vote all day. Both election workers during the day and the scrutineers brought in to count the votes at closing time must be valued properly and paid properly to correspond to the important and necessary job which they are doing for the public and for the future of our country.

(Principle: Election workers are treated, — not as indentured servants or near slave-laborers, — but rather as the valued and indispensable public servants which they are, and for the vital job they are doing for the nation.)

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13) The job of those registered voters randomly selected to be election workers must be treated as least as importantly as the job of those now selected for jury duty. Like one doing his or her jury duty, no one could be fired for not coming into work on election day, or the morning of day after election day if proper notification is given to an employer.

(Principle: Treat election day, along with the workers, the scrutineers / vote-counters, with the respect they deserve to do the important job that must occupy their attention on election day. )

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14) Serious thought should be given to have TWO election days in each cycle, both for the primary (or caucus) seasons circa the spring to fall months, and for general elections in November. While this system of two election days in each cycle is practiced in some European countries, there is a serious downside which we will also consider here.

If each election cycle were to be divided into two election days, these election days could be one week or two weeks apart.

The main election day with regard to the general election (say the first Tuesday after the first Monday) would be for only up to the six most important races:

a) President / Vice President of the United States;

b) US Senator;

c) US Congressman;

d) Governor of the State;

e) State Senator of the State;

f) State Representative of the state;

All other races and issues for the general election, — from coroner to city council to all the issues, could be held a week later (say the second Tuesday after the second Monday).

A similar arrangement could be made for the primary / caucus season in each state.

Therefore, for these six most important races which determine so much of the future of our nation, there would be no question that the workload of a paper ballot hand-count on that election night would be manageable for the scrutineers / vote-counters.

This upside would have to be weighed against downside of the additional cost and time consumption of having two election days in each cycle, and against the downside of perhaps having a really dismal turnout on the second election day of each cycle when none of the six major contests would be on the ballot. This downside is so great that one could be permitted to doubt that it would ever be adopted in the United States of America. We just thought we would raise it for consideration.

(Principle: Make sure to adopt the best method, all things considered, so the workload is manageable for the election workers and so the election can be executed in the best way by the people of the United States.)

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15) The scrutineers operate in public before any official election judges as well as any observers from the public and press. Without obstructing the official count in any way, as many observers from the public and press who can comfortably stand within eyesight may observe the hand-count directly in person at close range to the scrutineers so as to see the vote marks on each ballot. Perhaps a projection on a wall or near-by screen (such as a hdmi video screen or laptops) of the action / vote-counting being conducted by the scrutineers, more of the press and public could comfortably observe in the neighborhood polling place without crowding the scrutineers themselves.

(Principle: The election process would offer as much transparency as possible, to as many people as possible, both in each neighborhood polling place and to those at home or in the building who wish to observe the video of the vote-counting on their computer over the internet.)

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16) In addition to each paper ballot being hand-counted by the scrutineers in each precinct, and video recorded, (see item #8 in this list), modern technology should be used to make a still image of each ballot. After the image of each ballot is made, the ballot image can be uploaded to the appropriate place on the internet so that anyone in the world who is interested can view the ballots and double check the count in that precinct for themselves. So, the member of the public who is checking the count could watch the “real-time” video-recorded-streamed image, which includes the audio of the real-time vote-counting by the scrutineers. — Or, a member of the public could alternatively check these separate, still ballot images — made of each ballot by the cameras or scanners — which are to be uploaded to the internet. It would be easy to search through the still images of the ballots, but much more difficult to search the videotape of each paper ballot being counted in real-time. The paper ballot – for the sake of the video-recording of the actual hand-count of the paper ballots AND the still images of the paper ballots, — would include the specific number assigned to that ballot for true precision in any recounting of the original official hand count of the paper ballots.

(Principle: Make a permanent ballot image of each paper ballot available to the public almost immediately, and for at least 22 to months into the future for each election night count.)

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17) The Board of Elections must institute a method to double-check to make sure that the actual paper ballots corresponded to the images that were uploaded during live video-streamed actual count of the paper ballots over the internet, and, as well, corresponded to the still images of the paper ballots that were also uploaded to the internet. This could be done by the scrutineers on election night before, during, or after the actual vote count.

The actual video-recorded live count in each precinct would be preserved on the internet exactly as YouTube now preserves live-streamed video podcasts for months after the real-time video podcast is actually made. (This is amazing technology which could and should be used to help verify elections.)

(Principle: Use live video streaming of the hand-count of the paper ballots, and the preservation of this same video recording, and the images made of the paper ballots by a camera or scanner, to make sure that the video and images uploaded to the internet corresponded to the actual paper ballots.)

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18) If a scanner is used to make an image of the actual paper ballot, in harmony with the Brakey method referred to elsewhere in this report, then ideally no more than one fourth of the ballot can disappear into the scanner at any given moment, and it must be clear that the same ballot is coming out of the scanner as was fed in, and not disappearing into some compartment to be replaced by a second fraudulent ballot. This is easily achievable with modern technology and perhaps with off-the-shelf scanners.

(Principle: Make sure than no one replaces or alters the original paper ballots at any time in the hand-counting or image making process.)

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19) The last minute scramble for enough election workers, often a tremendous burden on the county Election officials, must end. Since national holidays would be designated for the election days, the day before the election day, and the day after the election day (chosen by each state), then months before the election day, individuals from proven, responsible segments of society could be drafted, and paid, by the local, county Election officials, such as individuals selected from bodies of teachers, college students, lawyers, business owners or their designated, willing employees, nurses off-duty on election day, national guard members, etc. etc. etc.

(Principle: End the scramble for election workers now sometimes plaguing local, county Election Officials when election day is not an official national holiday.

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20) After the count by both teams of scrutineers is completed at each neighborhood precinct, the paper ballots are sealed up in a separate box by the designated polling place judges and scrutineers, marked appropriately, and are taken to the designated storage building by two national guard members, or two local police or sheriff deputies — accompanied by at least two neighborhood voters from that neighborhood precinct, to be from two different parties, or one from a party and one from the pool of independent voters, who had been designated by a random process the same night the scrutineers from that polling place / precinct were designated a few weeks before the election day. The paper ballots are to be taken to the centralized storage place which had been designated previously by the county election officials, and kept for at least 22 months before being destroyed. The electronic images of the paper ballots, and the live footage of the actual hand-counting of the paper ballots, would also be kept for at least 22 months, although there is no reason why these couldn’t be kept even longer. The electronic images of the paper ballots which had been made at the neighborhood polling place, and the live video footage of the actual hand-count of the paper ballots at the polling place, could be transported to the designated central storage space at the same time.

(Principle: Preserve for 22 months the actual paper ballots, the images of the actual ballots (on a thumb drive, hard drive, etc), and the live streamed footage of the actual hand-counting of the paper ballots, with as much integrity as humanly possible.)

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21) Early voting must be eliminated. Early voting did not exist until the last several decades, and is a concept concocted by crooks, for crooks. Early voting GUARANTEES a broken chain of custody as the mailed-in votes, or votes marked days or weeks before election day must necessarily sit in the county Board of Elections, or wherever, for days to weeks out of the public sight. To repeat for emphasis, both “on site” and mail-in “early voting” ballots go out of the public sight and sit somewhere for days to weeks before they are processed and counted. Early voting violates the three US Supreme Court decisions that demand that every voter must know that his or her vote was counted accurately, and that his or her vote was not diluted in any way, or altered, or switched altogether for a falsified or fraudulent ballot. Some have invoked the “soft racism” of low expectations to insultingly imply that many non-whites are too stupid and/or unaware to be able to know when election day is. Early voting is a mechanism for fraud from many angles, and must be totally eliminated.

The making of Election Day a National Holiday perhaps on a Saturday with protections for employees needing proper time off work to vote as their civic duty would solve the problems that may currently exist regarding people not having time to vote.

(Principle: preserve the chain of custody until all paper ballots are counted in public BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.)

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22) Absentee ballots would be reserved for the sick who physically cannot get to the neighborhood polling place. Such individuals would need a doctor’s note that such is the case, and the doctor’s notes would be kept on file at the county Boards of Election for at least 22 months, and falsification by either the individual who wants to vote by absentee, or falsification by a doctor authorizing the person to vote absentee, or falsification by a public official with regard to any absentee voter, would result in a minimum of a $1000 fine and a minimum of one month in jail. Each county would be required to have an “absentee ballot” team who would manage this aspect of the voting. Absentee voting is potentially as dangerous to the voting process as “early voting”, and must be closely and somewhat ruthlessly regulated, for fraudulent absentee ballots dilute the vote of all those who were truly eligible to vote.

Those who must travel away from their home polling place on election day, or who fall sick at the last minute, would even out randomly over the population with regard to the various candidates up for election on that election day. Such people would be in the position of a voter who gets caught in an unexpected traffic jam near the close of the voting day and does not make it to the polls on time. The value of the right and duty to vote needs to be restored to the end that people make their business plans and vacation plans around their duty to vote on Election Day or relinquish their say in the voting booth. To treat absentee ballots in any other way is to open the path to fraud and the path to diluting the vote of those who are certainly eligible to cast a ballot.

(Principle: Make sure as far as humanly possible that only eligible voters are allowed to cast a vote, including those who utilize absentee voting.)

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23) The current method of mailing absentee ballots into the local, county Boards of Elections is totally unacceptable, and contains all the dangers of current “early voting” practices. Here is what must happen to the absentee voting process:

A large, bullet-proof glass case, perhaps shaped like an oblong, such as a large coffin, must be established in each county. Two guards, around the clock, would be placed at this large glass ballot box from the time of the beginning of the absentee ballot period until the votes are counted on election night, and the area would be large enough that at least 50 members of the public and press, first come, first served, could be witnesses of the absentee ballot box at any given time.

A mechanical clock and flip calendar showing the date would be placed on top and not removed for the duration and only moved to wind up the clock daily and flip the date on the calendar at midnight daily by one of the guards.

A video camera would stream live footage of the absentee ballot box over the internet for the entire absentee voting period until the absentee ballots are counted on election night. A scrutineer team randomly selected from each qualified political party in the state, and from the pool of independent voters in that county, would be selected randomly a few weeks in advance of election day, based on the historical number of absentee ballots cast in that county.

The US postman would daily deposit the absentee ballots sent through the post office as mail into the large glass absentee ballot box in the sight of the designated guards, and any public or press who may wish to be present at any given time, and in full view of the camera or camera streaming footage of the absentee ballot box over the internet for publicly viewing. (The voter could send his or her absentee ballot by any method he or she chose in harmony with Post Office practice, such as regular mail, priority mail, or overnight mail.) Any destruction or knowingly waylaying of any official absentee ballot by any person(s) shall be punishable by a $50,000 fine and 10 years in prison.

Each day, the two guards would keep a log of how many absentee ballots had been deposited in the large absentee ballot box by the postman, so that the county Election Officials could adjust the number of scrutineers needed to handle the count of the absentee ballots on election night. The ballots need to be delivered by the time the polls close. If they wait until the last days, absentee voters will knowingly run the risk of not having their ballot arrive in time to be counted. Overnight mail postmarked by midnight the eve of election day must have guaranteed delivery by poll closing time. The count of the absentee ballots on election night and election day, would be conducted in the same way as at all the other neighborhood precincts, but would obviously be, in effect, a much larger precinct.

To protect the anonymity of the absentee voters, when the case containing the absentee ballots is opened after the polls close, the guards or appointed scrutineers open the envelopes and separate the envelops from the absentee ballots and discard the envelopes into a separate receptacle removing any possible way to identify a ballot with a voter. It is forbidden for them to make any markings on the ballots or envelops under penalty of up to $1000 fine and up to 30 days in jail.

The day or so after election day, the Board of Elections would identify for the permanent record and official election count how many absentee ballots were cast from each precinct, and who voted absentee, although it would be illegal to tie any absentee voter to any specific ballot number.

(Principle: preserve the chain of custody until all paper ballots are counted in public BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.)

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24) All military personnel stationed away from their home area are entitled to cast absentee ballots. They would be provided with special absentee ballots from the military, and these would be separated out of the absentee ballot box as the ballots were being distributed to the scrutineers for the count on election day. Again, the names of those in the military who voted would be known, but it would be illegal for the Board of Elections in any county to tie a numbered ballot to any voter in the military. The local Election officials could allow a longer absentee voting period for certain voters in the military if they were stationed in a remote part of the world, i.e., the local Election officials could make the period for voters in the military 60 days instead of 30 days for all the local absentee voters, as an example.

(Principle: preserve the chain of custody until all paper ballots are counted in public BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.)

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25) Internet voting must never be allowed. There can never be a way for a voter to know that his vote was counted and reported accurately using internet voting. There is no chain of custody paper trail. Scytl is moving with Microsoft to sell the convenience of Internet voting as the end all solution so military votes on election day (or over a 2 week period) and the tallies are instant and announced after polls close in each of the states. [This obviously violates all the principles we are promoting, but we just might emphasize here how the convenience of internet voting must be refuted and resisted.]

(Principle: preserve the chain of custody until all paper ballots are counted in public BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.)

26) The local, county Board of Election officials would designate a special, dedicated address for the large, glass ballot box which would hold the absentee ballots until election day.

(Principle: preserve the chain of custody until all paper ballots are counted in public BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.)

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27) In any neighborhood precinct, if anyone removes the ballot box or boxes, or any of the ballots, from the public sight at any time during the election day, or during the election night counting process, even for a millisecond, then the election judges must start the election over in that neighborhood precinct, perhaps to take place on the next day.

(Principle: All paper ballots must be hand-counted BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.)

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28) In every neighborhood precinct, a Board of Election designated sergeant at arms, which could be one of the judges, would be present in each neighborhood precinct to ensure that the ballots stayed in the public sight at all times until the voting and counting process was concluded. The sergeant at arms would control two cameras, one of which would film the ballot box in a close up shot, and one of which would film a broad view of the voting room as a whole. With now readily-available recording video cameras, the voting and the counting rooms need to be filmed so as to catch any abnormalities, especially someone trying to tamper with the ballot box, or ballots, or to remove the ballot box or ballots from the public sight. Just as cameras help prevent shoplifting, cameras will help prevent vote tampering. All citizens or press would be allowed and encouraged to record with cell phones or other video devices the voting room throughout the voting day and counting process. However, in the private voting booth only the voter, him, or herself could legally record their ballot with camera or video recorder. Voting booths would continue to be private and would be arranged so as not to expose any voter’s ballot while they are marking their ballot.

(Principle: All paper ballots must be hand-counted BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight; and to protect the secret ballot of each voter.)

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29) A minimum of ten years in jail and a minimum of a $10,000 fine would be the penalty for anyone convicted of trying to remove the ballot box or any of the ballots from public sight before the hand-counting of the paper ballots is over in each neighborhood precinct / polling place, or from the absentee ballot polling place. Even at that time, the designated national guard, or police, or sheriffs, and the two designated eligible voters would be the only individuals authorized to package up the ballots and take them to the legally designated storage location for that county.

(Principle: All paper ballots must be hand-counted BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.)

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30) Each county would have its own identifying code to appear before the serial number for each ballot in that county. For instance, Hamilton County, Ohio, could use, for instance, HAOH for Hamilton County, Ohio. Then a ballot serial number would appear after the unique county designation and would look something like HACO123456789. By having 9 numbers after the unique alphabetic county designation, this would ensure that no county would ever be in danger of running out of numbers, and they could print twice as many ballots as would be expected to be needed. A tear off stub of the ballot with the identical number on the ballot could be provided and kept by the voter themselves to identify their ballot to themselves for later looking on the internet at their precinct website. They then could verify by way of the uploaded ballot images that their vote was counted properly. They could instead write the ballot number down or take a picture of the ballot for the same purpose. This does preserve the voter’s right to a secret ballot unless they choose to make known and prove how they voted which may also be an inherent right.

A voter and only the voter would be legally allowed to take a picture with a cell phone or other video device of his or her own ballot.

Each voter knows how he or she voted. However, each voter has a greater need to know that all the other ballots in their county, state, and nation were counted accurately.

Many commentators imply that a receipt provided to each voter is proof that the their ballot and the election are being counted accurately. This is not true. A receipt, by itself, provided to each individual voter is not of much value without the other safeguards detailed herein, such as an online ballot image, and all paper ballots hand-counted in public BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.

(Principle: have the serial number available on the actual paper ballot during the actual hand count, and on the live, preserved video film of the actual hand count, and on the image of the ballot preserved on the internet and on the thumb drive stored at the local, county Board of Election after election day – without compromising the identity of each individual voter.)

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31) The ballot box (or boxes) must sit on a cafeteria-type or card-playing-type table with folding legs, or wooden legs with no table cloth, so that all observers in the neighborhood precinct and those observing via the cameras at remote locations, can see that there is no tampering with the ballot boxes through the bottom of the box, or through the sides of the ballot boxes, which must be without false bottoms or false sides, or any trickery to allow substitution of the real ballots for fake ones.

(Principle: All paper ballots must be hand-counted BEFORE the ballots leave the public sight.)

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32) Picture-voter ID cards, used only for voting, must be issued to all registered voters for free by each county Boards of Elections, just as drivers licenses are now issued by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Stations around each county could be “deputized” to issue these cards for those who have trouble traveling, and a special unit of the board of elections could issue such cards to individuals who are hospitalized or homebound due to illness or age. The Board of Elections and its designated places would have to have cameras, just as The Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMVs) do now, to take picture IDs of those registered voters who are registering to vote for the next election. The Board of Elections, like the military, and police departments, and the fire departments, are money losers for the voters, but are necessary to protect our country in relation to each of their necessary duties. The free picture Identification, and the roving registration teams for the infirm, will solve the objection for poor or financially strapped voters, or for those who find it difficult to travel. Those who object to picture IDs under these circumstances – must want dishonest elections – or are really stupid.

(Principle: make it as easy as possible for everyone to vote, and minimize a voter voting illegally once, or voting twice or more by mandatory use of the picture ID. Note: the danger of VOTER fraud is nothing compared to Election-Vendor fraud perpetrated by election-vendors as big as ES&S, Hart Intercivic, or Dominion, which three mega-election vendors combined are processing 96%+ of the vote in the USA on their secret computer programs, off limits to voters, candidates, and even election officials, by their (the vendors) demands, uniformly upheld by the courts – so far.)

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33) Instant and same day registration would be done away with. Voters would have to register at least 30 days in advance of election day to be eligible to vote. ‘Ease of voting’ is NOT the only concern, nor is ‘making it as easy as possible for every citizen to vote’, especially for those who don’t even care much about when election day is. Those who were apathetic this year, but wake up to the importance of voting after the 30 day deadline has passed – can register for next year’s election and vote every year thereafter. Equally important as ease of voting, is that none of the already eligible voters have their vote diluted in any way, as demanded by the three above referenced US Supreme Court decision. See https://www.watchthevoteusa.com/u-s-supreme-court-decisions.

(Principle: Minimize the possibility of a voter voting illegally by confronting election workers with claims they cannot always resolve quickly and accurately.)

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34) In past decades many boards of elections mailed out postcards to every registered voter about 4 weeks in advance of election day, after the 30 day period for registration before election day had passed. The postcards that were returned due to the death of the voter or due to change of residency helped to keep the list of registered voters clean. This should be done again, or something that accomplishes the same goal.

(Principle: Minimize the possibility of a voter voting illegally by confronting election workers with claims they cannot always resolve quickly and accurately.)

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35) The purple finger (dipping one’s finger in purple ink after voting), as has been done in India and elsewhere, should be looked at seriously for use in the USA. Once all early voting is eliminated from election day once again, the “purple finger” would go a long way towards preventing people from physically going from one place to another on election day in order to vote more than once.

(Principle: Minimize the possibility of a voter voting illegally by confronting election workers with claims they cannot always resolve quickly and accurately.)

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36) Some method to allow dead voters to be removed from voting roles must be instituted. Perhaps some counties have already worked this out, but perhaps a national website or at least State websites where coroners uploaded death notices would be a help. In turn these could be searched and collated by Federal or State election offices or the public to see who has died and must be removed from the voter rolls.

(Principle: Stop dead people from “voting” by those trying to commit systematic election fraud from any source.)

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37) Ways should be explored to ensure that a voter cannot be registered in more than one county. This writer cannot imagine a way to do this without a national database in which each county could check to remove a voter from his or her last county of residence before registering him or her in the current county in which he or she reside. I know there are MAJOR, perhaps decisive objections to a national database of voters – and even some on our Watch The Vote USA team are TOTALLY opposed to any kind of a national database of voters. This writer just can’t figure any way to make sure a voter isn’t registered in more than one county without a national database of voters. Maybe someone else is far more imaginative on this point. Maybe it’s already been solved, but this writer is unaware of it.

Perhaps this would be a step in the right direction: when a voter registers to vote in a new county, they would be required to sign an affidavit listing the previous county he or she was registered in, if any. Then, because all new voters eligible to vote in the next election would have already registered 30 days in advance of election day, each local Board of Elections would have sufficient time to contact the previous county listed by the voter. Then the previous county could remove that voter from the voter rolls since they no longer live there. This would help ensure that each voter was only registered to vote in one county at a time.

Deliberate attempts at fraud in this matter would result in fines and jail terms for each violator, whether voter or election official.

Universal databases are fraught with potential dangers, and we do not fail to recognize this. We bring this up because the dangers of a National Database must be weighed against the dangers of people being registered to vote in more than one county and making sure that the dead no longer have a “right to vote”.

The above suggested practices would be a step in the right direction to ensure that each voter is only registered in one county at a time on each election day.

(Principle: To try to ensure that no voter is registered to vote in more than one county at a time.)

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38) Every county must ensure that only United States citizens are registered to vote. Practices such as allowing non-citizens to vote with driver’s licenses must be ended.

(Principle: Only eligible US voters are to be allowed to vote.)

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To conclude this section, let us once again paraphrase 2016 Presidential candidate, Ben Carson: “We could count votes properly, if we wanted to.”