OVER THE TOP

OVER THE TOP
by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher

Second of Two Parts

November 10, 2005

In Part 1, I addressed Wisconsin voter fraud, and how Democrat Governor Jim Doyle (right) vetoed three times a requirement for photo identification. As a result, it's now headed to the voters in the form of a constitutional amendment, a time-consuming and costly process that could be solved with Doyle's signature. Such a move by Doyle has provided his Republican opponents - House Republican Mark Green of Green Bay, and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker - more than plenty of ammunition to go after Doyle, and presents an issue that could send Doyle back into private practice after the next year's elections.

To reduce the likelihood of voter fraud and assist in removing Wisconsin from the list of national laughingstocks, it's essential legitimate safeguards be set in place with meaningful enforcement mechanisms to allow the integrity and purity of the vote to be maintained.

As promised, here are proposed solutions designed to help eliminate these problems. Since all states hold federal elections for Congress and the Presidency, standards should be uniform throughout the country. States that fail to implement these requirements should have ALL FEDERAL FUNDING cut off - until they comply.

Wipe the state voter database clean and start anew. In this instance, collect social security numbers to eliminate duplicate registration.
Eliminate motor-voter registration that allows drivers to register to vote at the same location they get their license, unless it becomes a full voting registrar office where proof of identity AND U.S. Citizenship are required as part of registration. This can actually be done by using a single booth and designating it a field registrar office, and restricting vote registration only to registrar offices.
REQUIRE photo identification in order to vote.
Instead of high-tech machines that count the votes, use plain paper ballots where people mark an "X" in the box. After closing - with monitors from all parties present - count the votes by hand and have the monitors sign off on the results. It may take an hour or so longer, but so what.
Put an age 75 maximum on poll workers and require a minimum of 32 hours training before putting them in place.
Eliminate same-day voter registration to reduce voter fraud, and place a minimum residency requirement of 28 days before voting. For new move-ins, they vote absentee from their old location.
Absentee voters send in their card, an absentee ballot and a photocopy of their photo ID. The ballot goes in the smaller sealed envelope, the voter card and the photocopy of the ID goes in the larger envelope addressed to the county registrars.
Military and overseas ballots are allowed until 30 November to arrive at the county.
Polls open at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time the Monday evening before the election for a 24-hour period worldwide and close Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday Election Day. This prevents networks from discouraging people from voting by 'calling states' one way or the other. It also makes for a uniform closing time that benefits all Americans, especially those living in states like Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and other states that straddle two time zones.
With the new database, send out voting cards with the voter's name and day, time and location of polling place 30 days prior to the election. These cards, along with photo identification, will permit the voter to cast their ballot. The voting cards will be retained at the polling place to (a), be compared to the check-off list of who in the precinct showed up to vote; and (b), to ensure that he number of voting cards matches exactly to the number of ballots cast, thus reducing the chances of ballot boxes have not been stuffed. Discrepancies will be resolved by the US Attorney's office.
For those who cannot afford photo identification, they can go to their caseworker - if they are on social assistance - and get a voucher that they can then take to the local Motor Vehicles Office. The local DMV takes the voucher as item-specific payment for the photo ID and submits it to the county for reimbursement.
For those unable to afford transportation to a voting office or field voting station in a DMV office such as the urban poor, or seniors confined to an assisted living center, a specially-equipped van with two deputies in a sheriff's cruiser can make the trip to various neighborhoods to assist these people in ensuring they have the opportunity to register to vote and that they - Governor Doyle's assertions notwithstanding - are not disenfranchised from the voting process.
Like Afghanistan and Iraq where a finger is dipped in ink to symbolize voting, the left hand of the voters can be stamped with ink lasting for 24-36 hours, much like what is done when one goes clubbing. It doesn't wash off, but fades naturally and is visible only under black light.

As additional measures to protect the integrity of the vote, there needs to be weekly updates in the state voter database of the following:

Persons being incarcerated for felonies;
Persons going on probation or parole for felonies;
Persons coming off probation or parole for felonies;
Persons turning eighteen years of age, and thus becoming eligible to vote
Persons who die with information sent from the Health Department on a daily basis to ensure dead people aren't voting.

As stated before in the first part of this series, people don't have a right to whine and moan about the issues unless they have a meaningful solution to offer. This one is mine. I believe it to be fair and to have a broad bipartisan appeal, in that it allows for the free and open exchange of ideas to be king, while ensuring that every vote cast is a fair and legal vote. In doing so, we will no longer hear nightmares of Marquette students who in 2000 voted 11 times for Al Gore, or worse, in the future. ***

A veteran writer, Timothy Rollins brings a wealth of political experience dating back more than 30 years, and military experience going back more than 25. He is a freelance writer and policy analyst living here in Milwaukee who has been featured on both television and radio. He has appeared both in online publications as well as in print newspapers such as USA TODAY, the Deseret News in Salt Lake City and the Daily Herald in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He can be reached by e-mail at rollins@american-partisan.com. ***

Photo of Timothy Rollins courtesy of staff files
Photo of Governor Jim Doyle (D-WI) courtesy of Wistravel.com

Also see:

Over The Top (Part 1 of 2 - by Timothy Rollins)