I am going to come up with a new (unpatentable) system that, if implemented, will go a long way in solving the potential voter fraud problems and strongly prevent voter fraud (though it’s not foolproof).

After someone votes on a computer he is given a unique voting number at the time he votes. Only the voter knows what the number is. He also types in some unique random comment in an input box in a computer. (The random comment is to prevent the system from giving two different people (who voted for the same person at about the same time) the same voter number. It helps ensure that each vote counts, makes it harder for the system to cheat the people). He is also given a page number, the page that his vote will appear on.

Online is posted a large text/html file and it categorizes votes by state. Say you click on a state, California. You are given a page with a thousand (or whatever) voter numbers and what each voter number voted for. At the bottom of the page are some standard navigation buttons (like the ones at the bottom of a google search) that lets you navigate pages (and perhaps an option that lets you type in the page you want to jump to). Every voter can jump to the page of his voter number and see that it shows, next to his voter number, who he voted for. So the list may look something like this.

voter number – date:time – vote – comment

001 – date:time – Ron Paul – Hello!
002 – date:time – Barack Obama – Hi!

etc…

(perhaps removing the date:time might be a good idea for privacy reasons, ie: someone might figure out when someone voted and based on that they could figure out who they voted for. Very unlikely though but it really depends on what we value more, transparency or privacy).

That way voters can ensure that their votes count but no one can know who I voted for because only I know my voter number.

Now, before I vote (and we already have a system in place to keep track of this where we have lists of registered voters and someone crosses off who voted) I go up to someone on a computer, show him my ID, and he types in my name on the computer. It shows that I’m registered to vote in that area and that I didn’t already vote. He gives me permission to go to another computer, in a booth, and vote. From his computer he authorizes the computer in the booth to allow a vote. I go in the booth and vote (it asks me, are you sure you want to vote for this person, I click yes. I can also type in a vote if the person I want to vote for is not on the list of course, this should ALWAYS be true for ANY state). A sheet prints out of a printer that tells who I voted for. At the outside of the booth, next to the top, a red light flashes indicating that I voted. I look at the sheet to make sure it’s correct and fold it up so no one else can see who I voted for. The vote registers in the computer system as well. A second sheet prints out with my voter number and my comment (though I can think of some reasons that this might be a bad idea). I keep that sheet. I go to another person on another computer (I like the idea of having different people working separately as much as possible to avoid one person coordinating everything because if one person coordinates everything this leaves a higher potential of voter fraud from that coordinator. Separating roles as much as possible is good at preventing corporate employees from cheating their employers and it’s good here too). There is a box. I drop in my vote (the first sheet that printed out, I keep the second), give him my name, show him my ID, and he registers on his computer that I voted. He also verifies that someone just voted on the booth number that I just voted on (and that this is the booth I was assigned to vote on by the first computer. He then clears the booth allowing the first computer to assign another voter to it. We can have multiple booths and multiple computers assigning voters to booths and verifying who voted after the vote). He also has a list of all registered voters (a stack of papers). He finds my name and crosses it out (we already do this. In the case of multiple computers, I have to figure out which computer contains my list. It’s alphabetical by last name, one computer from A – F, another from G – N or whatever). This way we also have a paper trail of who voted. He also has a printer and that printer prints my name. He drops that in another box. This way we can independently confirm that both boxes have the same amount of papers (ie: number of votes = number of people who voted). There are cameras everywhere and, depending on how much you value transparency over privacy, perhaps those cameras can be posted online so everyone can monitor everything to avoid voter fraud.

The other computer(s) keeps another list of everyone who voted but it doesn’t keep track of who voted for what. So each voting arena has two lists, one of everyone’s voter number and who that voter number voted for and another with the first and last names (and drivers license number perhaps) of everyone who voted. Both computers feed this data into a third computer that independently makes sure that the number of people who voted = number of votes. All the software involved is open source and code is available to the public.

Now there is the question, what about those who didn’t vote at all? How do we know that someone who works for a voting booth or whatever won’t vote on their behalf once the voting booth is closed? Say Joe Blow is registered to vote but he never votes. If I’m at the voting place and I conspire with others who work there, I might see that he didn’t vote and vote on his behalf.

The trick is when I register to vote I get an online account on some government website. The government associates this account with me and verifies who I am on a personal basis (ie: when I register to vote at some place, they look at my ID and then they hand me a keyboard to type in my password. I write down my password or, if I forget it, I can call a government official, give him enough info about me to validate who I am and he can reset my password. I can always change it online. Or maybe I have to go to some government building, like the DMV, to change it, who knows). I login to that account (type in my username and password) and a site shows up with my name and below it lists all the years that I was registered to vote and lists whether or not I voted and, if we value transparency over privacy, when I voted (having the time of vote can make it easier for government officials to track who voted for whom based on when people voted). For example it can say

2000 – voted – time of vote
2004 – did not vote

This information comes from the list of registered voters who voted. This ensures that no one voted on my behalf if I didn’t vote (of course my voter number is not associated with this account and each year that I vote I get a different voter number. No one but me can possibly associate my voter number with me since that’s not in the system anywhere, so I still have my privacy). I can then go to the other, independent public site (the one above), look for my voter number and ensure that that voter number voted for who I voted for (and verify the comment and time). Authorities can ensure the identity of everyone who voted (because they have their full names and all their information including where they are supposed to vote) to avoid dubious votes from dubious names. They can also ensure that the number of votes = number of people who voted both on paper and with the computers.

The beauty here is that all voters can ensure that the system registered whether or not they voted and, if they voted, who they voted for (and when they voted) without anyone else being able to associate them with who they voted for.

To make the system even more transparent, at the cost of privacy (if one values transparency over privacy), we can have another page that links to various states. You click on a state and it lists the full names of everyone who voted (but not when they voted since that can then be associated with the voter number since the voter numbers also list the time. Or maybe they should list both because that helps validate things more accurately, depending on what you value more, transparency or privacy). This way anyone can verify that, according to the system, they voted, they can verify that the system registers who they voted for, and they can validate that number of voters = number of votes. Also, if someone shows up on the list who is no longer alive, someone else may notice it. There can be search features built in to search for voter numbers or names as well.

This system isn’t foolproof. People/authorities still need to verify that dubious names don’t show up with dubious voter numbers. That problem exists now, so it’s not like my system creates this problem. But at least this system gives enough transparency to make the job easier (ie: by validating that independently produced numbers match and by allowing each voter to validate that the system properly registered whether or not they voted and who they voted for). Suspicious patters like

001 – 9:30 – Ron Paul – some comment
002 – 9:30 – Rron paul – some comment
….
1000 – 9:31 – Ron paul – some comment

would quickly raise public suspicions. So at least the public can scrutinize the data and look for suspicious patterns as well.