From: "Robert G Lewis" 

"Glenn Meadows"  wrote in message
news:41892813$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> OK, I've thought about this for some time, looking at how things are done
> in
> other countries, and adding that to our election process....here are my
> ideas, open for thoughts here (and why would I think that nobody would
> have
> any thoughts on this...).
>
> Our constitution states that election day will be the first Tuesday after
> the first Monday.  Keeping that as the base framework, I'd like to see
> something like this enacted for national elections:
>
> 1).  The polls open at Midnight on Tuesday, election day, in every state,
> as
> the time moves across the timezones.
>
> 2).  The polls close at Midnight on Wednesday (polls open for 24 hours in
> every state/location).  This will provide everyone the opportunity to fit
> into their schedule a time to vote.  Many times, even with employer
> agreement to let people have time off to vote, and with kids and such,
> it's
> hard to get it in within that 24 hours, especially for those people who
> have
> odd working hours.  This would afford them a much easier time to get to
> the
> polls.
>
> 3).  Election day would be a National Holiday, banks closed, post office
> closed, businesses closed, like many do for Christmas, Easter, etc.
> Again,
> this would allow even further participation for everyone.
>
> 4).  When the polls close, all election results are transmitted to a
> central
> site, and NO results for any race are made public or available until noon
> on
> Wednesday after the polls close.  There should be NO announcement of the
> results in any state/precinct or anywhere else while ANY election poling
> site is still open.  Announce the results like the old Muscular Dystrophy
> Telethon, a large Tote Board, where they push a button, the digits spin,
> and
> the results are tallied and publicly available all at once.
>
> I firmly believe that announcing how a national candidate is doing on the
> east coast does influence people in states further west go or don't go to
> the poll.
>
> I also think that not enough consideration to the early announcement of
> Florida going to Gore in 2000 negatively influenced voters in the pan
> handle
> of Florida to not even go to the polls.
>
> Also, announcing "exit poll predictions" as soon as polls close, can
> adversely influence voters still standing in line waiting to vote.  I
> believe that there were people in Ohio that didn't vote until 3 AM this
> morning.  Not right, not fair, totally wrong.
>
> OK, add to it, let's discuss it.
>
> --
> Glenn M.
>

Non Partisan election officials - The first goal of all election officials
should be to make sure the election is fair . No Campaign officials should
ever be allowed as a high level election official.

Shorter voting lines - if the lines are long then people will drop out of
line or not go. A 2 - 5 hour wait is too long.

Improve the registration process - Make sure that registration is easy and
accurate . I do not want Mary Poppins registered multiple times nor do I
want to have discarded registration forms.

Improve the validation process - way too many provisional ballots due to
non updated registration lists occurred. Also make changing ones address as
easy as possible.

Improve the infrastructure - Phones lines were tied up in several areas.
Busy lines means unanswered questions. Possibly have different phone lines
for the public and the local election officials. Make it easy for the
public to validate their precincts.

Have open transparent vote counting. Also have public access to watch the
machines being set up.

Make sure the machines WORK before the election.

Go after those that break the law in any material manner. If someone
doesn't care enough about the country to campaign in an honest manner they
have no business being involved in elections.

Try and make redistricting non partisan. All house seats should be in
competitive districts. If a district is carved to support a far left or far
right constituency then we wind up with more or the radicals.

Bob Lewis

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