We need a new Voting Rights Act

[Motown_Johnny]

Fine,

If the Conservatives are going to legislate away American Citizen's rights to vote and the Supreme Court is going to decide if the current protections are unconstitutional then we need to get new Federal Laws passed protecting everyone's right to vote.


For starters, I suggest:

1) A minimum amount of time that the polls must be open based on a ratio of registered voters who might use that polling location and a reasonable estimate of the amount of time the average voter will need to cast his or her ballot. If the ballot is loaded up with proposals then the polling locations must extend their days and/or hours.

2) All documents that may be required to prove eligibility to vote must be provided free of charge by the state. If you need a birth certificate to get a state I.D. to be able to vote then both the birth certificate and the state I.D. must be free. Simply making the I.D. free but charging for the documents needed to obtain the I.D. is unacceptable.

3) Any new voting laws passed by any states which may negatively affect a voters ability to cast a ballot may not be enacted for a minimum of five years.

4) Any person who has voted in the last 20 years, and has not voted in any other state, may not be purged from any voter role without a death certificate. This still requires an attempt to contact the person who is presumed dead and a one year waiting period.

5) All votes must be made on paper. Electronic machines can be used to produce the paper ballot but the actual vote must be cast using that piece of paper and not recorded electronically.





Feel free to add more, this was just a spur of the moment post after reading that the SCOTUS may screw with voting rights.

[rhett o rick]

1. We need to go after this while it's still fresh in our minds.

Move Voting Day to a Saturday.

Make it a federal offense to intimidate or purposefully deceive voters.

Make the process of removing people from the voter's registration lists more restrictive.

Federally fund sample exit polling and federally investigate obvious deviations.

Either no electronic vote counting or easily verifiable electronic vote counting.

Severe federal penalties for illegally tampering with electronic vote counting machines.

[s-cubed]

2. Here are mine.

Get partisans out of running elections: this should be a professional organization.
Paper ballots or receipts from machines which are retained.
If machine receipts are used, voters must have option of a paper ballot.
Random audits in every state.
National regulations on voter eligibility.
Felons enfranchished after release.
National, non partisan voter registry.
No private firms may be involved in voting machine or tabulating Machine software.
National Voting and tabulating machine software.
All machines and software certified by a government organization which is independent like the bureau of labor statistics.
Also, independent acedimic sw And hw experts certify the same.
All platforms have a mean time to failure requirement.
If voters encounter wits of more than 30 mins, voting hours must be extended.
Universal early voting of at least 3 weeks, including weekends and evening hours.
No excuse absentee balloting.
Provisional ballots available, but excess numbers triggers an investigation.
Election day should be a holiday.

Have I missed anything?