Everyone gets verified once in between major elections and then no policies or laws that cost billions have to be implemented to make sure you have the right to vote.
I get what you’re saying, and I know you’re asking in good faith, but I feel that it’s going in the wrong direction. Voter fraud is not a common issue in the US; voter suppression is: voter roll purges, voter intimidation (like ICE at voting precincts), voting restrictions based on demographics, lack of a federal voting holiday(s), etc. Basically, voting is more secure than it is available.
Personally I don’t need ID or finger print scanner to vote. I am a registered voter, so I give my name and vote. That’s literally it. That’s what voter registration is for. Like, the entire premise that our voting integrity is somehow flawed is ridiculous. We have a list. We count it to make sure it checks out. The people that try to scam the system get caught and go to jail.
I am a registered voter, so I give my name and vote.
How do you protect against impersonation like that?
Like, what prevents someone else from claiming to be you? If all you need is a name?
(not an american btw)
Basically nothing. If you wanted to show up to a polling station and claim to be your neighbor to steal their vote, there is really nothing stopping you. Except that, yaknow, you would have to get off your ass and go do it. Which is why voter fraud is essentially a non-issue. The number of fraudulent votes any given person could cast would be negligible in terms of the total ballots cast in an election. So the individual has little chance of swaying the election, and knows it. So there is no benefit for them. And in return for no benefit, they would need to leave their house and essentially do paperwork, which is annoying and boring.
Like, if you’re going to go to the trouble of committing a federal crime, you might as well commit a profitable crime.
So we have specific polling locations we have to vote at, and in my state there’s literally a book with a list of names of everyone who will vote that day. They mark the book as you come in. So, if I vote first, the other person will be immediately caught. If the other person votes first, then it will get complicated and depend on your local rules. I would guess I will have to show ID, talk to police, and do a special ballot, but they don’t really make these procedures public. Because voting fraud is extraordinarily rare. Also the person would need to go to the correct polling location, which there are dozens of in my city. The odds of a scammer doing that correctly are low.
Identity is hard. Biometrics do not magically make that easier. In fact, it brings its own problems. But before you talk about authN first think about enrollment and recovery. These are the hardest problems with any identity syatem.
The real thing is that if we wanted fair and open elections we wouldn’t be looking internally to solve this, we’d be going to other countries who do and trying to emulate what they have. The fact that we haven’t even thought of doing that shows where the priorities are.
Exceptionalism absolutely kills progress.
You want a finger? I can get you a finger, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don’t wanna know about it, believe me. Hell, I can get you a finger by 3 o’clock this afternoon… with nail polish.
Walter Sobchak has entered the chat
Why can’t a simple fingerprint scanner be used at the polls?
My dude, all you really need are people who want free and fair democracy. America as a whole, doesn’t.
This is why you gerrymander, hang your chads, restrict based on ID, use easily compromized voting machines, have judges determine elections, reduce polling stations in blue areas and make long line ups with no time off work and an endless line of similar fuckery.
America is not a democracy. There is no technical trick that can fix bad faith actors.
