The way ballots should be cast....
With all the news of fraud and what not coming out of the media here recently it's not difficult to see that the system needs changed. This day in age there is absolutely no reason why we can't come up with a secure, fool-proof way to vote without fear of being turned away at the voting station.
My solution:
All states have drivers licenses and or photo identification cards. All states have a database to look up this information and verify it.
Why don't we just use our licenses or ID cards while voting? Show photo id at door, enter booth, insert card, make selections, done. All information would be stored in a central database in a secure location ( IE wherever the hell they store the DMV db ). We would have accurate voting, we would have the ability to see who's winning in REAL TIME.
Now you may ask: But the terminals still won't be secure! What's to stop someone from hacking them? Easy, don't allow local voting stations access to the hardware! Don't put usb, parallel or other non essential ports on the machine. Lock up the machine running the software in a lockable mobile network cabinet and just mount the touch screen monitor on top of it. The only wires exposed would be power cords and the network cable.
If thats not secure enough for you, stop using churches and other public places for voting! Use police stations, court houses, DMV's and other government buildings that have security in place already. Or send out security staff to voting stations, it would only take 1 trained person per voting station.
But what about it getting hacked over the internet!?!?!? Uh, secure it the way the DMV does?
But what about the price!?!?!?!?! Simple, STOP PAYING billions of dollars buying voting systems! It's not rocket science, it shouldn't cost that much. I'm sure there are companies around the world and or country that could write a voting system for a fraction of the cost of the "big boys" in the US.
End rant....