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I think one thing not talked about enough is keeping a good chain of custody. It absolutely boggles my mind that there’s no talk about simply using the same supply chain logistical tracking that FedEx and Amazon and UPS use to track a package from the seller to the buyer through multiple warehouses often in various states. And it seems like it would eliminate fraud at the counting sites — if a ballot gets counted, but isn’t recorded as cast at a polling place or retrieved from a drop box, it’s going to be obvious. And you could likely figure out where these ballots are coming from. Scanning the unique barcode on each ballot as it’s fed into the machine would make it obvious if someone is counting the same ballot more than once.
And while it does a lot to prevent fraud, having a ballot logistical system tracking ballots would make forensic investigations possible, and would enable recounts as needed. All the raw data is there and can be looked at. Add in the need to badge in and out of the areas where ballots are held or counted provides the possibility of finding out who might be messing with the ballots.
I mean, it is something we consider. That’s how PA was able to find its registration-dumpers, how audits like the Cyber Ninjas worked, etc.
I’m sure there are holes, since states and counties have a lot of leeway, but keeping a paper trail and sealing containers are pretty universal. The federal best practices can be found here.
I get the impression that partisanship has led skeptics to think it’s the Wild West out there. In practice, there’s already a bunch of boring procedure that raises the cost of fraud.
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