Thomas B. Larson

Actually, this is a better idea. We show up IN PERSON, because the political contest determines PUBLIC office, and is a PUBLIC contest. We DIRECTLY tabulate our votes, thus making OBSOLETE, the need for printed paper, which SEPARATES US FROM THE ACTUAL INCREMENTING OF A NUMBER. We build PHYSICAL numbers that cannot be altered by any means other than LEGAL VOTERS MAKING A DECISIVE, PHYSICAL ACTION, thus demonstrating their "Intent" rather than marking that intent on a paper. We use SIMPLE machines that everyone can easily understand. We require ALL polling places to display ALL NUMBERS, AT ALL TIMES, on PUBLIC ACCESS TV, while shielding the identity of individual voters. We surrender ourselves to a system that CANNOT be influenced or controlled by ANY external force. Then whatever happens, happens, and we ALL ABIDE BY THE RESULTS, especially those who attempt to mount legal challenges whenever there is any room left for doubt.

This idea RESTORES elections to what they were always supposed to be - CONCLUSIVE RESOLUTION TO A PUBLIC POLITICAL CONTEST FOR PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS. 1) REQUIRES human presence 2) Equipment is easily understood and generates a PHYSICAL number - NOT AN ELECTRONIC NUMBER. 3) Makes paper ballots OBSOLETE 4) Unites each voter DIRECTLY TO TABULATION, thereby bypassing ALL opportunities to add to vote totals, outside of the public eye. 5) reestablishes EQUAL enfranchisement, by eliminating "EXTRA-Enfranchisement" and "Disenfranchisement" by way of the SAFETY AND PRIVACY ensured by PUBLIC polling. -'EVERYONE watching the process' becomes empowered to monitor/police it. -EVERY polling place to have its own URL so anyone can see the results generated at ANY geographic location. -HARD, PHYSICAL NUMBERS serve as a permanent reference, rendering attempts to alter totals FUTILE. And best, STOPS ALL LEGAL CHALLENGES, because there is no effective way to DENY what the people have built, one by one. ABIDING in the result is the only remaining option for EVERYONE.

Enough is ENOUGH! We must have a system that only WE control. It should be "Their" job to place the counters, and OUR JOB to place the numbers upon them, one by one, until we arrive at a grand total on ELECTION DAY! PHYSICAL NUMBERS that are BUILT EXCLUSIVELY BY REGISTERED VOTERS WHO SHOW UP. So simple that EVERYONE can easily understand the process. It's called DIRECT TABULATION. Voters enter a series of voting lines, each leading to its own isolated table, supervised by partisan election judges, and overseen by a public access CAMERA that displays the numbers, but not the people. THEN, technology is used to READ THOSE NUMBERS. LOW TECH, easy to understand, number generation that requires NO paper, and NO electricity, which turns the polling place into an ARBITRARILY FAIR AND EQUALLY ENFRANCHISING PROCESS WHICH CANNOT BE EXTERNALLY CONTROLLED. The numbers WE put there, simply happen. THEN WE ABIDE BY THE RESULTS. NO CHALLENGES, NO ARGUMENTS, JUST A CLEAR RESULT IN EVERY POLITICAL RACE.