HolyCoast Solves the Voter Fraud Problem

Voter fraud stories are legion this election cycle. Ohio has 200,000 mismatched registrations, some of which are fraudulent. Indianapolis has registration numbers equal to 105% of eligible voters. Six counties in Alabama have more registered voters than total residents. The potential for fraud and election stealing is tremendous and must be fixed. I'm going to offer some suggestions on how to do it.

The last time I registered to vote was in 1990 when I moved to my current address. Registration laws don't require me to re-register unless I move. That's 18 years with the same registration during which time all kinds of things could have happened to me. We hear examples of dead people voting every year, and registrations that never expire make that possible.

As soon as the Nov. 4 election is over every voter registration in the country should expire. Every citizen who wishes to vote in the next election should be required to re-register, and those registrations must include information from a government-issued form of identification. Passports would be the first choice followed by state-issued driver licenses or identification cards. That piece of ID should then be required to be presented to election officials at the time a ballot is to be cast. No ID, no vote. Wrong ID, no vote.

In addition, those new registrations should only have a 5-year term. After 5 years, it's time to sign up again. If you died in the meantime, your voting days are done.

Paid voter registration organizations like ACORN should be outlawed. Signing up people who don't really care about the issues and elections does not do our democracy a service. People should have to demonstrate that they wish to participate in the process, not be hounded to do it by some junkie on temporary assignment for ACORN.

What about absentee voting? If you want an absentee ballot you should have to request it in person with your ID in hand. The local registrars of voters could set up some satellite locations a month or two before the election to make it easier for people to present their requests. It would be much cheaper to do that than to have limited staffs trying to chase down fraudulent applications.

Finally and as an added security feature, we should implement the same "purple finger" process that we require in Iraq and other fledgling democracies. When you vote you get to dip your finger in ink that won't come off for several days and will prevent a person from voting more than once. We love to think we're above needing something like that but the plethora of fraud stories indicate otherwise.

Would these steps completely eliminate fraud? No, but it would certainly get rid of a lot of it. It'll also never happen because it makes too much sense and because Democrats will never give up their voter fraud efforts.