This concept is introduced based upon the belief that there can be no confidence in an electronic election count system until each an every state provide what would be called the virtual precinct that provides an after-the-fact ability for the voter to validate his own counted ballot, in addition to providing a method for auditing the vote count within the voter’s precinct. So how would such a system work? First, we need to identify the two big concerns to the average voter.
Concern #1 is identifying exactly who is eligible to vote and what is the total count of eligible voters at the time of an election. Certainly a county government is able to identify its eligible voters by referring to a county’s property tax roles. But this only covers property owners. What about renters? It makes sense for a state government to obtain this information by referring to its DMV driver’s licenses, assuming there are no non-citizens allowed a drivers license. But what about those who do not own property or own a car, ie, the homeless, who may be citizens?
So we see there remains a problem in identifying all those who should be eligible to vote in any given election. One solution has been offered called VOTER ID. However, it does not solve the problem of ballots being issued to dead voters. To solve this problem, I suggest that to be eligible to vote in a general election, an eligible voter must have voted in the primary election within the same year of the general election. In this manner, one can be reasonably assured of an accurate total electorate count within a state. Of course, there may be deaths and resident transitions within the few months between the primary and general elections. But why should a state allow any new residents to vote immediately when they can vote in any subsequent elections. In implementing such requirements, one can expect that the count from the primary will not be any greater in the general election.
Concern #2 is what can only be called the opaque electronic count system. It is not sufficient for a vote count to not be publicly audited. Transparency is an absolute necessity to provide trust in the results. This can only be done by the state providing to the voter a virtual precinct.