Stateside election shenanigans, not Russia, are the real threat to democracy this Fourth of July

Many states in 2016 operated with a hybrid of open and closed primaries that awarded delegates using methodology only a mathematician could understand. It’s this mind-boggling labyrinth of nonsensical reasoning, rules and restrictions governing the primaries and caucuses that frustrated Bernie Sanders’ supporters and ultimately led to many voters staying home last November.

To avoid election day confusion and the sinking feeling that democracy is being stolen by way of the ballot, I have 13 suggestions that could renew voter confidence in our embarrassingly undemocratic system. (I will save the most obvious and hurtful practice — gerrymandering — for another day).

1. Automatic voter registration at age 18.

2. Make all primaries open, allowing for increased voter participation.

Since 42 percent of American voters identify as Independents, it’s time to eliminate the need for voters to declare their party affiliation before casting a ballot in any state primary. Only 26 percent of voters identify as Republicans and 30 percent as Democrats, a reality that puts each political party squarely in the minority.

Most primaries are publicly funded, so the process should be open to all registered voters. I help pay for the process, so don’t deny me the vote in March and then ask for it in November. You know how well that strategy worked last time.

“But so and so isn’t a (real) Democrat!” I can hear party loyalists screaming at their computer screens. It’s the same bullshit Sanders supporters heard throughout the 2016 primary cycle. Perhaps it was Sanders’ temporary status as a Democrat that emboldened the political establishment to outright cheat him of the nomination, as was concluded by Election Justice USA.

“Based on this work, Election Justice USA has established an upper estimate of 184 pledged delegates lost by Senator Bernie Sanders as a consequence of specific irregularities and instances of fraud,” the report states.

Many Berniecrats who donated millions to the Vermont senator’s campaign have joined a class action lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee for fraud, claiming the organization violated its own charter by showing favoritism toward Hillary Clinton during the primaries.

But if political partisans insist on treating Independents as second-class citizens by denying them the same voting rights as everyone else, then the parties should pay for their own damn primaries. However, fans of the establishment should be careful what they wish for. The 2016 primaries cost taxpayers half a billion dollars to conduct “…half of which was spent on closed primary elections which, by law, exclude the very taxpayers that fund them.”

The establishment can’t have it both ways by telling Independents to stay home on primary day but vote in the general election — and then get upset when voters stay home.

3. Eliminate all caucuses and their ludicrous and archaic rules.

Some states, like Iowa and Nevada, involve “games of chance,” including card games, to break a tie.

4. Create a system to hold employers accountable for allowing their employees sufficient release time.

This way, they may vote in primaries without fear of retaliation. In Arizona, voters had to wait as long as five hours to cast a ballot.

5. Declare a national holiday for the Presidential election.

Sen. Sanders advocates this practice. If voting is so important, it’s time we treat it as a priority.

6. Get rid of electronic voting machines.

Voting machines can be tampered with and results flipped. An audit of 5 percent of Democratic primary results in Chicago showed evidence of funny business. The examination of election results showed a discrepancy between votes cast by machine vs. paper, an inconsistency that shortchanged Sanders.

7. Return to using paper ballots only.

They are more reliable than machines. Sure, corrupt election clerks can throw them away, but it’s harder to get away with dumping boxes of ballots than it is to tinker with machines (although the former happened in Florida’s 2016 Democratic primary). Paper ballots aren’t foolproof, but machines are just too easy to manipulate.

An October 2016 TIME article, reassuringly titled “Vote Flipping Happens, But It Doesn’t Mean The Election Is Rigged,” claims that reports of vote flipping have occurred only a few hundred times a year over the past decade. But the word “reports” gives me pause. Those are the instances in which voters noticed a problem and reported it, but the total doesn’t include voters who may have walked away from machines unawares.

8. Issue voters a receipt for their vote.

ATM machines issue a receipt, so why can’t voting machines? Having a paper trail can only help the process, not hurt it.

9. Institute same-day voter registration nationally.

10. Count provisional ballots. Period.

Voters in some states were issued provisional ballots because their registrations mysteriously disappeared from voter rolls. As a result, those votes were discounted during the Democratic primaries. In Brooklyn, New York — Sanders’ hometown — Democratic officials purged more than 100,ooo residents from voter rolls.

11. Bring in impartial observers (perhaps from the United Nations ) to supervise U.S. elections.

For now, I’d be happy if supervisors were brought just to oversee presidential primaries and the general election. But I have a suspicion that observers are needed for political contests at every level, at least until voters regain confidence in the election process.

12. Reopen and properly fund polling places.

If the states or the federal government have to fund it, so be it. The government miraculously finds money for programs and initiatives it values, like war, tax cuts for the rich and aid to murderous regimes like that in Israel. Election day chaos in some states, like Arizona, were caused by too few polling places being available to voters. A combination of high turnout and reduced voting locations led to disaster.

13. Institute consistent voting hours.

Polling places in each state should be open for the same number of hours, and the longer, the better. In New York, for example, some polling places did not open until noon while others — including those in New York City — opened at 6 a.m.

Until the 2016 presidential primary season, I never questioned whether or not my vote counted. Of course it did! I naively thought. But I can’t say that today. Too much has happened for me to trust the election process.

And I’m worried that many elected officials are not eager to fix a broken voting system. When their candidate “wins” — as was the case with Hillary Clinton during the primaries — there’s no incentive to repair anything.

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©Yvonne C. Claes, 2017. I own this content that I created. You can share it, but please make sure my name is left on it. However, if you would like to license this article, please contact me or deal with my copyright attorney. Your choice.