BALLOTTS or BULLETS By T.S. Khanna, January 31, 2022.

 

BALLOTS or BULLETS

T.S. Khanna, January 31, 2022,

In democracy bullets are replaced by ballots as the trust prevails.  Loss of trust leads to bullets.   Trust is the bedrock for ballots.

Elections are, at once, the heart of democracy and a congestive heart failure of democracy.  In a representative democracy, nothing divides the society more than periodic elections.  Ever since the 1960s, American society has been more and more divided at each election, especially at the presidential elections, while more and more national wealth has been wasted to create bigger and sharper chasms between the two political parties. Even within the parties, there is an alarming split.

 

Now the Nation stands divided, weaker, indecisive.  Now we are at a point where the losing party and candidates are losing trust in ballot. 

 To control further damage and reestablish trust in ballots, we recommend:

• Uniformity of Federal Election Laws, rules and regulations with strict non-partisan enforcement, even if it requires hiring outsiders;
• Only citizens in good standing may be allowed to register to vote and only in one state;
• Registered voter's ID may be required at the time of voting (after learning by experience, all the forty-seven European countries require ID for voting);
• Absentee voting may be discouraged and allowed in certain cases requiring notarization of registered voter’s ID. 
• Proxy voting may not be allowed;
• To give more time for voting under weather-friendly conditions, Election day may be moved from one day in November to two days, to the last weekend of May (Saturday and Sunday); and,
• Installation of elected officials may be moved to July 4th, the Independence Day.