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Health & Fitness

Waiting in Line at the Polls for Hours—A Lack of Leadership, Will and Common Sense Causes it to Happen

Solving the Polling Place Waiting Line Dilemma Easily and Economically - What are We Waiting For?

It is the measure of a nation that is lacking in common sense that a dysfunctional Congress must now waste time formulating legislation to deal with the issue of voters waiting for hours to cast ballots at their polling places. Florida led the nation in polling place misery and foolishness with an average delay of 45 minutes spent in line in the November 2012 election. I suppose we should thank our lucky stars that we had no “hanging chad” problem with which to deal this time.

The nation has maintained in most states to this day the most costly, confounding, shenanigan-prone system of elections, requiring every voter with the exception of absentee ballot holders, to travel to and from the polling place assigned to them. This is a means of casting ballots which was designed for the 19th century rather than the 21st.

Voting could be overseen by an assemblage of independent certified public accounting companies, and conducted by phone, mail, and/or the Internet, providing the voter with a unique password to access his or her ballot.  Additionally, early voting and absentee ballot provision without any reason having to be cited for it could be enacted to ensure efficiency and speed.

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Why must insolvent governments at all levels throw away billions and billions of dollars each election cycle and why must we voters waste billions and billions of hours of our valuable time for no valid reason each time we wish to vote?  Should we be making voting as difficult, exasperating, and expensive as possible? 

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