Voting in the 21st Century, Keep it Simple Stupid

If you are like most intelligent people in America, you are fed up with hearing about voter suppression, polling place snafus, lost voting records, fraudulent voting machines, flipped political party registrations, and etc. President Obama went on record this week in support of having federal election day declared as a national holiday. Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed legislation defining the same thing but obviously it won't be considered in today's worthless GOP led Senate. Talk show host, Thom Hartmann, has proposed voting on paper and throwing the voting machine in the junk heap.

Those suggestions and ideas are a great, commonsense start but they don't really address the problem of voter suppression and discrimination. In a country with voter participation ranging from 40% to 60% depending on the election type that palls in comparison with so-called Third World countries where voter participation is 80% to 90% are higher. In the great democratic experiment called the United States of America we have active voter suppression/discrimination by one political party, GOP, at the federal and state level and neglect of the voting problems by the Democratic Party. Well, I have a solution to the voting problem of democracy loving America. 

The solution is THUMBPRINTS. In America, overlooking the obvious problem and developing a complicated and ridiculous fix seems to be a national habit. You know like taking a drug for sleeplessness that increases your chances of a heart attack/stroke, for example. Or taking a stomach gas remedy that causes kidney disease. Stupid shit like that! Fingerprints have been in use as a reliable, foolproof tool for over 100 years. No two people have the same fingerprints and unless they are identical twins they don't even closely match. 

So here is the solution: 
 1. Place thumbprint devices at all polling places and the voter will provide a thumbprint as id with the thumbprint also being registered on a numbered ballot designated for that polling place. No other id will be required. Thumbprints will go into a national database just like the one currently being used by law enforcement. This will ensure that the voter is a citizen and is not voting more than once.

2. Voting by mail: the mailed ballot with have a place on it where the thumbprint is applied and the ballot is returned and scanned with the voter keeping a receipt/copy of the ballot for later auditing of the vote, if necessary.

3. Early voting for any and all elections with be mandated of at least 20 days prior to an election, nationwide/statewide.

So now you have a voting process that is simple and doesn't require a bunch of registration BS and will be much more inclusive and less expensive than the current stupid system. Of course, my idea will never be taken seriously because it is too simple, stupid.