Voter Identity

[dan.ryan@accenture.com]

In the United States, it is the standard practice to keep a record of
individuals who voted in each election.

Typically, a person enters a room where there are election officials
(designated by the local government) and voting booth.  He or she goes to
the elections official, states his or her name, and the election official
checks the person's name off of a list.

Often there are "poll sitters" or "ballot watchers" in the room as well,
next to the officials.  These people are often affiliated with the
Republican or Democratic party.  Sometimes officials from voting rights
groups, or even the Department of Justice will be in the room as well.
These third-party officials will have a list of registered voters, and they
will check off the voter as well.

Sometimes the Democratic or Republican poll sitters will periodically call
party headquarters and give a report on the number of voters that have
voted.  The person at party headquarters will compare this with a projected
total.  If the vote count is too low, the person might reallocate campaign
workers to that precinct to "Get Out the Vote".  If the party is
particularly well organized, they might even target individual voters.  A
campaign worker might knock on an individual's door and say, "Joe, I know
you haven't voted yet.  Now let me drive you to the poll so you can vote!"

Now, the party won't know how the person voted, but if the person lives in
a precinct that is 98% Republican, and knows that the person voted in the
last 10 Republican primaries, there's a pretty good likelihood that this
person will vote the way they want.

After the election, the county keeps a list of voters.  It sells this list
to political parties and candidates for a nominal fee.  These lists are
then used by the parties and candidates to identify potential voters.
These prior voters are often inundated with phone calls, literature, and
knocks on the door in competitive elections.

Additionally, some local governments use the voter rolls as the pool of
potential jurors.  Some people even claim that the reason why they don't
vote is because they don't want to be called for jury duty.

I think that for all these reasons, we absolutely must have the ability to
identify individual voters.  This doesn't mean that total anonymity isn't
an option ? it just can't be the only option.
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