Two years ago, I wrote an article titled, Your Vote Did Not Count. The point of the piece was to highlight the fact that once you cast your vote into a computerized voting and tabulation machine, you really do not know how your votes were tabulated. There’s no way for you to contact the State Board of Elections to see your votes within the total tabulation. All that can be verified is that the state has record of you casting votes. This needs to change.

I want to be able to log into a portal and find my votes within the total tabulation. For example, in South Carolina during the 2020 election, Trump / Pence received 1,385,103 votes. Biden / Harris received 1,091,541 votes. Currently, there is no system available for a voter to see his vote among the million+ votes for either ticket. We’re all relying on blind faith that our vote is not only in the final tabulation, but also is associated with our selected candidates.

Americans want to vote in private. Who I vote for is nobody’s business. The only way you should learn who I voted for should be if I tell you. The solution is fairly simple. We need a system that allows voters to see their votes online, without revealing the personal information of the voter. Social Security numbers, or Driver’s license numbers cannot be used. We need serialized ballots.

In South Carolina, there are two computerized machines involved in the voting process. The first is the voting machine where you select your candidates and vote on any referendums. Once finished, your ballot, with all your selections, is printed. You then take your printed ballot to the tabulation machine and insert it into the feeder slot. The machine “accepts” your ballot, and you feel awesome for performing your civic duty.  Unfortunately, I no longer feel that way after I vote. I lack confidence in the software and the computation methodology. 

I voted yesterday. I watched my ballot being drawn into the tabulation machine. The poll worker said, “Thank you for voting.” I left the polling location not feeling certain that I indeed, just voted. Today, I do not know if my vote will be part of the final tabulation. I pray it is, but that’s all I have; faith. I want to know for sure. I need to see it. I voted to re-elect Senator Tim Scott. If Scott receives 1.2 million votes this election, I want to be able to log into a state data base that allows me to find my vote, within the 1.2 million votes.

If ballots had serial numbers, the voter could receive a ticket stub of sorts, with the serial number of his or her ballot printed on it. Within seven days after the election, states would be required to upload the voting results. The tally would appear as a list of all the serial numbers that “voted” for a particular candidate. Voters would be able to find their ballot within the appropriate candidate columns. They would also be able to verify the final tabulation of all the serial numbers.

Obviously, there would be no way for me to be certain that any of the other serial numbers are properly designated. However, enough voters would verify their votes to the degree that if there was computation failure, they’d be able to sound the alarm of the error. If a widespread problem occurred, it would become public knowledge quickly. Well before anyone is sworn into office.

Not seen by the public would be the records that match the voter to the ballot serial number. If there is an effort to commit fraud with a mail-in ballot “dump” of ballots illegally obtained, it would be easy to uncover the fact that those ballot serial numbers are not associated with a registered voter. 

With hyper-partisanship and divisiveness pushing conservatives and liberals beyond their limits, there is no better time to get such a serialized ballot system set up in all 50 states before the 2024 presidential election. Anyone opposed to this level of transparency has something they’d like to hide.  

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