One way to secure an election that I haven't seen explored is secure paper ballots. These ballots would be made almost impossible to duplicate, and dependent on a certain kind of paper. They would be printed at the polling booth. They would be serialized with a hash based on the voter's name. So it would be trivial to detect whether a particular voter actually used a particular ballot and mathematically very difficult (let alone practically given the need to use the same printing machines to print up extra ballots) to make the paper necessary for ballot stuffing.
The voter or if a machine is filling it out the printer could be equipped with the necessary ink.
Security features include: Microprint of the voter's name. Hashed serial number. Grease paper that doesn't accommodate common inks. Holograms. Embedded fiber.-- Voice, Aug 05 2021 While those are valid criticisms "I don't think election fraud happens" is not one.-- Voice, Aug 05 2021 As tempted as I am to debate recent allegations of election fraud in a particular country, it's not directly related to the idea.-- Voice, Aug 05 2021 //voter tracking scheme//
oi!-- Voice, Aug 06 2021 Agree that it's a non issue. And I also agree personally identifiable ballots are a really bad idea.
Switching to a particular paper, or watermarks, or embossing all are possible safety measures. (Of course, counterfeiters still get around those). But they'll increase the cost of elections, which are already expensive.-- MechE, Aug 06 2021 It's a good thing we take election safety as carefully as we do aircraft safety. If an aircraft goes down it could kill hundreds. But when elections are manipulated it can kill millions. Fortunately we dismiss anyone reporting an alleged plane crash as a kook and let the airlines manage the FAA, so that elections are at least as carefully looked after.-- Voice, Aug 06 2021 You do realize that every single claim of electoral fraud is investigated right? Admittedly, it helps if you report them to the police, not a shady lawyer, but they are investigated. And 2 actual cases were found in this last election. (Both voted for Trump).-- MechE, Aug 06 2021 Just two out of hundreds of millions of voters! That's a really, really low number. I'm happy our government is watching out for this sort of thing and definitely doing a proper investigation. In other countries when any election number approaches unity to that level it's strong evidence of corruption, but we're blessed to be in a country that would never allow a cabal of the wealthy to manipulate results and lie about those numbers.-- Voice, Aug 06 2021 The fancy paper isn't intended to prevent fraud, it's to facilitate all those careful investigations we do. All two of them.-- Voice, Aug 06 2021 Oh, and both cases of fraud were people attempting to use a dead relative's ballot. They had all the necessary documentation. They were not injecting fake ballots into the system. The system actually has really careful safeguards against that.-- MechE, Aug 06 2021 random, halfbakery