Former President Jimmy Carter once said there are 3 ways to vote that would invite cheating and therefore should never be allowed.
1) mass mail in voting (not meaning absentee voting)
2) drop boxes
3) not requiring a photo ID to vote.
Of all those 3, I'd say drop boxes are most likely to invite fraud unless the chain of ownership is handled rigorously so it's not possible for a person to throw away ballots, or add ballots, without many others being aware of it.
Mail-in voting, having the envelopes opened and tabulated only by machine, is pretty much as close to fraud-proof as you can get.
Photo IDs can be faked. In fact, it's big business in my city where in the past cops used to stop people for petty offenses. Maybe everyone gets a unique ID number each election which is random. You have to use that number regardless of how you vote. If the same number is used more than once, all the votes using it get thrown out.
It's not about stopping everyone from voting. It's about honest elections. All this talk about voter fraud lately is just now getting the attention it deserves. Yet it's been going on for decades and both parties have benefitted at times.
It has, but almost always not in large enough numbers to change the outcome of an election.
When my wife was a care taker for an elderly man she was excused from jury duty by checking a box on the form and mailing it back.
No such option here. In fact, I read this yesterday:
It would exempt those caring for someone full-time.
spectrumlocalnews.com
The fact a bill had to be proposed explicitly exempting caretakers tells me they weren't excusing people all the time for this. The issues mentioned are all real. It's impossible to get somebody to mind a person on the short notice you get before serving on a jury. Even if you can, the typical people in these jobs are notoriously unreliable. The Home Health Aid which the insurance has been paying to come 5 days a week comes any time between 10AM and 5 PM. Since I no longer need the help, I told them to stop sending her. I'm tired of wasting my days waiting around for her to come, then having her in my way 2 hours each day. Now imagine depending on a person like this if you have to leave the house all day for jury duty? Then there's the cost. At upwards of $25/hour you're looking at $1,000 plus a week while you're serving. Few people have that kind of extra cash. So I'm glad this bill exists, I hope it passes, but what took them so long?
I've served on a jury and it was an honor. Yeah it was kind of a drag to have to call in once a week and listen to a recording to see if my number came up, sure. Yet if not for a jury of our peers the gubment appointed judge would have 100% say so. You might be ok if you have loot. But if they appoint you a lawyer it's more likely the prosecution team will be like a pro football team and your defense is like an elementary school kickball team.
Sure, and if jury duty was a once in a lifetime thing I'd feel the same. Just tell them to put your name on the list of potential jurors at times in your life when serving is least disruptive. That could be when you're between jobs, retired, on school break, whatever. You get called, serve, and never have to worry about it again. But sadly we've made it a highly disruptive, burdensome thing, especially with all the stupid civil trials. If nothing else, at least abolish juries for civil lawsuits.
I vote because people gave their lives a long time ago so I could.
I think the founding fathers must be turning in their graves now seeing what they system they fought for has become. Nowadays elections remind me of voting for class president in grade school. First off, only the loud-mouths ran. Then they would make promises for things they had no say over. Some of them included ice cream every day, no more tests, everyone gets an A all the time, all day is play period, etc. Just like people who run for office now. Most of the promises they make are out of their control to fulfill. If I ran for anything, I'd make one promise-I'm not taking a salary while I'm in office. That's the only promise I know I could keep.