Over the years, I've had the opportunity to run in many competitive elections and, of course, I've been an observer and an Election Commissioner in even more elections. I've come to believe that the way we run our elections unintentionally encourages some really unhealthy behavior. The worst of which is the paranoia and resentment that comes with the prospect of the election being manipulated mid-vote by a campaign to get people to change their ballots. This kind of abuse of our preferential system, which is open to strategic voting, can cause electoral outcomes to be suspect or seen as illegitimate. And because actions taken in DMs and smoke-filled back rooms are hard to prove happened (or didn't happen), the mere ability to do that kind of shady mid-vote strategic lobbying is enough to cast a cloud over competitive elections.

My first preference to address this issue is to move to an all secret-ballot system. But the Assembly is voting down Jay's bill to do so as I write this. So, I propose an alternative. It's not as good in my mind, but it does take a scalpel-approach to the handsaw-approach of getting rid of public ballots altogether. In essence, I propose that we no longer allow voters to alter their ballots once cast. This is how elections work in the real world, for good reason.

This isn't a condemnation of voters, though. I anticipate that some will oppose this with arguments that voters should be able to have a choice. And in an ideal world, I would agree. But in the region as it exists, the past actions of candidates or electioneers has opened a Pandora's box that we can't close back up. This isn't about taking away voter choice, but about protecting our elections against shady manipulation by electioneers.

Without further adieu, here is the bill I am proposing:

Amendment to Article 2, Elections Act Wrote:Elections Act
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2. Electoral System

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(3) Voters will have the option to cast their vote using either a public or a secret ballot. The method of private voting will be selected by the Election Commission. The method must utilize an unaffiliated account or server, with the method and all votes remaining available for audit. Named ballots are not to be released under any circumstances. Once cast, ballots in forum-based elections may not be altered.

Note: I don't believe it's possible to restrict polls in-game so that you can't change your selection. Thus, I've limited this to ballots cast in forum elections.