American ballot boxes should look like this.
Clear with tamper-evident locked lids.
All votes should be in person with very rare and specific exceptions.
Mail-in ballots would have to be requested with a mail-in form >6 weeks ahead of the election.
A photo copy of driver's license/state ID will be necessary for this application.
Mail-in ballots come with a tamper evident envelope, with prepaid postage and pre-addressed to the person's local voting center
Not just mail-in, but ALL ballots are watermarked on special paper and come with a watermarked carbon copy for the voter's records and for any future audits.
>my opinion is the federal gov't should print these ballots for distribution, not the states.
The physical ballot boxes should be escorted and visually monitored by civilian volunteers every step of the way.
The military should also be escorting them.
At no time should there be no eyes on the ballots by multiple parties.
Each ballot should be scanned several times when counting.
Once by a member of the military (NG?)
Once by a (R) volunteer
and Once by a (D) volunteer
(and if an (I) volunteer wants to get in on it, let them scan them too):
Any individual vote that has a discrepancy between these different scanners should be re-scanned until every party agrees.
This can all be automated for speed.
Once the counting starts, it doesn't stop for any reason until it's complete.
Even if that means a change of venue (once again, monitored visually by all parties +MIL)
It's not hard to prevent fraud.
That simple process in addition to voter ID would help the public be able to trust elections again.
>It's not perfect, but it's also not complicated.
Yes, it would take longer, but for something as important as elections, the people would gladly wait to get a real honest result.