On Tuesday I voted for the President of the United States by coloring in a circle on a Scantron form with a #2 pencil.

Since I work with companies on business process improvement initiatives I couldn’t help but think that this process is nothing short of busted.

I thought that I would ask the following 2 questions to see what other ideas are out there. Please post your suggestions as comments and I will post all suggestions to my blog.

All comments whether they are supporting change or the current voting systems in the US are welcome.

Question #1 – What was the voting process in your state?

Question #2 – What ideas do you have to improve the voting process that you experienced? (keeping in mind privacy, data security and auditing concerns that will override any change to the voting process in the country.)

My Answered to #1 – I gave my last name to someone who flipped through a 4 inch thick ledger to my tear away card. I was then asked to say my whole name, address and signed the card. I then moved 3 feet to the left and handed my card to a different person and was handed a Scantron form. I went to a booth, filled in the circle on the form and then fed the Scantron into a shredder looking device that might have been a scanner.

My Answer to #2 – I suggest that every voting location uses iPad’s for voter identification and voting. According to the NC.gov website the state spent $42 million on the current voting system. NC.gov also said the state has roughly 2,700 voting locations which means that if you bought an iPad at a retail price of $399.00 you could buy roughly 105,000 iPads or about 40 per voting location. You would then hand an iPad to a voter and have an app that would allow a voter to enter their social security number to identify themselves, enter their full name, address and sign all on the iPad. You could then vote via touch screen voting, hit submit, have a screen that offers the opportunity to verify your votes and touch a button that says “Cast your votes!”.

My suggestion is not perfect but it is better than the current system which is what I am looking for.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this crowd sourcing exercise.