For instance, I'm in PA (sigh, although I love where I live), and there are 3 in-person methods: Optical Scan, DRE (Direct Recording Electronic), and Paper Ballots. I voted by Paper Ballot in my rather small little township.
How is this determined state by state? Would it not make sense if in-person voting used the same method everywhere?
States have the right to make these decisions. It's not a federal issue. it's a state issue so it will vary.
Thanks. So, why can't they make it uniform throughout each state?
This response is not just for you, it's for anyone that may be wondering this same question. I think it's important that people understand our founding principles and why we run things the way we do.
The United States are just that, a collection of individual state. At our nation's founding each colony became a state and was considered a nation in their own right. They decided to unite together because we were a new country and needed to work together for protection from foreign adversaries and also to ensure commerce among the new states for economic growth.
After about 8 years of operating under the Articles of Confederation, and realizing how many ugly flaws there were with the document, the states convened to amend the articles and once gathered decided to create a whole new constitution instead.
Without getting long winded on this, the Founding Father's greatest concern when forming the US Constitution was an "all powerful centralized government." They feared this the most because it would lead towards government tyranny. Government tyranny was so bad under King George III, that it was the very reason that the colonies declared their independence and started the Revolutionary War.
The US Constitution was written to declare very specific powers granted to the Federal Government. Things like national defense, a uniform currency, international trade deals and treaties, and interstate commerce as some examples.
Importantly, ALL other powers were "reserved for the States, or The People."
This is why Roe vs Wade was overturned. There is nothing in the Constitution about abortion, so that makes the decision on that "reserved for the States."
There is tremendous wisdom in this thinking. Think about how different states handled the covid plandemic. Think about how different states handle wokeism, education, and healthcare. There are many reasons that this sort of state diversity protects the citizens of the United States. The more uniform things are, the more tyranny, the more tyranny, the more we lose our freedoms.
Every state has its own constitution and autonomy. Every state gets to decide how it wants to select political representatives for Washington DC because every state is unique. What works in California or New York sure as hell won't work for middle America and visa versa.
This is also why the electoral college is so important. The electoral college balances two things. Equal state's rights. Meaning every state, regardless of size or population has two senators so that every state in the union is represented equally in DC. The states get equal representation in DC based on their population size with the House of Representatives. This ensures that larger populated states have more representation because they have more people. It's why California has 45 reps and Wyoming has 1.
The electoral college value for each state is based on a combination of these two representative systems.
Sometimes you'll hear people say presidential elections should be based on popularity alone. The problem with this is that several cities alone could control the national vote, and thus national laws, based on their concentrated populations. Urban dwellers would dictate to rural dwellers in perpetuity.
There is probably nothing more important to keeping our states unique and autonomous than for each state to decide on their own how they want to be represented in Washington DC. Each state coming up with their own process for electing their national representatives is very strongly in line with our founding principles. This philosophy is one of the reasons the USA has lasted so long.
When you consider how much power DC has taken from the states, and the people, over 246 years via laws, taxation and printing trillions of dollars, we are no longer the uniquely independent states that we were at our founding. Federal government bloat has gotten so big I don't think its a stretch to say we are about to implode as a nation from this burden.
The best way to keep our nation strong and thriving is to take as much power away from the federal government as possible and return it to the states. This starts with each state deciding on their own how they want to be represented in DC.
You are awesome
u/#trumpflag