Spadea on NJ voting process — It's flawed and needs to be secured

My wife and I could've cast two votes yesterday. We didn't. Apparently when I moved, my registration automatically moved to my new house.

What I didn't catch until we got to the polling place was that the new registration was under my name, "William Spadea." At the old address I was registered as "Bill Spadea." Since my wife is also a registered voter and they didn't have her in the new book, she asked for a provisional ballot and cast her vote. It then occurred to me that had we decided to go back to our old location across town, our old cards we're likely in the book. Other than a desire not to commit voter fraud, what would have stopped us?

There was no ID check when we signed in. My wife was asked for ID with her provisional ballot, but the address of course didn't match the new address. How many times is this happening? How many people are walking into polling locations and picking names from a registration list and voting? Theoretically a campaign could pull the list of registered voters and identify those that haven't voted in years and walk in and assume the identity. Voter fraud is real. Anyone who denies it is either ignorant or agenda driven.

It's time to require picture ID at polling locations. It's time to convert the paper system to a secure electronic system. No computer or internet access? No problem. How about electronic voting at the public library? Why is it that I can deplane from an overseas flight and enter the country at a Global Entry kiosk checking my picture and my fingerprints but we can't figure out how to secure the most basic and one of the most important tenets of our Republic?

It's time to embrace technology and common sense. In the meantime, my wife and I are headed over to the clerks office to fill out more paperwork to official change our voting location.

Spadea on NJ voting process — It’s flawed and needs to be secured