I believe what is needed to secure the United States Elections and gain back trust from Americans that who they vote for are the ones running the government are a few things.
Here’s how we restore public trust in elections:
Single (or 3)-day voting on Election Day, as a national holiday. Registration will be allowed only with 2 forms of ID, proof of citizenship, and proof of residence.
Paper ballots.
Government-issued ID required (that is free). This shouldn’t be controversial.
No counting until all polls are closed
An absentee ballot to be recorded as delivered & opened on one of those single or three days - no late ballots (exceptions for natural disasters)
A specific paper that would be much harder to duplicate.
If any district has votes in excess of the number of registered voters, all ballots shall be individually verified by representatives of all candidates on that ballot before it will be counted.
Mail in ballots shall be restricted to members of the military and citizens with verified disability or upon special request due to verified inability to be in their specified district; must be requested at least 90 days prior to the election.
There’s also the possibility of having military members vote on base. They can request ballots (can be automated?) from their home state/precinct, and vote on base, then the tally is reported from the base in real time on election day. The base serves as a proxy for their home polling locations and is treated as its own polling location.
I think that we need to get back to precinct polling locations (we now have “vote centers” in California), with cameras at every step once the ballots leave the voters’ hands until the final tally is reported from the precinct to the Registrar of Voters/Secretary of State’s office. There should be a televised scoreboard with all of the precincts on it so that each precinct location can ensure that the correct tallies match.
Cameras on everything at all times, except when the voter is actively voting, and no ballots leave the polling location until everyone agrees with the tallies and it’s recorded at the county and state levels (again, with scoreboards, and the numbers are locked and recorded by all observers and cameras). Multiple observers should be allowed to audit the process at each polling location, with lawyers from each party available within 30 minutes to adjudicate any issues that might arise.