Posted on 12/02/2020 10:01:07 AM PST by re_tail20
Most “democratic” countries manage their elections on a national level.
The United States, however, manages its elections on a “states” level, and the states manage the elections on a “counties” level.
Each state has a unique state method for managing elections, and each county has unique county method for managing elections.
In most cases, if one were to compare and contrast, the similarities would be “good enough”, and the differences “minor” and “not important”. Ideally, there should be as many similarities as possible, and as few differences as possible.
In some “big picture” areas, though, we need new similarities.
Given that we have political parties, how should elections be managed on the “states” level?
For example, should they be managed by an appointed or elected Secretary of State with allegiance to only one political party?
Or, should they be managed by an appointed and confirmed State Board of Elections with members of both political parties on it, as well as Independents?
My opinion is that an appointed and confirmed State Board of Elections, with, say, three Republicans, three Democrats, and three Independents is the best way for each state to manage its elections, because it allows both major political parties, in resolving elections issues such as the number and location of polling places, to keep each other in check with assistance from the Independents.
Not only that, but each county’s election department or election board should be turned over to the State Board of Elections so that there is as much uniformity of procedures as possible.
Right now, a majority of states use a method that is non-State Board of Elections
Lieutenant Governor - Elected
Alaska Utah
Secretary of State - Elected
Alabama Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Idaho Iowa Kansas Louisiana Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Mexico North Dakota Ohio Oregon South Dakota Vermont Washington Wyoming
Secretary of State - appointed by Governor
Florida New Jersey Pennsylvania Texas
Chief Election Official - chosen by Legislature
Maine New Hampshire Tennessee
Commissioner of Elections
Delaware
Combination of Chief Election Official and Board of Elections or Commission
Arkansas Georgia Indiana Kentucky Rhode Island West Virginia
Finally - what I think is best.
State Board of Elections - Appointed by Governor
Hawaii Illinois Maryland North Carolina New York Oklahoma South Carolina Virginia Wisconsin
In the “Building Confidence in U. S. Elections” report in 2004, one recommendation called for a “State Elections Office” for each state in place of all the other above non-Board of Elections methods.
But, on thinking about it, I think that the Board of Elections method is the most feasible.
So every state that doesn’t have a State Board of Elections should establish a State Board of Elections.
Once my state’s legislature gets back in session next year, I will lobby and write each of its members to make this so in my state.
If your state doesn’t have a state board of elections, please do the same next year. Thanks.
We need a National Standard with Rules and Checks for all Federal Elections. Leaving Elections to local and State Politicians is an invitation to Cheating and Fraud.
The Ca ‘State’ welfare board gave away
400 million dollars to prisoners.
That Stolen Election tho
Who can ever again believe in voting?
Finally - what I think is best. ... Wisconsin
—
Not working out too well here, perhaps have another go at the drawing board.
Uniform, national solutions to problems is the Democrat way of doing things. I get suspicious whenever I hear of a solution where “one size fits all”.
One of the best things that President Trump did this year was to leave the handling of COVID-19 to the individual states. Because, despite socialist protestations to the contrary, one size does not fit all.
That’s nothing. The Washington state director of Unemployment Department gave away 576 million dollars and they no not where. In fact, the State auditor is a Democrat and Inslee, etal, are stalling and ignoring the report.
Here in criminal CT the Democrats steal everything in sight, including elections.
You can’t fix a pure kleptocracy with additional layers of kleptocrats.
So we will have government employees monitoring government actions? I think not. How about a random selection of citizens, like jury duty, chosen at random, to monitor every ballot counting station, that report their findings to a master group of random selected citizens. Like a grand jury, this body will have the power to issue subpoenas, and issue arrest warrants, if it seems necessary. Charges then go to the attorney general. If no action from the attorney general, it then goes federal.
This would just result in corrupt state election boards. We have plenty of safeguards in place but politicized state and local actors are just ignoring them with no consequences.
Cause adding another layer of appointed bureaucrats fixes everything.
“We need a National Standard with Rules and Checks for all Federal Elections.”
I agree. This is one of the few times I prefer to see Federal standards and oversight.
That would be unconstitutional. 10th amendment and all that.
We have to decide where we want “states rights” and where we don’t.
I am sometimes surprised at the number of people advocating federal expansion.
Why just 50? Why not all 57 states?
The only reason that the cheating got caught in this election was that the diversity of elections systems created such enormous complexity that COORDINATING the cheating became an inherently complex undertaking...
If you had a centralized system... you’d get the cheating being done from the top down with no one the wiser.
What we need is for every state to be SO different... that there cannot be any centralized coordination to steal an election... without it being made obvious... as it was in this election... in ONLY A FEW STATES.
We need it to be made obvious in EVERY state... including by having every state be unique in its processes...
I don’t know that we need to change.
But we need a set of minimal standards for federal elections with federal penalties for failure to adhere to them.
And we need federal oversight of certain problem districtsl. We don’t want Feds in charge of the entire elections everywhere. That’s too much concentrated power. But problem sites need additional oversight.
Things like refusing one party’s poll watchers, having one poll watcher for 16 tables, or processing ballots in the absence of the poll watchers should never happen and there should be prosecutions when they do.
Voting districts with allegations of voter fraud, should have additional oversight. And Federal marshalls on standby in case poll watchers are refused.
Most "democratic" countries are about the population of a large U.S. State.
We already have it. Read the US Constitution, especially about elections. It advances a political mechanism as opposed to a criminal one. The state Legislatures communicate the election choice of electors through them, so that if the election is UNLAWFUL they can choose an alternate set of electors themselves, or reward the candidates who didn't cheat with the choice of their electors. Or they can come up with their own electors. If no electors are presented, then the Electoral College shrinks by that state's number of EV (Electoral Votes). If states want to be represented in Presidential elections, they better elect Secretaries of State who can produce LAWFUL elections. hint- "LAWFUL" and "UNLAWFUL" are the correct political terms for the special relationship between states legislatures and the US Constitution in federal elections.
The constitution says the states can use whatever process they wish to determine their electors.
However, if they delegate the selection process to an election, the election must conform to all elements of the extended constitution (Amendments too).
The 12th and 14th amendments are most relevant.
A federally mandated process would be unconstitutional because it is STATES that elect a president, NOT the citizenry.
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