Do You Trust the Integrity of Our Elections? If Not, Here Are the Steps We Must Take

There may have been cheating in the 2022 midterm election, in the view of 57 percent of people recently surveyed by Rasmussen.

In that same survey of 1,000 likely voters, 30 percent indicated that cheating was likely. That’s where I fit in: the 30 percent group.

To restore faith in our elections, we need to take some simple but controversial steps:

A national standard

Many people, especially Republicans, oppose the idea of a national standard because they see this it a “states rights” issue. On the other hand, most Democrats are eager to have a national standard— but their idea of a standard is more like a plan for election organized crime.

How long would it take for the United States to become a fascist nation if we were to adopt some of the ideas that were recently offered in the “For the People Act,” the “John Lewis Voting Rights Act,” and/or the “Freedom to Vote Act”? Democrats have proposed...

complete legalization of ballot harvesting so that a ballot could be submitted, on your behalf, by paid operatives.
automatic voter registration for all adults (with no verification of citizenship).
universal ability to vote by mail, for any reason.
no voter ID requirement in states that choose not to have one. States that already have an ID requirement would be forced to weaken it by accepting a broad array of documents, including copies of utility bills or sworn statements (in lieu of ID).
voting by convicted felons, unless they happen to be in prison on the day of the election.
a ban on post-election independent audits, such as the Arizona Senate audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election. Only “official” audits would be allowed.

The proposals (above) are truly scary, and this may be the reason for GOP opposition to any national standard. However, a country-wide standard is essential. We can no longer allow some states to cheat by allowing non-citizens to votes, or by allowing political operatives to cast votes on behalf of unsuspecting residents. That is why we need a national baseline of a few essential voting requirements, such as these:

A ban on ballot harvesting, with a few limited exceptions for spouses or for people with disabilities
A hard ID requirement— preferably with photos
Mandatory citizenship verification when a person registers for the first time
A uniform national Election Day cutoff for voting

Here’s what should also happen:

- Voting should be on ONE DAY ONLY. It should start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. and end no later than 6 p.m.

- Any precincts that cannot report vote totals by 9 p.m. should be disregarded.

- Voting age raised to 21.

- States should be allowed to disqualify from voting anyone receiving federal or state welfare.

- States should be allowed to disqualify from public office anyone known to be a sexual deviant, person of low character, a convicted criminal, communist or atheist.

- Voters should be required to register at least 30 days prior to the election they want to vote in.

- States should be allowed to require voters to register up to 30 days before the election they want to vote in.

"Many people, especially Republicans, oppose the idea of a national standard because they see this it a “states rights [??? emphasis added]” issue."

The idea that ballot box integrity is a “state's rights” issue wrongly ignores that Section 2 of the 14th Amendment (14A) is a penalty for states where vote-counting fraud has occurred.

Excerpted from 14A:

"Section 2: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State." [Apportionment of Representatives]
"Section 5: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

Regarding Section 2, consider that the post-Civil War congressional Republicans who drafted Section 2 made it to discourage southern Democrats (my word) from rigging the ballot boxes that Democrats are now alleged to have done for 2020, and now 2022 elections!

"Because slavery (except as punishment for crime) had been abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, the freed slaves would henceforth be given full weight for purposes of apportionment. This situation was a concern to the Republican leadership of Congress, who worried that it would increase the political power of the former slave states, even as such states continued to deny freed slaves the right to vote." —Apportionment of Representatives

The problem with corrupt states that cheat the ballot box is that we have a likewise corrupt federal government that is not willing to enforce Section 2.

No “one person, one vote”. It is one ballot per legally registered voter to cast at their assigned precinct, where their identity and residential address are verified...on Election Day. It should not be assumed that every ballot that is cast is countable any which way. However, some ballots may be deemed “disqualified” for their incompleteness and inaccuracies and are not to be counted. The voter is the responsible party for the completeness and accuracy of their ballot because to be able to register to vote you have to be of legal age.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.