Growing numbers of Americans have lost faith in the country's election system. It is not a new phenomenon. Since the Bush-Gore presidential contest in 2000, polls show a decline in voters' trust in the system. If the process is not overhauled, Americans will no longer view elections as democratic.
This gloomy state of affairs has only been exacerbated by the 2020 election. Even today, almost two weeks since the national election day, states are continuing to count votes. National elections are being decided by a few thousand votes in some states, placing a premium on timely and accurate tabulation.
Democrats whine President Trump shares the blame for the strain on election integrity. They cite his derision of mail-in voting as being susceptible to fraud. But they have convenient amnesia. For four years, Democrats falsely claimed Mr. Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election.
People forget that Democrats were convinced Hillary Clinton was robbed of her rightful seat in the Oval Office. Even after the Mueller Report found no collusion, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in March, 2019, discovered 48% of voters believed Trump conspired with the Russians to rig the election.
The drumbeat of the unscrupulous media's propaganda about Russian interference sowed the seeds of current public distrust in elections. A Pew Research poll this August uncovered fully 75% of respondents said it was likely Russia or another country would influence the outcome of the 2020 election.
These and other polls confirm Americans are suspicious of the transparency and fairness of the country's most important election. Part of it can be attributed to partisanship. When your candidate loses, you are convinced the election was hijacked. But as this election illustrates, there are reasons to question fairness.
Even if you are a partisan elated with the election outcome, surely you agree the current process of counting and reporting results adds to distrust and cynicism. Without major changes, Americans will become fatigued with the election chaos and simply fail to show up at the polls or vote by mail.
That would be a mortal blow to democracy. Here are six major changes that should be adopted. Five of the reforms fall under the authority of states. If the country wants to restore Americans' faith in the fairness of the country's national elections, it is urgent to act now.
1. News networks and online platforms should refrain from calling any state's results before election authorities certify the final outcome. This election news organizations called Arizona for Biden with Mr. Trump holding a solid lead. In the case of Florida and Texas, where all trends pointed to a Trump victory, the networks waited longer to declare a winner. The media cabal does not determine election outcomes. Only state election authorities have that responsibility. The media's anointing of winners contributes to election discord and turmoil, especially with millions of votes in a state to yet be counted. It is practice that should be voluntarily halted in the public interest.
2. States should be forbidden to mail out ballots to all registered voters on its rolls. A 2012 Pew Research study found approximately 24 million--or one in every eight--voter registrations are no longer valid or inaccurate. More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as current registered voters. Approximately 2.75 million people are registered in more than one state. More recently, the conservative legal group Judicial Watch forced California to agree to begin removing 1.5 million inactive registered voters from its roles. The legal organization scrutinized the rolls and unearthed the implausible fact that 101% of California's eligible voters were registered. Mailing ballots to people on outdated registration rolls is an open invitation for ballot harvesting and fraud. Voters should be required to submit a signed request for a mail ballot, just as they do for absentee voting.
3. The harvesting of mail-in or absentee ballots should be banned. Period. Ballot harvesting is a term which refers to the collection of mail-in or absentee ballots by paid activists or volunteers who deliver the votes to polling places. Twenty-six states, plus the District of Columbia, condone groups (many affiliated with political parties) to hoover up voter ballots. Twelve of those states limit how many ballots one designated agent is allowed to collect. The practice is fraught with loopholes for the exploitation by nefarious political operatives. There have been numerous convictions for ballot harvesting fraud over the decades. Every state should forbid the practice.
4. States need to recalibrate the voting deadlines to accommodate the realities of mail-in and early voting. Because of the pandemic, mail-in balloting exceeded in-person voting. That trend likely may continue. Therefore, states need to establish reasonable deadlines for voters to request and return mail-in and absentee ballots. Some pundits were chagrined over the fact many mail ballots were cast even before the presidential debates. Then move up the debate schedule. States should not be allowed to accept mail ballots on Election Day or after. All the states need to do is to allow plenty of time to account for distributing the ballots and the handling of completed ballots by the postal service.
5. State election officials should be required to begin counting mail-in and in-person early votes as soon as they are received. Three key battleground states--Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan--refused to allow election officials to begin counting early votes until Election Day, slowing the tabulation process. In Alaska, state election officials spent a week counting ballots cast on Election Day. Only last week did they allow mail-in ballots to be tallied. As a result, the state only reported results for 55% of the votes cast nearly 10 days after the election. There is no legitimate reason to wait until Election Day to count early votes as long as the results are not publicly reported until the polls close.
6. States are still processing and tabulating too many ballots by hand, causing inordinate delays. The methodology and processes for counting and verifying votes varies from state-to-state. Hand-counting is still used in combination with optical scanners in many states. In other states, optical scanners verify mail ballot signatures, comparing those to the database of registered voters. Almost all states use barcoding and optical character recognition machines to count votes. The technology exists to completely automate the entire process, but states have lagged behind in adopting changes, citing the costs. What is more important in a state than to protect the integrity of elections and ensure prompt reporting of results? Case closed.
State legislatures have the authority over most aspects of elections. However, in Pennsylvania even after state legislators approved deadlines, the Secretary of Commonwealth (State) issued different guidance to election officials. A court eventually ruled against the secretary, but the damage had be done.
It was the same story in California where Gov. Gavin Newsom used the pandemic to justify issuing an executive order requiring vote-by-mail ballots to be sent to all registered voters. A California judge ruled after the election that the governor had overstepped his authority. The ruling came months too late.
Although the Elections Clause in the Constitution delegates to the states primary responsibility for regulating elections, it vests the ultimate authority for federal elections in the Congress. The Congress has the power to pass laws that can preempt any contrary state statues. Washington can remedy the problem.
In this divisive political climate, it is wishful thinking to believe any agreement on reforming federal election rules will be approved by the new Congress. Too many states will resist efforts to institute meaningful reform. For now, America is stuck with its flawed, obsolete and inherently fallible system.
The more complicated any system, the more prone to failure.
ReplyDeleteAdding to your List: Volunteer Poll Workers and Vote Counters have been replaced by County and City Employees. (No single group could have been intended by Constitution to have complete oversight and control of Elections!)
The States do have power to operate their own elections, but Constitution speaks of SET ELECTION DAY.
In 1848 Congress eliminated negative effects of different voting DAY(s) in each State, setting the First Tuesday of November as voting DAY -- singular.
There is NO reason -- except to manipulate and commit Election Fraud -- for "Mail Voting", and 4 to 8 weeks of Early Voting.