“Election integrity” is a nice term for candidates to use while campaigning, given that it is arguably the only issue that matters in a country plagued with systemic election manipulation.
What good is it for conservative candidates to run circles around their opponents on policy positions if elections in states like Arizona, Nevada and Michigan are designed to subvert the voice of the people? While it may be a nice term, it is only meaningful with actionable goals behind it.
There are 10 points to true election integrity that must find their way into our election system for the public to have confidence in it once again. Four are potentially actionable at the county level, while others will require legislation at either the state or federal level.
1. Clean Out the Voter Rolls
The foundation of a clean election is a clean voter roll; conversely, a filthy election stems from a filthy voter roll. Canvassers across the country have identified countless apartments, dormitories, nursing homes and parking lots overflowing with fraudulent registrations. This action can be addressed at the county level throughout most of the country.
2. Ban All Electronic Elections Equipment
Ballot marking devices, scanners, tabulators and electronic poll books must go. The purposeful malfunctions in Arizona’s midterms prove that we are better off reverting to primitive methods of voting and implementing Point 3 instead.
3. Paper Ballots Only with Mandatory Voter ID
Ballots marked by hand and counted at the precincts, where identification requirements shall be enforced, must replace machine voting. Identification is required for flying, renting a car, purchasing alcohol or tobacco, and buying a firearm. It should be common sense to prove one’s identity before voting, but the withholding of identification in the name of combating racism is a blue-state staple.
4. Severely Restrict Mail-In Voting
Absentee voting should be reserved for overseas military personnel and the legitimately disabled only, with strict identification and authentication requirements imposed.
5. Severely Restrict Early Voting
A lengthy early voting period allows for ballot harvesters and corrupt administrators to use electronic election equipment to manipulate the actual Election Day vote. In Texas’ 2020 election, Democrats used a third week of early voting in response to the pandemic to institute drive-thru voting lanes in some of the largest counties in the state. Furthermore, the term “Election Day” conveys an expectation that voting will not take place over weeks or a month, but a day. Exceptions can be made for doctors, nurses, pilots or election workers who cannot turn out on Election Day.
6. Drastically Smaller Precincts
Many precincts in our largest counties have many thousands of registered voters. Getting to 1,200 registered voters or fewer per precinct will allow for the entire voter roll to turn out on Election Day, vote on paper, and get away from shortcuts that undermine the elections. We will need far more election volunteers.
7. Ban Ballot Harvesting
The secret sauce for amping up mail-in turnout, especially for candidates who can’t win or don’t campaign, goes hand in hand with corrupt voter rolls. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill making this practice a felony. This step also requires the removal of unsupervised drop boxes, which are used to get around ballot harvesting laws in states like Arizona.
8. Election Day as a Holiday
It does not make sense to push this if restrictions to mail-in and early voting are not achieved, but this policy has huge support from voters of nearly every political persuasion. It would allow for one-day elections and would eliminate the excuse that shortcuts are needed for maximum voter participation. With the accomplishment of Point 6 (smaller precincts), 1,200 registered voters or fewer in a precinct could turn out the vote in a single day, and those ballots could be hand-counted at the precinct with ease and reported quickly.
9. New Reporting Requirements for Transparency
Days and weeks to count ballots shall be disallowed, and the largest counties in a state shall be required to report votes first, rather than waiting to see how many votes must be fielded to overcome smaller, more rural counties. This is particularly important in states like Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Minnesota, in which a single giant county can easily blot out the rest of the state’s vote with foreknowledge of its strength.
10. Heavy Prison Sentences for All Who Commit Election Fraud
This point is self-explanatory and is arguably too lenient.
Points 1, 2, 7 and 9 can be pursued at the county level in most of our 3,143 county equivalents. I am recruiting a volunteer army for this “Four for the Core” task, and you can register at fourforthecore.com to begin the first phase of taking back your elections one county at a time.
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