Understanding each article in this series will provide you with the information you need to be instrumental in the success of EIPCa’s Proposal to Congress, which would reverse the demise of election integrity nationwide.

Please do not miss a single article in this series designed to foster your understanding of our Proposal. If you do, you may access them here. While you are on the website, sign up to receive all future articles directly to your inbox.

K.I.S.S. is an acronym widely understood and used: When in doubt, Keep It Simple, Stupid. The wisdom of this exhortation is unassailable.

Over the last 25 years, CHANGE has been the one constant in the election processes all around the country. Changes made under cover of making voting “easier, more convenient,” giving voters “more choices” have rained down with dizzying speed and volume.

The arguably well-intentioned goals of these changes have backfired, instead confusing voters and removing safeguards against fraud and manipulation. Election to election, voters don’t know what to expect, and often don’t know what their rights and choices are.

Worse, they have no idea that what they have been offered as “convenience” are the very things that

threaten the security of their ballot and their vote.

Part 9 of this article series discussed the necessity of ending no-excuse voting by mail. The dangers of ballot harvesting and drop boxes, kissing cousins of that disastrous scheme, were laid out in living color.

It needs no further argument to say that all ballot harvesting and community drop boxes must also be banned. Banning no-excuse vote by mail by passing the MEGA Act will render them superfluous, but until then, both practices present a definite threat to election integrity.

Once the only “envelope” ballots being used are legitimately qualified absentee ballots, there will be no prey for ballot harvesters and no need for drop boxes. Absentee ballot voters who choose not to mail their ballot back and who are unable to walk it in to a voting location themselves should be able to authorize only a relative, caretaker or member of the household to submit their ballot.

That’s Keeping it Simple.

Another way to keep it simple is to establish deadlines and enforce them. People understand and respect deadlines. Enforcing them speaks to their importance and the activity they protect. Stretching the limits says the opposite.

Registration Deadline

One deadline that has been extended to the point of ridiculousness is the registration deadline. Same Day registration (i.e., registering at the moment of voting) has been legalized in 23 states, apparently under the insulting assumption that a 15-days-before-Election Day registration deadline is somehow unreasonable.

• Same day registration creates administrative chaos, encourages uninformed voting, and facilitates voting by individuals whose eligibility is not fully vetted.

• Same day registration does not provide officials with enough time to determine voter eligibility, and leads to ineligible voter registrations and duplicate votes.

   

  Due to time constraints, it is difficult to verify same-day registrants’ eligibility prior to the end of canvass, especially in the majority of states that certify within a few days of Election Day.

• Even in California, with a 30-day certification process, same day registrants are processed at the county level, and are apparently only checked for duplications on VoteCal, the state’s voter database.

   

  Other registration requirements, such as citizenship and residence and ID validation, generally verified at the state level, apparently do not take place with same-day registrants.

• Same day registration makes voting more difficult for other voters at the polls, slowing lines to a halt as these “voters” fill out the required paperwork and receive the full attention of poll workers who must process them.

• Same day registration facilitates last-minute harvesting of voters who often vote “as instructed” because of proffered rewards.

   

  When busses, vans and other vehicles offload groups of unregistered individuals at polling locations, that does little to reassure voters that elections are “above board.”

Ballot Arrival Deadline

In California, “Election Day” or as some affectionately call it “last day of voting” is a misnomer.

In 2014, the California legislature decided that 29 days was not enough time for a voter to fill out a mail-in ballot and get it back to the elections office. So, they passed Senate Bill (SB) 29, instituting for the first time a ballot submission grace period of 3 days beyond Election Day.

• The good news: late ballots needed to be postmarked.

• The bad news: if there is no readable postmark, the self-reported date of marking must be accepted as legitimate.

In 2020, California extended the grace period to 17 days, alleging that somehow COVID would stand in the way of ballots arriving.

When the madness subsided post-COVID,

the legislature landed on a permanent 7-day grace period.

The postmark laxness remains the same.

• Allowing for late cast ballots to be accepted creates longer delays in declaring the election results, violates the federal Election Day statute, and undermines voter confidence.

• Allowing for late received ballots to be counted without substantive proof that they were timely cast gives the green light for bad actors to successfully cast after-the -fact illegitimate ballots in order to overturn close elections.

• Counting ballots received after Election Day violates federal statutes.

• Counting ballots received after Election Day undermines election integrity by delaying results, dragging out time for close elections to be called and allowing more pointed attempts to unduly influence a race. This can be especially impactful in close elections, once a party or individual realizes that they are within reach of victory if they can only manage to get a few more votes. 

When it comes to elections, SIMPLE, straightforward,

clear rules and procedures are best.

All of this would be mandated by the MEGA Act. Your voice is needed to make all of this happen, and it starts with passing the SAVE America Act.

Please join us in taking the follow actions:

1.  Use your phone and constituent email opportunities to put polite but insistent pressure on your own U.S. Senator (“friendly” or otherwise) and on Senate Majority Leader John Thune. The U.S. Capitol switchboard number is 202 224-3121. Light it up at least once a week. NEVER GIVE UP.

Tell your senator and Senator Thune directly that passing the SAVE America Act is a top priority for over 80% of ALL Americans.

Tell them you expect their actions to reflect their oath to represent the desires of their constituents by supporting an immediate return to the Standing Filibuster and a YES vote on the SAVE America Act.

2.  Urge everyone you know to do the same. This is the most bi-partisan issue we have seen in our lifetime, so share with people outside your normal echo chamber.

3.  Share EIPCa articles with your email friends, and urge them to sign up to receive them in their own inbox.

4.  Post our articles on all of your social media platforms.

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