The nation is still waiting for Pennsylvania to count the votes in close elections. Roughly 1,100 votes separate GOP senate candidates Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick, with fewer than 10,000 mail-in votes remaining as of Friday. Like 2020, Pennsylvania’s notoriously slow counters are leaving two candidates and millions of voters in limbo.
One reason is that Pennsylvania, unlike Florida and other states, does not allow mail ballots before elections day. Pre-processing was part of a reform package lawmakers passed last year to modernize Pennsylvania’s outdated election code, but Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed it.
Pennsylvania’s experience is proof that we cannot bury our heads in the sand. Voters will have to live with the consequences of our election problems if we continue to deny that there are problems.
Americans are fed up. They want elections that they can trust and new elections. polling shows that the public is united behind common sense voting reform.
States across the country are making great progress towards better elections. From Georgia to Texas to — just days ago — Missouri and South Carolina — states are taking the slack out of elections. Each approach is different, but all are committed to the principle that it should be easy to vote but hard to cheat.
There are many areas for improvement, but effective reform has a few key elements. First, every state should adopt a photo ID lawAnd apply it to every ballot cast in an election, whether in person or by mail.
Secure mail ballots are vulnerable and require protections. Numerous states have banned the use of political operatives to traffick votes, which is a dangerous practice. commission co-chaired by Jimmy Carter admonished states to ban it. Drop boxes must be secured, monitored and distributed evenly across the state if they are used. To ensure that the vote counts are accurate, ballots must be received before the election day.
Election laws must be clear and written by lawmakers. In 2020, partisan lawyers bankrolled by endless left-wing “dark money” used the courts to force partisan changes to voting rules, according to Fox News. The outlet reported that liberal state officials sometimes appeared to conspire with partisan plaintiffs.
These abuses can be stopped by lawmakers and elections rules enforced.
Private funding should not be used to finance election administration. cut off. 2020 two nonprofits doled out over $400 million, giving more per capita to jurisdictions that voted Democrat. Exposing elections to the corrupting influence of special interests isn’t worth the risk to public trust.
States must increase transparency by completing after-election audits and performance reviews. Officials who are negligent or intentionally violate the law should be held responsible.
Finally, states should ban noncitizen voting. New York City recently became the vanguard of a growing left-wing push to enfranchise foreign citizens, but nearly nine in 10 Americans reject that policy. Only citizens can vote in American elections.
These policies are all extremely popular. Voter ID is an example of this: 84% believe that everyone should have a photo ID in order to vote. Left-wing activists call photo ID laws “Jim Crow 2.0,” but 72% of black voters and an incredible 90% of Hispanics Support them. Georgia has recently strengthened its ID laws. turnout is surging to record levels — proving once more that claims of racism are meant only to stifle debate and suppress the consensus that elections need to be secured.
It is time for us to abandon partisan politics, and to strengthen election integrity laws in all states. The sooner we do, the sooner we can give Americans what they want: elections where it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat.
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