Integrity

 

Do you want your vote to matter?

Integrity, noun; firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values-Incorruptibility, an unimpaired condition-Soundness, the quality or state of being complete or undivided-Completeness.

Election integrity legislation, particularly those laws proposed in red states, are under fire. To the left, these proposed laws are decried as “voter suppression” that harken back to the Jim Crow laws of the south. What do these voter integrity laws hope to accomplish and are they really discriminatory. For the sake of brevity, let’s consider the Wisconsin legislation recently vetoed by Governor Tony Evers, what was proposed in the bills and what issues were intended to be remedied by those bills.

Registered voters must submit an absentee ballot sealed in a separate envelope, signed with valid addresses by both the voter and a witness. Additionally, the application requires the voter to certify eligibility to vote in said election. Why? The Wisconsin Elections Commission issued unlawful guidelines to County Clerks, advising them to “cure” absentee ballots that were not submitted with the required signatures or addresses rather than following the law and contacting the individual voter to correct the ballot.

Indefinitely confined voters, overseas voters, and all other voters, other than military voters, will no longer automatically receive an absentee ballot. Those voters will be sent absentee ballot applications and will need to reapply for each election. Active-duty service members are exempted. Why? County Clerks in Dane and Milwaukee Counties advised voters to register as indefinitely confined, due to the covid pandemic, to circumvent the requirement to provide identification. An additional 200,000 ballots were requested by “indefinitely confined” voters, including able bodied elected State legislators, for the November 3^rd, 2020 election. Under current law, all those voters would automatically receive an absentee ballot for all future elections.

Municipal or county clerks are prohibited from sending or transmitting an absentee ballot application or an absentee ballot to a voter for purposes of voting in an election unless the voter applies for the application or ballot as provided by law. Why? Mailing absentee ballot applications and absentee ballots without a voter request, substantially increases the chances that a ballot is not sent to the appropriate voter, due to address changes.

Once the canvassing of absentee ballots begins, the municipal clerk must hourly post, at his or her office and on the Internet, a statement showing the number of absentee ballots that the clerk has mailed or transmitted to voters, the number of absentee ballots that have been returned to the clerk, the number of absentee ballots counted, and the number of absentee ballots remaining to be counted. Why? Any charges of “ballot dumping” will be eliminated as the number of outstanding absentee ballots will be known and published.

Election observers should have equal access to all parts of the election process and forbids observers from interfering with electors or election officials. Appropriate areas would be designated for election observers, no more than 3 feet away where ballots are being examined or processed. Why? Because of the ongoing Covid pandemic, rules were ignored and poll watchers were denied access by election officials in some districts.

Local governments would be prohibited from accepting funding from and/or abdicating their Statutory required election administration responsibilities by contracting with outside groups to administer their elections. Why? This would prevent municipalities from accepting funding from organizations as an incentive to run their elections according to the grantors, or to surrender the election administration, such as what occurred in Green Bay. Those funds would still be allowable, but any elections grant must go through the Wisconsin Elections Commission before being distributed per-capita to all municipalities statewide.

Employees of long-term care facilities would be prohibited from coercing a resident right to vote, and would have required them to admit Special Voting Deputies to assist in the election process, unless there is a declared federal or state health emergency. The bill would have required long-term care facilities to have employees trained like Special Voting Deputies in case the Deputies are not allowed to visit for public health reasons. Why? Public testimony at State hearings revealed that this abuse did occur.

Only family members, legal guardians, or designated people would be allowed to return a person’s absentee ballot. The bill would have prohibited anyone from being paid to return absentee ballots. Any event where a voter may return their absentee ballot in-person must comply with existing early voting requirements. Why? Chain of custody is necessary in order to assure that only legally cast ballots are counted.

When one reads the bills and understands their intent, the accusation of voter suppression rings hollow and Evers’ vetoes wholly partisan. These bills would have corrected a number of issues that plagued the 2020 Presidential election and would increase voter confidence in a fair and impartial election process.