Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Demands Related to Election Reform

This wasn't on Bernies list but it is a priority for everyone and should be for any reformers of our party. It should be a multi-partisan, non-partisan issue. But it isn't. The outlines of fair and just elections are visible to anyone who looks at the issue. We should demand of all our political candidates at all levels the following reforms:

Per Article One Section 4 and Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution, Congress mandates that all elections follow basic rules of balloting as necessary for the proper function of a Republican form of Government:

  1. All voting machines must produce a clear readable permanent indelible record that includes an original under the control of a local election judge who cannot be an active participant in any election except as an election judge.
  2. The Ballot produced must be uniform, readable and verifiable to the voter who has prepared it as part of voting and to election personnel who must count the ballots.
  3. Election places shall ID voters in a reasonable fashion and arbitrary ID rules may not be used to bar a registered voter from casting a vote.
  4. The Ballot once cast must be anonymous and any link to the Voters actual ID use a random number to preserve anonymity unless the vote has been contested for cause.
  5. No vote may be contested without cause.
  6. Purely electronic machines must be scrapped immediately.
  7. Electronic tallying may be retained, but all evidence of voting must be hand countable and it should be possible to count the ballots after the election under the guardianship of non-partisan election judges and representatives from each party, if there is any dispute about the outcome of the election or the tally. Moreover records shall be preserved so that they can be recounted or audited if necessary.
  8. The same procedure must be used to review ballots before they are prepared and published.
  9. Either Election day must be a Holiday or provision be made for workers, persons with odd hours and for all voters to be able to vote with maximum ease and assuredness before the day of the election, preferably up to a week or more and on weekends.
  10. Tampering with, altering, or interfering with the ballots or voter access to voting shall be a federal crime with a fine of no less than $5000 dollars or 6 months in jail for each count. Evidence of Election fraud shall be grounds for requiring a new election and candidates convicted of election fraud shall be barred from Federal Office or Federal Contracts.

I don't even have to look these up

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