Defending the integrity of our elections is essential to America’s future
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer—under the guise of expanding “voting rights”—are hard at work in Washington to codify COVID-based emergency voting procedures that weaken election integrity and prevent states from enacting common sense ideas to ensure fair and honest elections.
For over a decade, the Left has been focused on weakening election safeguards. According to J. Christian Adams, President and General Counsel of the well-respected Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) which exists to monitor election law and integrity, “Groups opposed to your [conservative] policy initiatives have deployed literally hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to first alter how elections are run.” (You may know the eminent Mr. Adams. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law and is a member of the South Carolina Bar, among others.)
Their theory is simple and strategic: first control the process, then control the policy.
PILF suggests several key categories of reforms, based on their experience and legal analysis, that states should consider to safeguard the voices of their voters:
- Ensure administrative integrity by banning third parties from funding election operations.
- Strengthen absentee ballot procedures to create consistency and prevent ballot harvesting.
- Delineate clear standards for voter list maintenance.
- Guarantee standing for state legislatures to file a lawsuit against any executive office seeking to violate or depart from established statutory requirements.
A number of bills are currently moving through South Carolina’s General Assembly that would address many of these issues in the Palmetto State, and others.
- Clarify and standardize the roles of our state and local election commissions (S.499, H.3444)
- Codify the General Assembly’s right to intervene in an election lawsuit (S.499)
- Tighten up absentee ballot delivery and absentee ballot request procedures (S.113)
- Eliminate loopholes in our candidate certification process so that where possible, Republicans are running as Republicans and Democrats as Democrats (H.3262)
- Prohibit a candidate’s name from appearing on a ballot for an office more than once (i.e., as a nominee of more than one political party) (H.3261)
- Allow a modified registration by party that would permit a voter to voluntarily affiliate with a party, but not be restricted to a particular party primary by that choice (H.3265)
Sadly, Americans’ faith in the integrity of our electoral process is eroding. While we can’t control the processes of other states, we can certainly make strides to ensure that South Carolina’s processes identify and prevent fraud and protect the right of every citizen to have their lawful vote counted.
Additional Resources
How To Restore Faith in Our Federal Elections | The Heritage Foundation
