The Election Commission Report

[sandnsea]

There are good things in this report, but I think we're going to have to hammer it home because the important stuff doesn't seem to be getting picked up. And because too many people will read what's in the newspapers and not the actual report, they won't know everything it says. This isn't perfect, but it's a good foundation if we pick out the important stuff and hammer away.

To enhance ballot integrity, states should require voters to present a REAL ID card at the polls and provide non-drivers with a free photo ID card for voting, but during a transition, citizens without a card should be permitted to vote with a provisional ballot.

States should make voter registration and IDs accessible to all eligible citizens by using mobile offices and other means to register more voters and issue photo ID cards. States should oversee voter registration lists and verify the accuracy of the information produced by the counties. They also recommended numbered voter registration forms with receipts, so that voter registration can be easily tracked.

Congress should pass a law to require voter-verifiable paper audit trails on all electronic voting machines, and the EAC needs to take additional steps to ensure those machines are secure and accessible for people with disabilities. The states should also rectify whether the machine vote or the paper is the official ballot. In addition, voting machines manufacturers should be required to place the source code in escrow to be made available to testing authorities and independent experts. Local jurisdictions should also document every change to computer hardware or software.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission and state election management institutions should be strengthened and reconstituted on a nonpartisan basis and no member of an election commission should serve on any campaign other than their own.

The report reminds us that the public owns the air waves and some members of the commission recommended legislation to require free air time. They also recommended that projected winners not be announced into polls have closed across the entire country. Sadly, they have taken the position that exit polls are not reliable, without fully investigating how this phenomenon suddenly began to occur in 2000 and just in the US, not other countries where polls are used to verify election integrity.

LINKS TO REPORT and media:

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=1376