Government of the People, by the People, and for the People

Abraham Lincoln’s Insight

§ President Abraham Lincoln wrote in his Gettysburg Address, “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” The nation envisioned by Lincoln may be in peril of vanishing from this earth unless WE, the People, reclaim it.

There are three core phrases in Lincoln’s address: Of the people, by the people, and for the people. In this blog, I discuss the first phrase.

Of the People. . . .

As citizens of these United States we have one job, and we blew it. The founders of this nation did not envision a government of professional politicians, any more than they envisioned a standing military. They envisioned a government comprised of citizen-legislators. In other words, a government wherein citizens temporarily sacrificed their livelihoods to serve their fellow citizens in representative service. Notice the word “temporarily.”

§ But we blew it. We didn’t want the dirty job of governing ourselves, so we left it to those who desired patrician-class power and prestige over the hoi poloi. We created the environment for a mechanistic, autocratic, sanctimonious, professional political class by not stepping up as citizen-legislators. Thus, we have a Congress and an Executive branch that has momentum independent of, and in spite of, their electorate.

I grant that there are, undoubtedly, elected representatives presently serving who are truly citizen-legislators. My prayer is they do not become professional politicians.

Moving Back to America

We have a difficult and distasteful task before us. We have one job: To be the government of the people. The 2020 election cycle introduced decisions by governors, secretaries of state, and boards of election that were antithetical to the elector provisions of the Constitution. We can not move back to America by depending on a national hero to work his or her magic from the top down. The only way to Move Back to America is to restore integrity and trust to our electoral system from the bottom up. If we restore integrity at the bottom, at the voter level, then cheating or trying to “work the system” cannot succeed. One step to restoring that trust and integrity is by overhauling our individual election processes. This is one proposal on how to do that.

A 14-Point Plan to Restore Electoral Integrity

This proposal is not mine, although some of the points it addresses coincide with my own. This plan was drafted by the Kootenai County, Idaho GOP, Citizens Committee for Election Integrity (https://www.kootenaigop.org/blog/2021/1/8/minimum-standard-for-fair-and-honest-elections).

However, I agree with its intent, and hope that other States and Commonwealths will adopt its provisions for their local, state, and national elections.

(Added 1/9/2021) However, a serious roadblock will soon exist under a !President Biden administration. !President-elect Biden announced the appointment of Kristen Clarke to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Clarke vehemently opposes voter identification labeling it a form of “voter suppression.” With the weight of DOJ, Clarke can level law suits against any jurisdiction that has the temerity to suggest voter ID is an essential component of election integrity.

Minimum Standards for Fair and Honest Elections

Our Constitutionally guaranteed republican form of government relies on free, fair, and honest elections to select our representatives and leaders. The standards listed here shall be used by our local, state and federal legislators as a metric for reviewing and revising election law to ensure free, fair, and honest elections where the outcome is accepted by all citizens of good will.

1. All voting processes, other than those needed to preserve the privacy of a citizen’s vote, must be open and available for direct observation, with no minimum distance requirements, and audit by agents of the candidates or parties.
2. All election materials must have a secure chain of custody at all times. Election officials must be accompanied by observers when accessing any election materials. Records of the chain of custody shall be complete and available for audit.
3. All votes, regardless of voting method, shall be held to equal standards.
4. Voters shall only be qualified electors that are able to verifiably provide their government issued photo identity before being issued a ballot. Voters who provide false information, including information of voter qualification, should face severe penalties.
5. As a condition of being issued a ballot, the voter’s identity and signature must be recorded in a permanent record (Poll Book).
6. Original Ballots must have a physical form that allows voting choices to be examined and properly interpreted by the naked eye .
7. Ballots must have features designed to prevent counterfeiting.
8. An auditable system for tracking the status of all ballots must be implemented and maintained in the State of origin. The total number of printed ballots must equal the sum of the number of cast ballots, spoiled ballots, and unvoted ballots.
9. Ballot tabulation must be conducted by two independent and unrelated systems. The difference in totals between the two systems must be less than one half the margin of victory or 0.1% of the vote total, whichever is less. Tabulating machines must only tabulate and not modify ballots in any way, or be connected to the internet.
10. Before the results of an election can be certified, the ballot counts must be reconciled with the voter records. The margin of uncertainty must be less than one half the margin of victory or 0.1% of the vote total, whichever is less.
11. Lists of qualified electors must be purged of unqualified persons 180 days before an election. Voter Rolls should be vetted and compared with available government records to identify duplicate or ineligible registrations.
12. Laws and regulations governing an election may not be changed for 180 days prior to that election.
13. All election records should be retained and preserved for not less than 22 months.
14. Voter identification for provisional ballots must be verified, with information provided by the voter, prior to that ballot being counted.

(11/14/2022) I would add two other standards: “The voting district model shall be a local precinct model” and “Absentee ballots shall be available to qualified home-bound electors and to qualified electors absent from their precincts on election day no earlier than 30 days prior to an election, and must be received by the office responsible for Voter Rolls no later than one day before election day.”