AMAC Exclusive
While the 2020 presidential election is behind us, the problems that plagued the vote remain front and center. Many state legislatures are now tackling election issues after the most controversial election in recent memory. Much like Florida instituted a series of reforms after the “hanging chad” debacle in the 2000 presidential election, Republican leaders at the state level are taking steps to ensure that election operations are sound and secure going forward.
In Pennsylvania especially, lawmakers have sprung into action–and their approach could be a model for other states across the nation.
In the Pennsylvania House, State Government Committee Chairman Seth Grove, a Republican from York County, has called a series of hearings to do a “deep dive” into Pennsylvania’s election law, which was last updated in 1937. “This is being done to inform the public and the committee so we may facilitate election changes to improve the process and restore voter confidence in elections,” Grove said as he kicked off the hearings in January.
As the hearings demonstrated, Pennsylvania certainly fits the bill as a state that experienced election turmoil in 2020. The state was still counting ballots days after the election concluded, there was massive voter confusion when activist groups mailed pre-filled applications for ballots, and vote count observers were pushed back so they couldn’t view what was happening with the count.
Moreover, the Pennsylvania Department of State recently had to remove 21,000 dead voters from the voting rolls and only did so after a lawsuit forced their hand.
The committee also heard testimony during the hearings that Pennsylvania saw a huge influx of money from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, who gave more than $20 million to Pennsylvania election officials, primarily in Philadelphia and other Democratic strongholds. Reports have shown that these funds were used primarily for get-out-the-vote efforts instead of protecting against COVID, as the funding had originally been advertised to do.
Similar election issues in states around the country have led to many states proposing new laws and holding public hearings. In fact, hundreds of potential election law fixes have been introduced this year in legislatures across the nation.
Representative Grove has been the driving force behind this effort in Pennsylvania, scheduling weekly information hearings since January with the final hearing this week, on April 15. The committee has left no stone unturned. The subjects of different hearings have included voter registration management, mail-in and absentee ballots, voting machines and IT systems, election integrity and accessibility, and election day operations.
The committee has heard from local elections officials, state elections officials, national election experts, the Ohio Secretary of State, a disability rights group, and even an MIT professor who studies elections.
While many politicians across the country give lip service to transparency and bipartisan exploration of policy issues, Grove’s committee is putting those principles of democracy into action. The committee itself is bipartisan, with ample time given to the vice-chair, Democrat Margo Davidson, who represents an area just outside of Philadelphia.
Rep. Davidson was initially hostile to the hearings, where she called the now disgraced former Pennsylvania Secretary of State “a hero.” Davidson even called some of the testimony and proceedings “racist.” She has taken issue in particular with witnesses who suggest that Pennsylvania should add provisions requiring voters to show their ID or other information to verify that they are who they say they are when voting. But as the committee nears completion of its work, even she has since admitted that much of the testimony has been useful to the committee.
Chairman Grove has prioritized transparency about the entire hearing process, posting notices and releases before each hearing, and even providing a short recap of each hearing by video.
Now, as Pennsylvania begins crafting bills to make changes to election laws going forward, they will reap the benefit of the significant work done by Grove’s State Government Committee.
Pennsylvania may be the example the country needs right now–and Americans in other states should demand that their leaders follow the path blazed by legislators in the Keystone State.
One has to ask the question “Where was the State Legislature last year when all the activities outlined in this article (and others NOT referenced) were talking place?” It’s all well and good to install new locks on one’s front door AFTER the house has been broken into and robbed and picked cleaned down to the bare walls, but that of course does nothing to get anything back that was stolen. In this case, the presidency. The rampant instances of election fraud that handed the state to Biden were well outlined and documented. It will be interesting to see what the Legislature ultimately generates in the form of a bill and whether the Democrat Governor will sign it or simply veto it. There is also the prospect of the passage of H.R.1 hanging over everything. So 2021 will be nothing of not defining for the future of the United States of America.
I think most people across the land were unaware that the Constitution of the United States spelled in in clear terms that the responsibility and authorities for elections is for the State Legislatures . I too was unaware. It was during the hearings requested by Rudy Giuliani that i became aware of the Legislatures’ Constitutionally specified power over elections. The Constitution of the United States LIMITS electoral powers and responsiblilties to the State Legislatures . This means , Governors have NO Constitution authority. It also means Secretaries of State have NO Constitutional authority. The Legislature need only make RESOLUTIONS for electoral matters and those resolutions have Constitutional force of law . The Legislature MAY authorize the Governors and Secretaries of State with authority but that authority is by and belongs to the Legislatures . Legislatures CANNOT absolve themselves of Constitutionally specified electoral authority. Legislatures CANNOT overrule the US Constitution .
ALL States’ Legislatures MUST guarantee the integrity of elections . When fraud or other malevolent electoral actions are suspected , Legislatures MUST cause investigations to happen . Governors , Secretaries of State and State Courts have NO authority to prevent the Legislature from insuring the integrity of elections. ANY such ruling is UNCONSTITUTIONAL ! !
Election Reforms:
QSR code ballots
Watermark ballots
Color code by County
Computers count ballots & scan signatures
Observers are there 24/7
Vet IT types in counting rooms
Ballots made in Secure sites
Set voting times & day/s
Same day Count when recieved
Here in Pennsylvania “We the people” are fed up with Wuhan Communist Governor Wolf and his anti-American DemoRATs !
I treid to warn the PA CON..gress critters before the election…WHAT DID THEY ‘NOT’ DO? And we also have the Rhino Toomey..ugh
What must be done to protect voter rights…all states should join together and do the same. Radicals are ruining our lives.
Usually I would say “better late than never”. However, the state legislatures’ failure to do their sworn duty BEFORE the election may well have doomed the country to eternal socialism under the Democrat Party. Some damages can never be undone.
We do risk having already lost our only chance. I all depends on what happens next. Hong Kong freedom fighters risked so much and it seems like freedom lost. But we need to try.
Without election integrity we have no country. All lives spent from the founding of nation through the Revolution will be for nothing. This is what the fight was for.
Let me vote. I got my wadder bill to show who i am.
Where were they when all this was going on the night of the election in November? A little too late now. All of their belated efforts will be in vain when the Dem controlled House and Senate pass H R 1 and S 1 which will nullify all state laws against vote fraud practices such as requiring voter ID and signature verification.
H R 1 and S 1 require automatic voter registration at DMVs, govt. assistance agencies and schools resulting in multiple registrations for the same voter which will result in multiple ballots sent to those voters through the mandated all mail-in voting. The laws also provide for unrestricted ballot harvesting, un-monitored drop boxes, lowering the voting age to 16, allowing felons to vote even if they are still incarcerated or out on parole, and many other onerous procedures which have been designed and honed in states like Calif., Ore., and Wash. for decades to ensure Democrat candidates will NEVER lose an election again. Read the bills for all the diabolical details. They are deliberately misnamed the “For the People Act” to disguise the true intention as the ‘Democrats Elected to Office in Perpetuity Act’.
Most of the officials, experts and organizations that the committee has heard from probably just fed them with all the bs that has been flying around this country lately. Every right answer to the problem is racist and/or fascist or some other term that these evil enemies have coined to destroy this country