Since our state is first in the nation for both the Democrat and Republican primaries it is essential that our state conduct elections to ensure that the people trust that their vote counted.
We can make our elections safe by addressing these key factors:
- Encouraging/maximizing participation
- Maintaining state not federal control
- Ensuring swift and accurate results
- Keeping it local with easily accessible and geographically dispersed polling places
- Ensuring that only US citizens vote
- Providing a non-electronic option to voters
- Paper ballot systems that are auditable and voter-verifiable
South Carolina has already addressed some of these issues and concerns (we have laws that limit ballot harvesting and do not have universal mail in balloting) and as the first in the South for the Democratic and Republican primary, we can be the gold standard for election excellence if we pass additional election integrity bills. Over the next several weeks we will show specific ways in which we can reform our current system to ensure our voters have confidence in our elections.
Namely, we encourage our state senators and representatives, governor, and State Election Commission to support three election integrity bills currently in the House Subcommittee—H. 4259, H. 4260, and H. 4261. These bills will allow for:
- Establishing a pilot program of hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots
- Robust hand-count audits and forensic audits
- Eliminating early voting and electronic poll books (which are not certified) while minimizing absentee balloting
- Giving full observation rights to every citizen to examine all phases of the election process
- Establishing rigorous chain of custody documentation and procedures for all system components
- Ensuring qualified electors have access to key audit documents and voter rolls at no charge
The people need to trust that their vote counts. We ask legislators in South Carolina to lead the way.