We as a nation must uphold voter integrity, and as such, the concerns of the prior election must be addressed.  There are two items we know to be true.  This nation never had such an overwhelming majority of its votes cast by mail as in 2020, and vote by mail is more susceptible to fraudulent behavior.

The solution to the problem is to make sure the people can trust the election process.  We meet that goal by ending the mass mail-in voting process that took place in the prior election (due in no small part to the pandemic and social distancing requirements).  Mass Mail-in voting invites problems for a variety of reasons, including; (1) nothing is observable except the counting of votes, (2) you don’t know who’s voting, and (3) you can’t see how the ballots are collected, transported, and stored.   This invites potential fraud on too many levels.

House Democrats, however, are seeking to “expand” and “make permanent” mass mail-in voting by law through H.R.1 This bill passed in March 2021 with every Democrat in the House voting for it, except one;  No House Republicans voted for it.    What is ironic in the H.R.1 Bill passed by Democrats is that it claims “election integrity and security” as one of its goals, but increasing mail-in voting makes the voting process less trustworthy, not more secure. 

Democrats, Republicans, and Independent Voters must all believe in the election process.  Democrats insist on making voting easier and accessible.  But we must also balance the issue of voter integrity at the same time, with voters trusting the election process as secure.  I would advocate for a national “Voting Holiday,” whereby people have the opportunity to vote in person at their leisure on election day.  Companies could better encourage their employees to vote in person by giving them the entire day off.  One day of lost productivity in the U.S. is a small price to pay if it means we can go back to voting in person, end the mass mail-in experiment of the 2020 elections, and trust the election process.  (In my proposal, the only exceptions to in-person voting would be for the disabled & the elderly, who could continue with absentee voting).  While the “voting holiday” is not a novel idea, it balances the priorities and addresses the concerns on both sides of the political aisle.

But before we move forward on better voting solutions, I hope you agree with me that the H.R. 1 Bill passed by House Democrats is a bad piece of legislation, and would undermine efforts to strengthen this country’s voter integrity laws and make fraud easier to commit. 

*Current Democratic Representative Mark Takano voted “FOR” H.R.1