On Wednesday, the House Administration Subcommittee on Elections held a hearing on American titled, "American Confidence in Elections: Ensuring Every Eligible American has the Opportunity to Vote – and for their Vote to Count According to Law." Subcommittee Chair Laurel Lee kicked off the hearing, setting the stage for a robust discussion on measures to improve voter confidence.
At today's #ACEAct Elections Subcommittee hearing, Chair @RepLaurelLee: While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, there are steps states can take to boost voter confidence and improve voter integrity.
— House Admin. Committee GOP (@HouseAdmin) May 24, 2023
Watch her full opening statement here ⬇️https://t.co/5S9UMCkTrO
There were four Republican witnesses: Lawyers Democracy Fund Executive Director Lisa Dixon, True North Law's Thor Hearne, former Deputy Director of Election Operations at the New York State Board of Elections Joe Burns, and former member of the Georgia House of Representatives Scot Turner.
All four witnesses brought different perspectives and expertise to the discussion. But all agreed on a couple of key focuses future election legislation should address.
First, election security and voter confidence needs to start with ensuring that all eligible voters have an opportunity to vote, and don't have their votes diluted by ineligible voters. This means maintaining accurate voter registration lists is imperative. "Inaccurate voter registration lists," Ms. Dixon stated, "undermine voter confidence by providing opportunities for bad actors to take advantage of incorrect entries by voting on behalf of someone improperly registered."
LDF Executive Director Lisa Dixon is testifying now before the @HouseAdmin Subcommittee on Elections. Read her full testimony here. ➡️ https://t.co/G35mbq4e1x 1/9 pic.twitter.com/85ceKSXQet
— Lawyers Democracy (@lawyersdf) May 24, 2023
Second, in order to ensure that those eligible voters ballots are not altered or influenced, it is necessary to institute safeguards to protect absentee voters. As Mr. Hearne stated, "States, therefore, should reduce the risks of fraud and abuse in absentee voting by prohibiting 'third-party' organizations, candidates, and political party activists from handling absentee ballots."
Carter-Baker Commission has a solution to combat concerns with VBM: "States therefore should reduce the risks of fraud and abuse in absentee voting by prohibiting ‘third-party’ organizations, candidates, and political party activists from handling absentee ballots.”@ThorHearne 6/
— RNLA ⚖️ (@TheRepLawyer) May 24, 2023
Third, even when elections are run fairly and legitimately, they must be transparent so as to encourage voter confidence. "Faith in the results of elections is vitally key for the health of our republic" stated Mr. Turner.
The types of reforms suggested by all four witnesses have received wide bipartisan support. As Mr. Burns testified, "the results of the 2021 election in New York.. demonstrate[s] that voters across the political spectrum desire reasonable, commonsense measures to protect the safety and security of our elections."
House Republicans are fighting for fair and honest elections where every eligible vote can be easily cast, securely held, and accurately counted.
Wednesday's hearing can be viewed in its entirety here.