We should be concerned about voting security, just not in the way Republicans suggest

[Nevilledog]

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Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin
@JRubinBlogger
On signature matching, no one’s vote should be thrown out by a single election worker making a subjective judgment that the ballot does not match the signature on file.

Opinion | We should be concerned about voting security, just not in the way Republicans suggest
Security also means making sure every legal vote counts.
washingtonpost.com
6:26 AM · Mar 23, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/23/republicans-obsession-with-ballot-security-is-farce/

Georgia’s results were audited three times. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger put out a statement in November that explained, “After a hand recount and a subsequent machine recount requested by the Trump campaign, a signature audit has again affirmed the original outcome of the November 2020 presidential race in Georgia.” In addition, “A signature match audit in Cobb County found ‘no fraudulent absentee ballots’ and found that the Cobb County Elections Department had ‘a 99.99% accuracy rate in performing correct signature verification procedures.’ ” Raffensperger concluded, “The Secretary of State’s office has always been focused on calling balls and strikes in elections and, in this case, three strikes against the voter fraud claims and they’re out.” That hasn’t stopped Georgia Republicans from using nonexistent “fraud” as a basis to roll back voting rights.

Likewise, in Arizona, as CNN reported, “More than half of all counties in Arizona have conducted post-election audits and found either no discrepancies or microscopic issues that don’t affect the outcome of the race, according to reports filed with the Arizona secretary of state’s office.” The extent of the review was stunning. “Audits in Arizona’s four largest counties, which comprised 86% of all votes for president in the state, turned up no evidence of the systematic voter fraud about which President Donald Trump has complained,” CNN noted. “There were no irregularities found in Maricopa County, which is the most populous county in the battleground state and includes Phoenix, the reports show.” Naturally, Republicans there are not dissuaded from pursuing legislation to curtail voting.

There is, however, reason to be concerned about voting security, just not in the way Republicans suggest. As Marc Elias, the champion of more than 60 legal victories in cases seeking to challenge the 2020 outcome, explained in a post for Democracy Docket, there exists legitimate risk that not all legally cast votes are being counted. “There are safeguards that are necessary to prevent voter disenfranchisement — particularly among young voters and voters of color,” he wrote last year.

Elias recommends four measures that can safeguard these votes: free or prepaid postage for mail-in ballots; changing state laws so that votes postmarked by election day are counted, even if they are received afterward (why should voters be blamed for slow mail?); reforming signature matching rules; and allowing community collection of sealed, mail-in ballots.

*snip*

[no_hypocrisy]

1. If you are indicating voter ID across-the-board,

then drivers licenses, state-issued ID, etc.:

1. should be FREE to ALL, AND

2. Seniors should be able to get that ID at their MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS, locally, AND

3. There should be more proofs of identification than birth certificates, e.g., municipal tax documents, library cards, credit cards, etc.

[crickets]

2. K&R for visibility.