The Carter-Baker Commission: 16 Years Later: Voting by Mail (April 28, 2021)
April 27, 2021
Virtual Event
Record numbers of voters cast absentee ballots in 2020. While mail-in voting significantly expands voter access, some are concerned about the security of the absentee process. A look at the pros and cons of voting by mail, safeguards already in place, and additional ways to enhance the security of mail-in voting. Voting by Mail is the second in a series of five virtual panel discussions using the recommendations of the bipartisan 2005 Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform as a framework to talk about current electoral issues.
Panelists
Shelby County v. Holder in 2013 or really
Bush v. Gore in 2000. This time, a massive new Georgia law, the Election Integrity Act of 2021, also known as Senate Bill 202 (or SB 202), has triggered national apoplexy, with Democrats, including President Joe Biden, declaring it the new Jim Crow. Such comparisons are insulting to those who fought for civil rights in the 1960s, incendiary to a public discourse already hampered by low institutional confidence, and at base disingenuous.
Sorting out fact from fiction is not only important for this particular law, the fallout from which has already reached Major League Baseball and some Hollywood productions, but to understand the general debate over election regulation in America.
How States Can Improve the Integrity of Elections | The Heritage Foundation heritage.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heritage.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Election integrity shouldn’t be a partisan issue
A school crossing guard stops cars for voters entering a polling station, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Arizonans can all agree: it should be easy to vote but hard to cheat.
The Arizona Legislature has heard dozens of bills this session that are intended to renew trust in our elections by ensuring that every legal vote counts. This week, it is important for them to consider SB1713 and SB1485 to secure our early voting system. Arizonans support these measures, and our legislators should continue working with Gov. Ducey to secure our elections.
The rhetoric that earned the president Four Pinocchios
The stability of any democracy depends on the widespread perception of voters that if their candidates or views do not prevail in this election, they may well prevail in the next election. And that perception, in turn, requires that voters view the playing field as an even one.
The very first piece of legislation passed by the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives H.R. 1, titled the “For the People Act” seeks to do just the opposite by nationalizing federal election law to an unprecedented degree, and making permanent a set of election procedures originally introduced in 2020 in response to COVID-19 and the fears of many voters of casting ballots in person. Those procedures would over time render in-person Election Day voting a relic of the past and dramatically increase the opportunities for fraud, thereby reducing citizens’ confidence in the integrity of the election system.