Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley wants to make sure that the confusion surrounding this year’s election doesn’t happen again. Earlier this week, he introduced the Protect Election Integrity Act of 2020.
“The debacle of the 2020 election has made clear that serious reforms are needed to protect the integrity of our elections,” Hawley said. “The American people deserve transparency — that means banning ballot harvesting, empowering poll watchers and taking steps to ensure that all legally cast ballots are accounted for.”
If last 24 hrs have made anything clear, it’s that we need new election integrity laws NOW. Ban ballot harvesting, guarantee poll watcher access, make ballot counting transparent. I will introduce
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 5, 2020
Hawley’s bill comes after evidence through sworn affidavits of poll workers, that ballots were illegally cast for dead people and by out-of-state voters, and Election Day software “glitches” that caused Trump votes to be counted as Biden votes in one Michigan country and a Republican county commissioner being told he actually won his race after being told he’d lost to his Democratic challenger. Independent analysis has found that almost 1 million Trump votes were erased while over 250,000 were switched from Trump to Biden in Pennsylvania alone. A Dominion employee may have already signed an affidavit acknowledging ballot interference.
The legislation lays out election integrity measures that states must abide by if they want to receive funding under the Help America Vote Act, which was designed to address the voting issues following the 2000 election that was contested by then-Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore.Bottom of Form
According to Hawley’s bill, “A State is not eligible to receive funds under this Act unless the State meets the following requirements with respect to each election held on or after January 1, 2021.”
States seeking funding under the Help America Vote Act would be required to allow “the observation of polling places or counting of ballots, at any site where voting or ballot counting is occurring, by at least two appointed campaign representatives per campaign.” Hawley previously had expressed concern about the secrecy surrounding the counting of absentee ballots in Detroit, where windows were covered up to prevent observers from watching the counting process.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
