SIX IDEAS: Immediate election reform is necessary across the country

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One would have thought swift and accurate results would have been the top priority for everyone involved in elections across the country after the disaster that was 2020.

Yet it appears things are worse — WORSE — in 2022. And who could have imagined?

Did Election Day sneak up on these people? Were they not ready?

Many of the problems seem to be the result of mail-in and early ballots.

I know election law is handled at the state level. But this is ridiculous. It is absurd. It’s astonishing that some of these states are in the position they are two days after Election Day.

The country needs to review where we’re at. We’ve gone from Election Day to election month — or two. And it has to stop.

Here are some of our ideas to address these issues:

1. No mail-in voting unless you have a valid reason. The military would be valid. Living in a nursing home would be valid. But for just about everyone else, if you want to vote early, go do it in person.
2. No “drop boxes.” If you want to vote early, go in person.
3. No early voting until the candidates debate. In some races, there were no debates. That shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Not every race features a debate, so we’d have to figure out which races we wanted this to be required of — it seems like President, Governor, U.S. House and Senate would be reasonable.
4. Make Election Day a national holiday.
5. All early votes must be submitted by the Saturday BEFORE Election Day. These ballots then should be counted on Monday — the day before Election Day. There is no reason to be counting mail-in or absentee ballots after Election Day.
6. When results are reported, no results should be reported until ALL results are reported for a state. Partial results allow counties to know how much ground needs to be made up before counting is done. That shouldn’t be possible.

I am sure there are other ideas that would be great. If you have ideas we didn’t mention, send them to us and we’ll publish them! Shoot them over to [email protected].

This much is clear, something must change with our elections. Trust in our elections was low after 2020. And the 2022 elections have given us no reason to increase our trust in them.

Author: Jacob Hall