The Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) is the umbrella organization for Republican state legislators and secretaries of state. The group launched an initiative Wednesday (Feb. 17) to improve the fairness of elections.
In a Feb. 17 statement, the RSLC wrote that the purpose of the initiative is “to restore the American people’s faith in the fairness of free elections by bringing together leaders, policymakers, to share and discuss current voter-centered election laws and future reforms that will make voting easier and less fraudulent. “
In response, co-chairman John Merrill, Alabama’s secretary of state, said reform is necessary if Americans are to have confidence in their elections.
Merrill said, “While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, every state in America should be working to evaluate and improve their respective election laws.”
Adding to this, committee co-chair Senator Ruth Johnson, Republican of Michigan, said, “The COVID-19 (Chinese Communist virus) outbreak presents unprecedented challenges and exposes that our election process is far from perfect.”
She said, “The good news is that states really are laboratories of democracy, and we can all learn from what other states are doing well, while we work to provide assistance to state leaders across the country who are leading the effort to reform our elections.”
Key reform principles guiding the commission’s work include ensuring the accuracy of voter rolls, ensuring absentee and mail-in ballots.
The Republican State Leadership Committee said, “Every eligible U.S. citizen who is a legal resident of their state and is duly registered should be able to vote and should be encouraged to do so without the burden, in absentee and mail-in situations.” “However, states should enhance these (voting) methods through measures such as proper signature verification (matching signatures with voter registration records, not ballot applications), photo ID submission, and timely ballot response requirements.”
Some of the controversy surrounding the 2020 election has arisen, including claims that state officials and judges have changed some election policies to weaken the security of voting by mail, in violation of state election law, which is the purview of the state legislature.
Other principles the commission will use in its work to support election integrity include increasing transparency in in-person voting and streamlining the canvassing process.
“In-person voting should be an orderly and transparent process that citizens can appeal when they believe the law is not being followed,” the commission said. “Giving Americans better access to scrutinize their election tools will increase trust in the electoral system and lead to greater voter participation.”
After last year’s Nov. 3 election vote, former President Donald Trump (R-Texas) and his allies filed a series of election fraud lawsuits that included some allegations that Republican poll watchers, were denied the opportunity to observe, and monitor, the counting and tabulation of votes at various stages, in a meaningful way.
However, some Republican initiatives aimed at enhancing the integrity of the election have been accused of attempted covert voter suppression. A recent editorial in The Washington Post argued that “the experience of the 2020 election shows that the mass use of mail-in ballots, the installation of ballot boxes or the introduction of automatic voter registration do not pose a significant risk to election integrity.”
On Feb. 16, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial on the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) initiative that countered the Washington Post’s argument.
Its editorial board wrote: “As the Epidemic breaks out and states begin to rethink their election rules, Democrats have begun to speak out about the spread of voter suppression.” “They are emphasizing access to the ballot rather than the integrity of the ballot. Both are important, as Jimmy Carter-James Baker of the Federal Election Reform Commission explained in 2005.
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