FROM OUR PRINTED OCT. 3 EDITION

Massachusetts Fails Miserably in Survey on Election Integrity

A significant portion of our population has low confidence in our electoral system. That sentiment is validated by the Meyers Report released on August 27th, which gives good reason for this lack of faith, especially in Massachusetts.

The Meyers Report compared and contrasted election rules based on published election laws, policies, processes, and procedures in all 50 states and 36 countries world-wide, and produced astounding results. See chart that follows. The full report can be found at https://meyersreport.news/electionrules.

The report selected 17 election-risk areas for study. The inputs came from election experts in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The following election-risk areas were chosen for survey.

1. Citizen-only Voting
2. Same Day Registration Voting
3. Ranked Choice Voting
4. In-person Early Voting Days
5. Mail-in Ballots Allowed
6. Qualifying for Absentee Ballots
7. Possible Mail-in Ballot Voting Days
8. Accepting Late Ballots
9. Ballot Harvesting
10. Voter ID for Voting and Registration
11. Small Precincts
12. Paper Ballots
13. Fingers Marked
14. Manual or Machine Vote Counting
15. Routine Audits
16. Quick Results (in 2024)
17. Citizen Access to Voter Rolls/Lists

As seen in the nearby chart, scores of 75% or above, colored green, are considered good scores while scores of 65-74%, in yellow, are considered marginal. Scores of 64% or below, in red, are considered failures.

Compared to the colored green countries including Kenya, India, UK, even North Korea, the United States scored an embarrassing low of 60%. Even worse for Massachusetts, the state scored a shameful 51%.

The Massachusetts Republican Party (MassGOP) Election Review and Integrity Committees have been working on election integrity since inception after the November 2020 presidential election.

On April 16th at their quarterly meeting, the MassGOP unanimously passed a resolution listing elements of fair elections: voter identification, U.S. citizen votes only, clean voter rolls, observation access for all electoral processes, equal political party representation, limited mail ballots (e.g., overseas military; physically handicapped), all ballots must be received by Election Day, no automatic registrations, no same-day registrations, no voting for children under age 18, replace insecure voting technology, use only secure paper balloting, and conduct independent post-election audits.

The resolution clearly states what the MassGOP wants to see in Massachusetts. There is certain work that needs to be done here to improve the electoral system.

Without voter identification and a clear chain of custody, no-excuse mail-in balloting and early voting have opened pathways for voter fraud. The U.S. scored very poorly on these two election-risk areas compared to other nations.

Importantly, 94% of the other nations do not use mail-in ballots while only 27% of U.S. states don’t use it.

In addition, 89% of the other nations do not allow mass early voting while the U.S. almost always does at the low score of 8%.

While not every election worker is dishonest nor every election rigged, without a transparent electoral system, we will never be able to tell for sure. We need election law reform and checks and balances that ensure secure elections. Most importantly, we need election workers and legal voters who act with honesty and integrity.   ♦