POLICY TO SECURE FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL ELECTIONS

To: The President of the United States, The United States Congress, and the Legislatures of the Several States

From: We the People

We, the undersigned, call on our elected representatives to restore an Election Day-centered voting system in which voting is conducted primarily in person on Election Day, with clearly defined absentee exceptions for citizens who cannot reasonably appear at the polls.

For generations, the traditional American voting experience centered upon citizens appearing at their local polling place on Election Day and casting their ballots in person. Absentee voting provided an alternative for citizens who could not reasonably appear at the polls, including members of our military serving away from home and others with legitimate circumstances preventing in-person voting.

We propose returning to that basic structure while using modern identification, verification, auditing, and security procedures to protect election integrity and public confidence.

The objective is simple: provide every eligible citizen a fair opportunity to vote while ensuring that every lawful vote is secure, accurately counted, and capable of verification.

EVERY ELIGIBLE CITIZEN SHOULD HAVE A FAIR OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE.

EVERY LAWFUL VOTE SHOULD BE COUNTED.

EVERY VOTER SHOULD BE PROPERLY VERIFIED.

EVERY BALLOT SHOULD BE SECURE.

ELECTION DAY SHOULD ONCE AGAIN MEAN ELECTION DAY.

ONE ELECTION DAY — ELECTION DAY SHOULD MEAN ELECTION DAY

The United States should return to an Election Day-centered voting system in which the overwhelming majority of voters cast their ballots in person on Election Day.

We call for:

• Federal general elections to be conducted primarily through in-person voting on Election Day.

• Election Day to be designated a national holiday.

• Polling places to provide sufficient voting hours, locations, equipment, and election workers to reasonably accommodate Election Day turnout.

• Employers to provide employees reasonable time away from work to vote when their work schedules would otherwise prevent them from reaching the polls.

• Voting before Election Day to be limited to clearly defined absentee exceptions for citizens who cannot reasonably vote in person on Election Day.

• Emergency procedures for extraordinary circumstances, such as natural disasters, that make normal Election Day voting impossible.

ELECTION DAY SHOULD MEAN ELECTION DAY.

MAKE IT EASY FOR ELIGIBLE CITIZENS TO VOTE.

MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR ANYONE TO CORRUPT THE PROCESS.

ABSENTEE VOTING — RESERVED FOR LEGITIMATE NECESSITY

Absentee voting should remain available for eligible citizens who cannot reasonably appear at their polling place on Election Day,

BUT IT SHOULD BE AN EXCEPTION TO NORMAL IN-PERSON VOTING RATHER THAN A SUBSTITUTE FOR ELECTION DAY.

Legitimate absentee circumstances should include:

• Members of the United States military and eligible citizens serving or residing overseas.

• Voters who must be outside their voting jurisdiction on Election Day.

• Voters prevented from appearing at the polls because of illness, physical disability, hospitalization, medical treatment, or confinement.

• Residents of nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, or other care facilities who cannot reasonably travel to a polling place.

• Citizens facing an unforeseen emergency that prevents them from reasonably appearing at the polls.

• Other narrowly defined circumstances established by law in which a voter demonstrates a legitimate inability to vote in person.

Absentee ballots should require voter identity and eligibility verification, secure tracking, documented chain of custody, and procedures ensuring that only one ballot from each eligible voter is accepted and counted.

PROTECT ACCESS TO ABSENTEE VOTING FOR THOSE WHO LEGITIMATELY NEED IT.

KEEP ABSENTEE VOTING THE EXCEPTION — NOT THE SUBSTITUTE FOR ELECTION DAY.

VERIFY EVERY VOTER — ID, CITIZENSHIP AND ACCURATE VOTER ROLLS

Secure elections begin by establishing who is legally eligible to vote and maintaining accurate voter-registration records.

We call for:

• United States citizenship to be required for participation in federal, state, and local governmental elections.

• Citizenship, identity, age, residence, and other applicable eligibility requirements to be verified when a person registers to vote.

• Every voter casting a ballot in person to present a current, valid government-issued photo identification.

• States to provide an acceptable voter identification card at no charge to an eligible citizen who does not possess another acceptable form of identification.

• A voter who arrives without the required identification to be allowed a provisional ballot and a reasonable opportunity to establish identity and eligibility before the ballot is counted.

• States to regularly maintain voter-registration records and identify deceased, duplicate, relocated, outdated, or otherwise ineligible registrations through reliable and verified procedures.

• When a voter legally registers in a new jurisdiction, procedures to update or cancel the voter's previous registration.

• Eligible voters to receive a reasonable opportunity to correct inaccurate records or establish eligibility before being improperly removed from the voter rolls.

• Voter-registration databases to be protected against unauthorized access, alteration, or manipulation.

• Knowingly providing materially false voter-registration or eligibility information, or knowingly attempting to vote unlawfully, to be investigated and referred for enforcement when supported by evidence.

VERIFY CITIZENSHIP.

VERIFY IDENTITY.

KEEP THE VOTER ROLLS ACCURATE.

PROTECT ELIGIBLE VOTERS FROM WRONGFUL REMOVAL.

ONE ELIGIBLE CITIZEN. ONE ACTIVE REGISTRATION. ONE LAWFUL VOTE.

VOTER VERIFICATION — LET EVERY VOTER VERIFY THEIR PARTICIPATION

Every voter should have a secure way to verify that the election system accurately recorded their participation without compromising the secrecy of their ballot.

We call for:

• Voters to be able to securely verify before Election Day that their registration is active and their voting information is correct.

• After voting, voters to be able to verify that election records show their ballot was received and accepted.

• Voters to have a clear process for reporting and resolving discrepancies concerning their voting record.

• Verification systems to use strong identity-verification, cybersecurity, encryption, access-control, and audit protections.

• No system to reveal or associate a voter's identity with the candidates or issues selected on that voter's secret ballot.

VERIFY THE VOTER.

VERIFY THAT THE BALLOT WAS ACCEPTED.

PROTECT THE SECRET BALLOT.

SECURE THE BALLOTS — VERIFY THE COUNT

Every lawful ballot should be protected from the time it is issued until the election is certified, and election results should be independently verifiable.

We call for:

• Every voting system to produce or preserve a voter-verifiable paper record.

• Voting and tabulation equipment to operate without connection to the public internet during voting, counting, or tabulation.

• Voting equipment and software to undergo security, accuracy, and reliability testing before use and documented testing before each election.

• Ballots, voting equipment, memory devices, and critical election materials to remain under documented chain-of-custody and access-control procedures.

• Transfers of ballots and critical election materials to be documented and appropriately witnessed.

• At the close of voting, election officials to reconcile the number of voters recorded as having voted with ballots issued, returned, spoiled, provisional, and accepted.

• Unexplained discrepancies to be documented and investigated before final certification.

• Federal elections to include post-election audits using voter-verifiable paper records to independently test reported results.

• States to provide expanded audits or recounts when discrepancies warrant additional examination.

• Ballots and election records to be securely preserved for legitimate audits, recounts, investigations, and election contests.

• Credible evidence of unauthorized access to voting or tabulation equipment to trigger investigation and appropriate verification before certification.

COUNT EVERY LAWFUL BALLOT.

ACCOUNT FOR EVERY BALLOT.

PROTECT THE CHAIN OF CUSTODY.

PRESERVE THE PAPER RECORD.

AUDIT THE RESULTS.

DO NOT CERTIFY AN ELECTION UNTIL THE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN RECONCILED AND THE REQUIRED VERIFICATION HAS BEEN COMPLETED.

ELECTION TRANSPARENCY — LET THE PEOPLE SEE THE PROCESS

Public confidence requires meaningful transparency while protecting voter privacy and allowing election workers to perform their duties without interference.

We call for:

• Authorized observers representing political parties, candidates, nonpartisan organizations, and others permitted by law to have meaningful access to the election process.

• Observers to be positioned close enough to reasonably observe the procedures they are legally entitled to monitor.

• Appropriate observation of equipment testing, polling-place operations, ballot handling, counting, canvassing, recounts, and audits.

• Representatives from opposing political parties, when available, to be permitted to observe critical ballot-handling and counting procedures under the same rules.

• Clear procedures for observers to report suspected violations, irregularities, or discrepancies and for election officials to document how legitimate complaints are resolved.

• Election procedures, reconciliation reports, audit results, canvass records, and certified results to be reasonably available for public review while protecting ballot secrecy and legitimate security information.

• Election-night results to be clearly identified as unofficial until lawful ballots have been processed, reconciled, audited as required, and the election certified.

• No observer to interfere with voting, intimidate voters, compromise ballot secrecy, or obstruct election workers.

OBSERVERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO OBSERVE.

ELECTION WORKERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO THEIR JOBS.

THE SECRET BALLOT SHOULD REMAIN SECRET.

THE ELECTION PROCESS SHOULD BE OPEN TO MEANINGFUL PUBLIC SCRUTINY.

WE CALL ON OUR GOVERNMENT TO ACT

We therefore call on the appropriate federal, state, and local authorities to take the lawful actions necessary to:

RESTORE AN ELECTION DAY-CENTERED VOTING SYSTEM.

MAKE ELECTION DAY A NATIONAL HOLIDAY.

RESERVE ABSENTEE VOTING FOR LEGITIMATE NECESSITY.

REQUIRE VOTER IDENTIFICATION AND VERIFY VOTER ELIGIBILITY.

MAINTAIN ACCURATE VOTER ROLLS.

PROTECT THE SECRET BALLOT.

SECURE THE BALLOTS AND VOTING EQUIPMENT.

REQUIRE VOTER-VERIFIABLE PAPER RECORDS.

PROVIDE MEANINGFUL ELECTION TRANSPARENCY.

RECONCILE AND AUDIT RESULTS BEFORE FINAL CERTIFICATION.

MAKE OUR ELECTIONS SIMPLE, SECURE, TRANSPARENT, AND VERIFIABLE.

SUPPORT POLICY NOT POLITICIANS.

PROTECT THE VOTE.

PROTECT THE VOICE OF WE THE PEOPLE.

Signed,

WE THE PEOPLE