… I have a few thoughts.
Starting from here, which is a quote from a New York Times interview with a candidate for the US Senate from Maine, Graham Platner:
“We need a political revolution in this country. Bernie said it in 2016. It was right then, it remains right today. Whether it’s money, whether it is the way our democratic systems have been subsumed by corporate power, we need to change the structures of how this thing works.”
TEN STEPS TO ELECTION INTEGRITY
Step 1: pass a federal law stating that a Real ID will be required as proof of citizenship to register to vote and/or at the polls, effective in 10 years.
A Real ID is now required (for people not in possession of a passport) for air travel within the US. The law passed in 2005 and went into effect in 2025. Yes, twenty years for everyone to get this document. In 2025, Republicans re-introduced the so-called SAVE Act (a voter suppression measure) requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote (already required) or to cast a ballot (not previously required). They wanted this law to go into effect immediately - i.e., in time to benefit GOPMAGA in the 2026 midterms. It passed the House but ultimately failed in the Senate, maybe because enough people read it and realized what it actually said. GOPMAGA has already pledged to submit this legislation again.
The SAVE Act only accepts a Real ID as proof of citizenship if it’s an ‘enhanced’ ID including an indication of citizenship. Only 5 states issue those. The documents needed to get a Real ID include a social security card; a state-issued photo ID or military photo ID; proof of residency in the state where applying; and a birth certificate or naturalization certificate.
I submit that given the array of identification documents needed to obtain a Real ID is the same as that needed to satisfy the SAVE Act, requiring every state to verify its own Real IDs and reissue them with the indication of citizenship, i.e. the ‘enhancement,’ should satisfy both the letter and spirit of any ‘election integrity’ bill that is not drafted purely to suppress votes.
A subsidiary clause should state in plain language that if a person has changed their name or gender marker, the associated document (marriage certificate or court order) presented along with the others will be sufficient for a Real ID and thus for voter registration - and also for a US passport.
Along with that, go ahead and state that a US passport can be presented as alternative proof of citizenship for voter registration or at the polls.
Then, because until 2025 nobody was paying much attention to the depth of GOPMAGA’s voter suppression desires, and thus a lot of people said “but I don’t travel by air, I don’t need a Real ID,” make it crystal clear that an enhanced Real ID will be required to vote as of 10 years from passage. If they were willing to wait two decades for air travel purposes (remember, the Real ID law passed just a few years after 9/11, when air travel was the country’s greatest security risk), they should be willing to wait one decade for election integrity purposes.
Why? Because it could take literally years for some people to get their documents together. If someone doesn’t have their original birth or marriage certificate, they’ll need a certified copy. They may no longer live in the state, much less the city, where their certificate was issued, so they may have to travel. Then there are all the folks who grew up in the foster care system, or were adopted, and may have no idea where their birth certificate was issued - or under what name.
GOPMAGA mustn’t be allowed to make the barriers to voting so high that only people with time and money to spare can vote.
Step 2: pass a federal law requiring mail-in ballots to be accepted in every state, in every election. Vote by mail is hugely popular, has been proven secure, and is the *only* way for some voters to return their ballots (deployed members of the military, disabled voters, voters whose polling places have been closed or relocated beyond their reach, etc).
Most of the US has no public transportation worthy of the name. Therefore, people generally have to get to a polling place (or a post office, for that matter), by car.
GOPMAGA mustn’t be allowed to make it impossible for people to vote who cannot drive or who have limited access to transportation.
Step 3: pass a federal law requiring all primary ballots to be nonpartisan, i.e. including all candidates for all offices.
This spring I voted in a primary in my new state of North Carolina, which issues only partisan ballots. Yes, mine was the ‘Democrat’ ballot. This meant I couldn’t vote on the offices for which only Republicans had declared. People who requested a Republican ballot, likewise, wouldn’t have been able to vote for an office if only Democrats had declared. A lot of people out there would prefer to pick and choose between candidates based on who those candidates are. They might like to be able to see, for example, that a Green or Independent candidate had declared for an office and was up against two Democrats and two Republicans, and to then be free to choose from among all those candidates. Partisan ballots undermine electoral freedom and prop up the antagonistic two-party system.
Step 4: pass a federal law outlawing corporate contributions to political campaigns. Contrary to a certain SCOTUS ruling, corporations are not citizens and should have no influence on elections. Hawaii just passed this very law.
Corporations have owned big chunks of every level of government since at least the 1890s. That is due to two of the deadly sins (sloth (on the part of voters and politicians) & greed (on the part of corporations)), not to a morally correct theory of civics. The US founding fathers were imperfect humans, but the intention they put down in writing was “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
Corporations are not people.
Step 5: pass a federal law requiring every state to create an election information web page, if they don’t already have one. For each election, the following must be provided:
The title of the contested office and its location (i.e. where the elected official would work); a capsule description of the duties of that office; the requirements to declare for and qualify as a candidate for that office; a statement from each declared & qualified candidate.
If a candidate can’t be bothered to submit a statement, the state must insert a note to that effect. If a candidate has an actual website, a link can be provided - but only if they submit a statement.
All of this puts the burden of informing voters exactly where it belongs: on the state and on the candidates, NOT on the voters, and NOT via corporate-owned and influenced social media and news outlets.
A subsidiary clause should require every state to post elections information in all state, county, and city government buildings and in all educational institutions receiving state funding. And by “post” I mean “print up a poster and put it in an obvious and accessible location.”
A further subsidiary clause should declare material from the state’s election information page to be available at no charge for reprinting by any legitimate newspaper in the state.
The election information page and publications can be funded by donations, and the state MAY accept corporate donations for this purpose. Funds received in excess of the cost of maintaining the page and publications must go to the state’s education budget.
Step 6: pass a federal law defining the legal uses of a declared candidate’s website. Candidates can use their websites for fundraising, newsletters, etc just as they do now. They MAY NOT sell advertising or accept corporate sponsorships. They MAY respond on their websites to statements made by their opponents, but they must post a full copy of, or better yet a link to, their opponent’s statement.
If a candidate receives endorsements from groups such as firefighters, police officers, teachers, etc., links to those endorsements may be provided by the candidate on their website.
Step 7: pass a Constitutional amendment requiring all elections for federal offices to be undistricted. Gerrymandering has existed for more than 200 years, it has always been intended to minimize or exclude minority votes, and there is only one way to get rid of it: make districting for federal offices illegal.
We don’t need the states’ federal representatives to stand for limited geographical areas, especially when the defined area is completely illogical, and more especially when the defined areas are drawn explicitly to mute minority voices.
In 1812, when the term “gerrymandering” seems to have been invented, the only ways for potential voters to learn about their candidates were: 1) the newspapers; 2) personal appearances.
That is no longer the case. Anybody with a smartphone can now access unlimited information about anything at any time.
Given a comprehensive state elections website as described above, a voter would be able to easily distinguish between the candidates for all open offices.
Step 8: pass a federal law outlawing campaign advertising on network television. Such advertising would still be legal in newspapers and other periodicals, online, and through the mail. The national committees of all registered political parties would be free to post statements, organize debates, and distribute campaign information by mail. However, the funding for all such campaigning must come from individuals.
Step 9: pass a Constitutional amendment outlawing the presentation of legislation drafted by parties outside the government. If a congressperson wants to present new legislation, they must write it themselves, in partnership with their predecessor in office, or with their elected colleagues. If they present or sponsor a measure handed to them by any outside body, whether “think tank,” church, university, or corporation, they should be immediately expelled.
A subsidiary clause should require that any legislation presented and rejected in a given session of Congress cannot be presented again for five years.
You may ask what this has to do with election integrity. The answer is, it would promote greater objectivity in federal officeholders and keep their focus where it belongs: on representing their citizen constituents. It would also expose those officeholders who are unable or unwilling to do the work of their office - which is information voters need to have.
Step 10: pass a federal law outlawing election fundraising by PACs (political action committees).
Citizens must remain free to organize around the issues of greatest concern to them, and a ‘political action committee’ within an organization devoted to, e.g., medical privacy or renewable energy or the separation of church and state has great value.
In my view, such committees and organizations could work more effectively by communicating about proposed legislation and fighting bad legislation in the courts than by perpetuating a 24/7/265 election cycle that results in many voters checking out entirely.
Besides, PACs are generally corporations, and we want them ALL to fuck off out of elections, right?