Election Integrity - NJ/PA
Election integrity is the answer most given to the question, “What needs to be fixed?”
Integrity means, a “firm adherence to a [moral] code” (1). However, many Americans do not believe that our democratic elections are fair. Instead, many Americans watched as elections transformed in the year 2020 and continued to change the way we elect our representatives. Election day turned into election week. New Jersey and Pennsylvania Governors both used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to abuse executive orders under the disguise of a State of Emergency. The most recent State Constitutions were adopted after the second World War and inside of them, Governors retained supreme executive powers while in a State of Emergency. This incentivized tyranny in 2020 by Governors extending their emergency declarations one after the other.
In 2021, “Pennsylvania voters became the first in the nation to restrict their Governor’s emergency powers when they approved two constitutional amendments.” (2) One constitutional amendment was to “empower the legislature to extend or terminate an emergency declaration by resolution,” and the other constitutional amendment “addresses the Governor’s emergency powers, including requiring legislative approval beyond 21 days.” (3)
“New Jersey introduced legislation that would curtail the Governor’s emergency powers” but, there are not enough Republicans elected to pass it, and there are no disloyal Democrats willing to vote against Governor Murphy. “The legislation would limit to 60 days the length of time any Governor could declare a State of Emergency or public health emergency unless a simple majority of the Legislature approves an extension. Also, the legislation would allow the Legislature to terminate any emergency declaration with a two-thirds majority.” (2)
The difference between the two States is that Pennsylvania has a Republican majority to construct and put forward their constitutional amendments, whereas New Jersey does not have enough Republicans to even pass one bill. The ancient Greek saying goes, “The strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must.” (4).
New Jersey Republicans had no intentions to propose any election integrity constitutional amendments, nor were they planning on auditing any election results. In fact, New Jersey Republicans ignored their Constituents when they were served with affidavits to investigate and audit the 2020 Presidential election (5).
In 2022, Mercer County, New Jersey had “voting machines reject ballots” (6) and Luzerne County, Pennsylvania had “a paper shortage at polling places” (7).
Election integrity needs to be revered if we are going to fix anything.
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1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity
2. https://news.yahoo.com/nj-governors-emergency-powers-legislative-135718030.html
3. https://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania_2021_ballot_measures
4. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Melian_dialogue
5. https://rumble.com/v13aoxq-republicans-refused-to-auditthevotenj.html
paper ballots. election day, not week,, month or whatever. Absentee ballots by request. No ballot harvesting. Long prison terms for violations. Ballots counted in public with observers from both parties at the table. Results published within two hours after polls close. Enough balloting places to handle all voters in a timely fashion. Copy the French system. No one can make a campaign contribution to a candidate for whom they are not qualified to vote.