Secure elections are the bedrock of our constitutional republic

The bedrock upon which America’s constitutional republic is built is our free and fair elections. It’s part of what has allowed America to become the greatest nation in the world. But the security of our elections is under attack by forces that seek to undermine our republic and cheapen the vote of every American citizen.

Americans are increasingly concerned about the security of our elections. Reasonable doubts about the integrity of our election system serve to diminish trust in elected officials and further divide our nation.

This issue is especially relevant to the Houston, Texas, area, which includes the most populous county in Texas and third-most populous county in the country. Why? It’s well documented that where there are more people, there is a greater propensity for voter fraud, placing Texas on the front lines of the election integrity issue.

The recent release of Harris County’s 2022 election review underscores voter concerns about election integrity. While there is no quick fix for such a complex issue, I believe there are several steps that can reasonably be taken to increase the security of and public confidence in our elections.

In America, every dollar bill created and distributed by the government has a unique serial number to identify it and certify its authenticity. Similarly, every ballot should be printed with a unique serial number to identify it and certify its authenticity. This would ensure that we know exactly what ballots are being used in every election and that every ballot is genuine. Election judges would be expected to follow the law as they review contested ballot serial numbers. The United Kingdom has such a system.

In addition to verifying ballot authenticity, we also need to verify voter authenticity. I’ve spent years cleaning up voter rolls in Texas and have witnessed firsthand the sad reality of years-deceased citizens remaining on voter rolls. This problem exists because county governments don’t communicate effectively with each other. When citizens die outside their home counties, their deaths are often not shared with their home county election authorities, causing their names to remain on the voter rolls.

While this shouldn’t matter because a dead person can’t vote, we live in a time when far too many ballots are being mailed out indiscriminately and with little or no way of verifying who is receiving that ballot and ultimately casting that vote. There should never be an opportunity for a deceased person to have a vote cast in his name.

Another easy safeguard would be to use jury summons responses to clean up voter rolls. Many people dodge jury summonses by reporting that they are noncitizens and thus ineligible to serve on a jury. Obviously, those people would also be ineligible to vote in our elections — so their names should be purged from voter rolls per their own assurances to the county that they are not citizens. If they really are citizens, they can reverify their eligibility to vote — but then must face the consequences of lying about their citizenship to dodge jury duty.

If a person has previously responded to a jury summons stating he is a noncitizen but has also voted in an election, we should be tracking who is registering such self-proclaimed noncitizen voters so we can put a stop to it. Noncitizens voting in our elections cheapens the vote of every legal citizen in Texas, in the country, and on both sides of the aisle.

On top of these pre-emptive safeguards, we should allow attorneys general to investigate and prosecute voter fraud. In Texas, the bought-and-paid-for Republicans in the state House want to farm out voter fraud investigations to unconcerned Soros-backed district attorneys rather than grant Attorney General Ken Paxton concurrent jurisdiction to investigate these cases.

While I’m saddened that our own representatives would prevent our elected attorney general from working to secure state elections, I’m not surprised. These shills for Austin special interests and corporate corruption don’t want the country’s most tenacious and effective Republican attorney general to investigate because he might actually find something.

Rather than ignoring allegations and sitting on our hands, Texas should allow voter fraud cases to be fully investigated to assure the public of the integrity of our electoral process and hold accountable any and all who seek to undermine it.

Election integrity is a multifaceted problem with no quick or easy fix, which is probably why politicians focused on playing politics have failed to address the issue in any meaningful way. We need to start taking common-sense steps to increase election integrity and therefore prevent citizens’ votes from being cheapened.

We must restore public trust in both the process and the duly elected public servants. We must ensure that every citizen can vote and that his vote counts. After all, it is the bedrock upon which Texas and nation are founded.