MILWAUKEE– The undersigned State Secretaries are their states’ Chief Election Officers:
- Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen
- Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen
- Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales
- West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner
- Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson
- Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray
These six Secretaries of State are attending the Republican National Convention (RNC) this week in Milwaukee, WI. The Convention provides an opportunity to communicate with officials from throughout the nation regarding the Secretaries’ election integrity concerns regarding any attempts to federalize state election processes.
The Secretaries emphasize the following areas of concern to restore voter confidence in the election process:
- According to the United States Constitution, each state’s legislature is responsible for determining the time, manner, and place of state elections. Voter registration, ballot casting, and ballot counting must be in accordance with the laws prescribed by the respective state legislatures.
- President Biden’s Executive Order No. 14019 relating to voter registration is a classic example of federal overreach and is clearly unconstitutional. It should be rescinded immediately.
- No votes that are derived from outside the laws as passed by an official act of each state’s legislature should ever be accepted or counted.
- Only citizens of the United States should be able to register and vote in state and federal elections.
- Photo voter ID is fundamental to secure elections.
- Drop boxes for election ballots should not be used.
- Voting by mail, absentee voting, ballot harvesting, early voting, curing of ballots, and other means of voting must be expressly authorized by an official act of the state legislature.
- While officials focus on voter list maintenance, registrations are constantly changing. Therefore, ballots should not be blanket mailed to entire registration lists, and pre-populating information on and the mass mailing of absentee ballot requests should not be done.
- The safest and most secure way to cast a ballot is on Election Day at a polling location managed by trained poll workers from both major parties, where every voter is guaranteed an opportunity to cast a ballot free of any undue influence from another person.
- All votes should have a verifiable, auditable paper trail. In the event of any discrepancy, the paper ballots should take precedence.
- Get election information from your Secretary of State or Board of Elections, local election officials, and their websites.
These six officials believe these are fundamental steps to restoring confidence in elections.
