The 168 members of the Republican National Committee met in Milwaukee last week, and one item the group adopted was a strongly-worded “RESOLUTION URGING A RETURN TO EXCELLENCE IN AMERICAN VOTING AND ELECTIONS,” which called for increased election security and fully auditable voting methods.
The news was tweeted out by the resolution’s sponsor, Tyler Bowyer, who serves as the RNC National Committeeman from Arizona and COO of Turning Point Action (a political action committee [PAC] of Turning Point USA).
Thank you, Tyler, for leading this resolution effort, one of several outstanding ones this meeting. https://t.co/bSaIZj9kEY
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) August 26, 2023
Here’s the full text of his tweet:
I am excited to share the official resolution “A Return to Excellence” was adopted without a single objection at this week’s RNC meeting. Very thankful to the warriors who are fighting on the front lines. This resolution makes it abundantly clear that any Republican aiding democrat election manipulation is not going to be tolerated— and the clear outline of what we do support: — Having an auditable paper trail — Supporting hand count procedures to audit votes — Applauding those who perform hand counts — Supporting precinct polling — Opposing vote centers and demanding geographically defined voting and management — Stopping drop boxes that are only placed in heavily Democrat areas — Preventing further expansion of early voting that makes Election Day tabulation more complicated and delayed — Stopping additional confusion with schemes like ranked choice voting — Requiring IDs and citizenship for voting
The resolution also appears on the RNC’s website.
The document contains eleven “whereas” statements outlining their concerns with current voting methods in the United States. Their issues include:
- WHEREAS, To present a formal Resolution from the Republican National Committee for declared opposition to voting manipulation schemes and to return to the functional and historic balloting and polling experience that Americans understand, appreciate, and love;
- WHEREAS, Ensuring the integrity of our voting and election administration is critical and foundational to maintaining a civil and decent society decentralized from a federal government as the Founders intended;
- WHEREAS, Elections have been under assault from those on the Left as they attempt to implement schemes and intentionally inject chaotic administrative changes that have drastically changed how elections are conducted in hundreds of the most populous counties and regions across the nation;
- WHEREAS, Democrats are passing non-citizen voting laws in liberal cities, which the Republican National Committee has previously resolved to oppose and ensure only United States citizens decide our elections…
The document then moves on to the “Resolved” section, where there are also 11 entries. Here’s a sample:
- RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee boldly opposes means of voting that do not have the proper safeguards in place and are exclusively electronic and calls on every county and state in the nation to use as the default ballot systems, which are fully auditable, namely hand-marked, voter-verified paper ballots to ensure every voter is memorialized by a paper record;
- RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee stands firmly behind voter identification laws and calls on state legislatures to pass laws to ensure every voter is verified to be the actual voter regardless of method in which they vote at the time of voting, casting, or delivering a ballot;
- RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee hereby opposes any and all efforts for states to unreasonably expand time periods for early or vote-by-mail that makes ballot counting procedures intentionally unmanageable or incapable to complete expeditiously following the conclusion of an election on election day…
There are several more common-sense proposals, but perhaps the last one sums things up the best:
- RESOLVED, The Republican National Committee calls for a necessary “return to excellence” or in other words, a return to the simple and proven methods of precinct, ward or geographically-defined localized voting with auditable balloting procedures using paper ballots, in fair, reasonable limited time periods, using proper identification to strengthen voter confidence and to ensure that American election procedures can be a fair and open process for all to participate.
Democrats in many states have been changing the rules over the last several years—especially during the pandemic—and have gone all in on unsecured ballot boxes, mail-in voting, extended voting periods, ballot harvesting, and more.
Not surprisingly, therefore, Americans’ confidence in election integrity is on the decline, according to a 2022 CNN poll, while Gallup reported in November of that same year that there was a growing “deep partisan divide” about the security of our systems. “Republicans’ confidence in voting integrity dropped to a new low of 44%, while Democrats’ confidence remained high, slightly higher (76%) than in the previous election year,” they wrote.
In other words, Republicans feel like the game is rigged.
Hopefully, efforts like this one from the RNC will lead to results at the polling booth because it’s clear that a huge number of people simply don’t trust our elections anymore—especially after all the Democrat shenanigans during the COVID-plagued presidential election of 2020. In the meantime, as voting advocate Scott Presler has advocated on the pages of RedState, Republicans must also master the voting system as it is—not just how we wish it was.
I applaud the RNC’s resolution, but we must continue to fight a two-pronged battle until we restore sanity to our electoral process.
