# Congressional Record/Volume 167/Issue 4/Extensions of Remarks/Committee Findings (Simpson)

CITIZEN’S COMMITTEE FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY’S FINDINGS ON FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS
HON. MICHAEL K. SIMPSON OF IDAHO IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Mr. Simpson. Madam Speaker, election law and regulations must be developed and administered at the state and local level. To that end, I believe criteria and engagement from all Idahoans must be included in this debate and want to enter the Committee’s recommendations into Congress’ current debate on free and fair elections.
All political power rests with the people.
Our Constitutionally guaranteed Republican form of government relies on free, fair, and honest elections to select our representatives and leaders.
To ensure equal protection and equal representation of the people, laws governing our elections must meet certain minimum standards.
It is the purpose of this Citizens Committee to concisely articulate the minimum standards for free, fair, and honest elections. These standards shall then be used by our local, state and federal legislators as a metric for reviewing and revising election law to ensure free, fair, and honest elections where the outcome is accepted by all citizens of good will.
Minimum Standards for Fair and Honest Elections
Our Constitutionally guaranteed republican form of government relies on free, fair, and honest elections to select our representatives and leaders. The standards listed here shall be used by our local, state and federal legislators as a metric for reviewing and revising election law to ensure free, fair, and honest elections where the outcome is accepted by all citizens of good will.
All voting processes, other than those needed to preserve the privacy of a citizen’s vote, must be open and available for direct observation, with no minimum distance requirements, and audit by agents of the candidates or parties.
All election materials must have a secure chain of custody at all times. Election officials must be accompanied by observers when accessing any election materials. Records of the chain of custody shall be complete and available for audit.
All votes, regardless of voting method, shall be held to equal standards.
Voters shall only be qualified electors that are able to verifiably provide their government issued photo identity before being issued a ballot. Voters who provide false information, including information of voter qualification, should face severe penalties.
As a condition of being issued a ballot, the voter’s identity and signature must be recorded in a permanent record (Poll Book).
​Original Ballots must have a physical form that allows voting choices to be examined and properly interpreted by the naked eye.
Ballots must have features designed to prevent counterfeiting.
An auditable system for tracking the status of all ballots must be implemented and maintained in the State of origin. The total number of printed ballots must equal the sum of the number of cast ballots, spoiled ballots, and unvoted ballots.
Ballot tabulation must be conducted by two independent and unrelated systems. The difference in totals between the two systems must be less than one half the margin of victory or 0.1% of the vote total, whichever is less. Tabulating machines must only tabulate and not modify ballots in any way, or be connected to the internet.
Before the results of an election can be certified, the ballot counts must be reconciled with the voter records. The margin of uncertainty must be less than one half the margin of victory or 0.1% of the vote total, whichever is less.
Lists of qualified electors must be purged of unqualified persons 180 days before an election. Voter Rolls should be vetted and compared with available government records to identify duplicate or ineligible registrations.
Laws and regulations governing an election may not be changed for 180 days prior to that election.
All election records should be retained and preserved for not less than 22 months.