Election Integrity Questions for Candidates
by Kurt Hyde, Board of Directors Member
As the 2022 political campaigns get underway, the candidates often make phone calls to raise money for their campaigns. At some point in the conversation, you should use the opportunity to ask meaningful questions about how committed the candidate is to election integrity. Be sure to ask the following of all candidates:
1. Has the candidate been active in any committee to improve election integrity prior to this election campaign?
2. Is the candidate familiar with The John Birch Society’s Restore Election Integrity action project? The answer will probably be no. This is a good opportunity to offer at least two copies of the February 15, 2021 TNA “Restoring Election Integrity” reprint, one each for the candidate and the campaign manager. If the campaign has an election-integrity task force, add a third copy for its leader. Try to get the names and contact information of the campaign manager and election-integrity leader so you can ensure they receive the reprints. They are busy during campaigns, but don’t feel like you are interfering with their jobs; you are helping them.
3. Does the campaign have an election-integrity task force? If the answer is yes, ask if you can join or assist this group, even if you need to work remotely. I was told once by a candidate seeking donations that he had an election-integrity task force. But when I asked to become part of it, he had to backpedal and admit that his campaign didn’t have one.
4. Is the candidate familiar with the state’s laws regarding poll watchers, both for those at the polls and at central count?
5. Will the campaign conduct poll-watcher training?
6. When campaign volunteers go door-to-door, will they use their campaign’s lists of voters and keep their own records, or do they plan to use the modern wireless block-walking software that transmits voter information to a central database? Also, who owns the data collected by the block-walkers? If it’s anyone other than the candidate or his campaign, the block walkers are serving someone else’s interest. Lastly for this topic, will the campaign use the list of phantom voters found by the block walkers and others to check the voter registrations to see if any phantom voters are on record as having voted?
7. Will the campaign close up shop when the polls close on election night, or will it maintain at least one phone number that will be answered for at least 30 days after the election for people to report suspected election integrity problems?
8. Win, lose, or draw, will the candidate join, or at least support, a local JBS Restore Election Integrity Committee after the campaign is over?
In addition to asking candidates these key questions, distribute in your community at least 25 copies each of the “9 Ways to Restore America’s Elections” slim jim and the “Restoring Election Integrity” TNA reprint. Also, go to https://gojt.us/bbio to see The John Birch Society’s federal and state election-integrity legislative alerts. Contact your officials using at least one of them this month.
Next month, I will discuss two more categories of questions to ask: for state and federal candidates.