Commentary: Three principals of Trustworthy Elections campaign

The Braver Angels organization has recently published a report to the nation on its Trustworthy Elections campaign. That final report focuses on three principles:

• Voting should be easy. Cheating should be hard.

• Every citizen should have an equal say in who will govern them; this is done through free and fair elections.

• The American government will fail if candidates refuse to accept any outcome other than victory.

The report represents a Red/Blue consensus drawn from more than 100 hours of workshop time, involving an evenly balanced number of conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning participants. The final document offers 23 specific solutions. A short sampling:

• States should require a person to show voter ID when voting. It should be the affirmative duty of state governments to provide an acceptable, free voter ID to every eligible voter.

• All high schools should teach civics with the focus on constitutional rights and electoral processes.

• States should appoint independent commissions to form voting districts. The commissions should not include currently elected officials.

• Statewide chain of custody procedures should be implemented to protect ballots before they enter the custody of government officials.

There are 19 other recommendations. If you’d like to see the report in its entirety, or the executive summary of the report, go to braverangels.org and search for “Trustworthy Elections.”

More importantly, if you’d like to participate with those of us in the Gorge who are promoting civil discourse in campaigns and in solving public problems, email Doug Roof at droof@braverangels.org for more information. We meet the first Tuesday of each month.