CHARLESTON, W.Va. - eTradeWire -- Citizens for West Virginia Election Integrity (C4WVEI) is calling for immediate reforms to protect election integrity across the state in order to provide full transparency and security in our elections. Founded in late 2023, this volunteer-driven organization seeks to improve public trust by advocating for legislative actions that ensure all votes are legally cast, transparently and accurately counted, and fully auditable. By collaborating with state election officials and lawmakers, C4WVEI is committed to making West Virginia a national leader in election transparency and fairness.  Based in part on C4WVEI efforts, the West Virginia Legislature has now established an Election Integrity Caucus that is actively addressing these issues.  C4WVEI has also established a Registration Audit Center to help election officials purge invalid records from our Voter Registration database.

Full Transparency is Key

C4WVEI demands full transparency in our elections through a redesign of the process.  Citizens feel that there is currently insufficient transparency in our elections, enabling corrupt organizations to manipulate the process and unfairly "select" their preferred winning candidate, thereby bypassing and undermining fair election practices (6).  To address this, many prominent American citizens in both political parties have come out in favor of eliminating machine tabulation and requiring photo ID, among other important factors.  Although there are many keys to achieving full transparency, two areas that demand transparency are 1) registration and 2) tabulation.  All of us generally trust our checking accounts because we can see a statement of individual transactions and their effect on the adjusted balance – we need the same transparency in our election tabulation process.  We also need to verify that the choices we submit to the ballot box are maintained throughout the system.

Urgency of the Situation

Several recent scientific surveys document that a majority of U.S. citizens currently distrust our election process (1,2). Reports indicate that 20% of mail-in voters in the 2020 election admitted to engaging in voter fraud (3).  Voting machine vulnerabilities are identified in the 2020 film "Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America's Elections" and other more recent videos.  According to a June, 2024 survey, 66% of voters believed the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election would be affected by cheating (4).  Also, citizens have serious concerns about non-citizens voting and efforts to register illegal voters further emphasize the need for these reforms (5).

Identified Vulnerabilities

C4WVEI has identified multiple vulnerabilities in the state's election processes.  We are working with the WV Secretary of State's office, the WV Legislature, and county election officials to address these issues. The focus areas include voter registration and canvassing, strengthening voter ID requirements, ensuring trusted vote intake and tabulation practices, auditable vote counting, and accurate reporting of results to voters.

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Proposed Legislative Reforms

We are actively engaged with members of the West Virginia Legislature's Election Integrity Caucus to introduce vital election integrity measures that promote transparency and citizen trust.  C4WVEI priority issues include:

• Government-issued photo ID required for in-person and absentee voting
• Citizenship verification for voters
• Citizen audit of their own vote: Allow voter to anonymously see their cast ballot image online and compare with a photo of that ballot submitted in the precinct
• Citizen audit of any precinct race: Allow any citizen to audit precinct vote totals against precinct cast ballot images
• Transparent tabulation – allow citizens to see each transaction during tabulation similar to a bank statement showing how each transaction adjusts the account balance – one way to do this is hand-counted paper ballots by small population precinct, with public representatives present and an audit recording of the count (similar to recent trusted caucus procedures in states such as Iowa)
• Use of blue ballpoint pens for paper ballot marking and signatures
• Continued support for voters with disabilities
• Elimination of ANY possibility of hacking by bad foreign or domestic computer experts
• Public availability of Cast Vote Records from elections
• Verifiable ballot chain of custody
• Minimize early voting to prevent early knowledge of voting trends that can be used by party representatives to game the election
• Ensure that absentee voting is only for cause so as to mitigate ballot fraud
• Tighten registration rules for non-domestic voters
• Ban on unsolicited third-party distribution of absentee ballots
• Same-day/12-hour voting result availability
• Forensic audits for suspicious activity
• Conduct "door-to-door" registration canvass before each election to ensure validity of voters in the registration database
• Prohibition of Ranked Choice Voting

An example fully transparent voting process (briefly):

1.    The voter arrives at the precinct, proves their legality to vote, and the poll worker cross-references their name from the pollbook ledger (if approved), and a paper ballot is provided

2.    The legal voter fills out the ballot, enters the ballot in a lock box while retaining a serial number tear-off, and at close of the poll, all ballots are transparently hand-counted by the precinct staff with a video recording of the count and open to public representatives.

3.    The secure ballot boxes are transported to the county election center along with the tabulation results, which will also be phoned in to the county; the county provides (by phone) interim and final results to the SOS and follow up with hardcopy/electronic documentation of tabulation results for tick and tie purposes.  "Tick and tie" refers to the process of making sure the count for a precinct matches the count for that precinct at the county election center, the SOS website, and media results

4.    Once the county election canvass is complete and vote totals are known, all ballots are scanned, and electronic copies are transmitted to the WV SOS along with final tabulation results by precinct

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5.    A voter can audit their own ballot anonymously on the SOS website using their retained ballot serial number and compare to a photo of their completed paper ballot; any citizen can audit any precinct by comparing the scanned ballot choices with the tabulation results for that precinct

Passage of legislation featuring these principles will vastly improve transparency and citizen trust in our elections.

Call to Action

C4WVEI urges all West Virginia residents to support these legislative initiatives to ensure our elections are fair, transparent, and secure. By passing these reforms, West Virginia can set the "Gold Standard" for election integrity in the United States.

Follow Us on Social Media:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/C4WVEI
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/C4WVEI or @C4WVEI

Media Contact:
Jeanette McLaughlin
Communications Director
Email: Citizens4WVElectionIntegrity@gmail.com
Website: www.Citizens4WVElectionIntegrity.org

References:

1.   "Election Integrity: Most Voters Suspect Fraud" April 20, 2023. Rasmussen Reports; https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/biden_administration/election_integrity_most_voters_suspect_fraud

2.   "2024 primary CNN Exit Polls: Do you think Biden legitimately won in 2020?", CNN, March 2024, https://www.cnn.com/election/2024

3.   "One-in-Five Mail-In Voters Admit They Cheated in 2020 Election", Rasmussen Reports, December 12, 2023 https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/partner_surveys/one_in_five_mail_in_voters_admit_they_cheated_in_2020_election

4.   "SHOCK POLL: 66% of Voters Believe Outcome of 2024 Presidential Election Will Be Affected by Cheating", The Gateway Pundit Review of Rasmussen Reports Poll, June, 2024. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/06/shock-poll-66-voters-believe-outcome-2024-presidential/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shock-poll-66-voters-believe-outcome-2024-presidential

5.   "How non-citizens are getting voter registration forms across the US — and how Republicans are trying to stop it", New York Post, Josh Christenson, June 14, 2024, https://nypost.com/2024/06/14/us-news/how-non-citizens-are-getting-voter-registration-forms-across-the-us-and-how-republicans-are-trying-to-stop-it/

6.   "Implications of Making Ballot Images and Cast Vote Records Public", Laura Hinkle, Sarah Walker and Rachel Orey, Bipartisan Policy Center, August 17, 2023 https://www.bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/implications-of-making-ballot-images-and-cast-vote-records-public/