Silent majority election manifesto

Most American voters object to the way the extremes on the two political sides, and their leaders and media cheerleaders, control the politics and the political discourse, and the way that this silent majority of American voters is sidelined.

This put upon, silent majority basically has to "suck it up."

Especially galling for having to "suck it up" is the current, outrageous disputations over preserving the integrity of the November election, intentional actions by one or both sides in advance of November to lay a basis for calling into question the election results, and failure of the combatant parties to make an effort to work to agree on things in advance to lessen problems once November 3rd arrives. 

Mail in voting is central in the disputations.

The most intransient actor in this Trump, who does everything he can to not engage reasonably with the other side and not agree on things in advance. Trump's motivations are solely for himself; Trump makes extreme claims about which he will entertain no reasonable, fair discussion about the legitimacy of the claims; and Trump's supporters follow his lead.

This may be one "suck it up" too far that the silent majority is being subjected to.

During the next 90 days, the silent majority should be agitated not to "suck it up" and the silent majority should be provoked to yell loudly.

8/15/20  Plan of action [draft]

[This is in draft form pending getting input from other Alabamians.]

8/30/20

To try to ward off litigation and other chaos come November 3rd that creates a national crisis of  there not being an accepted outcome of the Presidential election, I think the silent majority should look to the National Association of Secretaries of State, and its member state Secretaries of State. 

The Association's website says this:

THE ROLE OF CHIEF STATE ELECTION OFFICIALS IN ELECTION SECURITY:

40 members of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) serve as their state's designated chief election official, overseeing the conduct of elections according to law. Ensuring the integrity of the voting process is central to this role, which includes cybersecurity and contingency planning, as well as providing administrative and technical support for local election officials.

Given this responsibility and function of Secretaries of State, NASS and its members should compile details about how the Presidential voting will be conducted in each of the states and how the votes will be counted, which should be accompanied by each Secretary of State vouching for his or her state being able to provide an election tally within such time after November 3rd as may be needed to count mail in ballots and do lawfully required recounts. Based on this, the Secretaries of State should obtain acknowledgements from the Republican and Democratic parties in their states in advance of November 3rd that they agree  with the details about how the Presidential election will be conducted and how the votes will be counted.

Each Secretary of State needs to vouch for his or her state and should review and have confidence in the vouching that the other Secretaries of State do for their states.

With such vouching by all the Secretaries of State and with such confidence in one another, NASS should put out a public proclamation to that effect and should strongly denounce any actor, including the President, who disparages the security and fairness of the election and who seeks for the voters to question the outcome.

(As the NASS website discloses, only 40 members of NASS  serve as their state's designated chief election official, and the above suggested plan of action calls for drawing in one way or another the officials of the remaining 10 states. )

Vouching for Alabama 

@JohnHMerrill
Can the bipartisan Nat'l Assoc. of Secretaries of State undertake to proclaim to country that the Secretaries collectively vouch for secure & fair casting and counting of votes, so that there will not be a crisis of no winner?#alpolitics https://t.co/mCK6djBsar

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) August 30, 2020

Thank you for reply, Mr. Merrill.
I think it would be good for all the Secretaries of State to vouch for their respective states, and for all Secretaries of State to proclaim a collective confidence in the election and as to which all Americans can have confidence.#alpolitics

— Rob Shattuck (@RobShattuckAL06) August 30, 2020

The starting place is the Alabama Secretary of State's website Alabama Votes The State of Alabama's Election Center. 

In light of the unprecedented scrutiny to the election being fairly conducted, Secretary Merrill should consider in advance possible problems and complaints and endeavor to address them in various ways. This should include obtaining  an express acceptance from the Alabama Republican and Democratic parties of how Secretary Merrill addresses the possible problems and complaints.

An example might be possible complaints about "vote harvesting" at nursing homes. Secretary Merrill might propose that nursing homes may be entered to obtain a voted ballots from residents only if representatives of both parties are present. Further a neutral nursing home employee might be also required to be present and be allowed to make a "competency" determination that the representatives of the political parties will abide, and no voted ballot will be obtained from a resident whom the nursing home employee considers not competent.

Another possible complaint is about biased postal employees improperly diverting mailed ballots from proper post office processing. Secretary Merrill should coordinate with USPS officials about how this risk may be reduced and should be acceptable. The Alabama Republican and Democratic parties should expressly acknowledge that the risk is acceptable and they will not make any complaint before or after November 3rd.

To be able to declare which Presidential candidate has won Alabama's electoral votes as promptly as possible on or after November 3rd, Secretary Merrill should consider whether anything can be done to speed up counting of mailed in ballots, such as doing processing of mailed in ballots as they arrive before November 3rd. 

In Alabama, absentee ballots must be received by Absentee Election Manager no later than noon on November 3rd, so, in Alabama, announcing results should not be delayed because of a need to wait for absentee ballots to be returned.

On election night, Secretary Merrill should be prepared to issue a press release giving an estimate of when Alabama will be able to declare which Presidential candidate has won Alabama's electoral votes.

Secretary Merrill should endeavor to communicate to the judiciary in Alabama and urge the judiciary to use the judiciary's permitted discretion to expedite any litigation that is initiated to challenge election results.

Urging NASS to get all Secretaries of State to vouch
Secretary Merrill should inform NASS of what he has done to vouch for Alabama and should request NASS to get all the Secretaries of State to do similarly as Secretary Merrill has done regarding Alabama and to vouch similarly for their respective states, and NASS should make proclamation to all Americans that they should have confidence in the integrity and fairness of the 2020 Presidential election. NASS should denounce any actor, including Trump, who tries to cast doubt on the 2020 Presidential election.