Jay Newton: For the People Act would promote transparency

To The Daily Sun,

In 2016, Kremlin-backed groups attempted to disrupt our election by purchasing thousands of online ads which reached millions of Americans. This is just one of many areas that The For the People Act will improve.

The For the People act will make sure our elections; are secure against foreign attacks, transparent, fair, more convenient and it guarantees100 percent of all votes are backed up by paper. It’s the overhaul we need at a national level since we are voting for the President and the laws governing our constitutional right to vote should be strong and consistent across the nation.

The ideas proposed in this legislation are not new to the states and in fact they were picked from the states that had implemented them and proven them effective.

Transparent means that the For the People act would bring dark money into the light by requiring political groups to disclose their largest donors and requiring political ads to show who paid for them. Besides preventing Russia from interfering in our elections, this bill should also reduce misinformation in ads as the billionaires that pay for them avoid being associated with the embarrassing lies they contain.

Fair means that districting would be done by non-political groups in each state. When gerrymandering is used, districts are drawn to benefit the party in power and your vote may not even count toward electing the candidate you favor.

There also many convenient benefits including auto registration, mail-in ballots for all and early voting. Vote by mail has many benefits including being able to review your ballot and do research about candidates in the privacy of your home. Or as one person put it “We sat at the kitchen table with our ballots and our kids and they got a civics lesson about how our local and national governments and elections work.”

If anyone attempts to tamper with election integrity in NH, it’s a class B Felony with a minimum 30 day sentence and up to a $5000.00 fine for the first offense. Who wants to take that kind of chance to submit even one illegal ballot? According to our Secretary of State (SOS), no one does. But just in case, our most important defense is our neighbors and town employees who review and count every ballot and if discrepancies are found, they notify the SOS, who has investigators follow up. Check out the SOS’s website to see the very few cases that are reported each election and the even smaller number where wrong-doing actually occurred.

The purpose of the For the People act is to make it so every citizen, 18 and over gets to vote as conveniently as possible to make their town, state and country a better place by having their voices heard, while not being bombarded by lies promoted by large companies and billionaires.

Please contact Maggie Hassan 202-224-3324 and Jeanne Sheehan 202-224-2841 and tell them we need the For the People Act.

Jay Newton

Gilford