Mao Tse-Tung famously said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."  In the U.S. political power grows out of a ballot box.

I cringed during Election Week 2020 — Sidney Powell "releasing the kraken," secret servers in Germany, bad voting machines, Rudy Giuliani saying he had stacks of affidavits proving fraud.  The January 6 rally (filled with left-wing agents provocateurs), and the mess that ensued, was in vain — trying to close the barn door after the horses escaped.

Once a ballot gets into a ballot box, there is no way to distinguish or separate fraudulent ballots from legitimate ballots.  Our ballots are secret (supposedly).

So how to prevent the fraudulent ballot from getting into the box in the first place?

GOP officials have ignored pushing for election integrity measures.  They should be doing all of the following:

Challenge any type of early or non-in-person voting (except for government/military people on official business overseas during Election Day).  Vote by mail kept California, Washington, and Oregon blue.  

Challenge vote by mail as circumventing the secret ballot process — a mail-in ballot is not a secret ballot.

A federal law passed in 1845 by Congress designates the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November as Election Day — not months or weeks before Election Day.

Government/military people who are not in their district where they vote have voting officers to collect ballots in a secure container on Election Day to be shipped to their home district and counted with documentation verifying deposit of the ballot into a secure container.

State GOP organizations should obtain state voter rolls and compare them to voter rolls from other states to identify and challenge people registered in two or more states and voting in both.  This is a potential problem in areas where multiple state lines are only a few miles apart (D.C., New England, NYC/N.J.), where one could establish a residence in two or more states and vote in all of them.

Pass a law establishing Election Day as a national holiday.

Challenge the SCOTUS ruling forbidding requirements proving citizenship in order to register to vote in federal elections.  If states allow a state-issued ID as proof of citizenship, the ID should require proof of citizenship.  Roe v. Wade was overturned; this ruling could be overturned if the proper arguments and supporting evidence (examples) were presented.  The 9/11 hijackers were able to register to vote.  All they had to do to was to check a box stating that they were citizens, which is still the current policy.

Lawyers — have many good ones on Election Day.  Have writs, injunctions, and court order applications ready for every contingency — polls not opening on time, closing early, staying open past polling hours, poll observers being ordered off the premises.  Approach the right federal judge, and prepare to appeal to the SCOTUS.

Expect election day malfeasance, like "finding" ballots that were left in a bag in a corner (Minnesota's 2008 Senate race).  Recruit and train poll observers.  Be ready.

Image: tom.arthur via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.