Reform Party of Arizona
Election Reform Platform for National Candidates

The Executive Committee and at least 70% of the entire State Committee of the RPA have provisionally approved this document for publication. It is proposed for formal approval at the next Reform Party of Arizona State Convention. This platform applies to candidates seeking to represent Arizona in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. In recognition of the distinctly different constitutional roles played by national and state/local elected officials, a separate platform will be developed for state and local candidates.

Please address all questions, comments, and suggestions to: weyrich_comp@yahoo.com.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees each State a republican form of government, and the Supreme Court has ruled that the right to vote includes the right to a fair vote count. Therefore, the Reform Party seeks a verifiable election process, with citizen checks and balances, which are beyond the control of our federal judicial system and the media.

We favor an election process whereby our election officials who preside over our elections are above reproach in the vote counting process. Election officials should not be subject to an environment where the voting public is forced to rely on blind faith and trust as to the honor of any and all presiding elections officials.

Electoral College

We favor retaining the Electoral College, which serves a vital role in ensuring all regions of the country are represented, rather than only a few urban population centers. The Electoral College should be strengthened by having states change from a winner-take all system to a system where two electors are elected at large, and the remaining electors are elected by each congressional district.

Paper Ballots

In order to assure there will always be verifiable, transparent elections, we favor easily read and marked paper ballots. These ballots shall be hand-counted at the precinct immediately upon the polls closing, and before being transferred to the county elections office.

Ballot Boxes

All Ballot Boxes shall be constructed of clear or translucent Plexiglas. This will enable citizens to see that no ballots have been fraudulently created and placed in a ballot box before or during an election.

Computer Touch Screens

We oppose the introduction of Computer Touch-Screen Vote Marking Machines because of their unverifiable, non-transparent nature. Where Computer Touch Screen Vote Marking Machines are already in use, if counties refuse to replace them with a verifiable paper ballot counted system, a printer shall be attached so at the time of the vote, the voter can print out a paper document to verify his vote and deposit it into the clear box to be counted on site when the polls close.

English Ballots

The Federal government shall not require any other language besides English for voting materials.

No Vote Receipts

We oppose any voting system that gives a voter a receipt, which can be abused by facilitating the sale of votes.

Human Readable Artifacts

We oppose any voting system that does not generate a permanent, easily human-readable artifact that can be used to verify a proper vote count.

Abstain Option

We favor ballots where each race or ballot issue shall have an option to abstain from voting for that race or ballot issue. This reduces the potential of partially blank ballots being tampered with.

End Early Balloting

We call for an end to early-return ballot casting. Instead, anyone wishing to vote early should instead request an absentee ballot and vote according to that method or drop his/her ballot in person into the Absentee Ballot receptacle. Absentee ballots will contain paper ballot to be processed with other paper ballots.

Absentee Voting

All absentee ballots shall be delivered by the United States Postal Service directly into a clear Plexiglas receptacle, kept in public view at all times until the election is over. With current technology, a web-video camera should be made available for monitoring by Internet inspection. No ballots shall be removed from this box until counted. Counting will take place on a table immediately adjacent to the absentee ballot box, also viewed by the web-video camera.

Counting of Ballots

Every Ballot cast in an election, shall be hand-counted immediately upon the poll's closing, at the ballot box by the named poll watcher/officer and witnessed by any resident acting as agents of any Candidate, or any Issue on that ballot. No ballots may be removed from the respective polling/counting site until a public posting, no smaller than 100pt type has been made on a wall in the election location after poll closing.

Computer Tabulation

Recognizing that computers can be easily manipulated and programmed for a pre-determined outcome, computer generated tabulation of Vote Totals in any election shall only be done as a point of confirmation, and only after all hand-counting has been completed.

Military Votes

Except for military voters stationed overseas, election officials must receive all ballots in a Federal election by the close of the final Election Day. Military votes shall be given to an appropriate designated officer by close of Election Day, sealed and certified by the officer and sent via expedited channels, to arrive no later than 5 days after the final Election Day. Requests for absentee military ballots shall be sent via designated expedited channels. Election results may not be announced until either all eligible military ballots have been counted or it is determined that the margin of victory exceeds the number of outstanding military ballots.

Repeal Motor-Voter

We favor the repeal of Motor Voter laws and all laws that enable non-U.S. Citizens to register to vote and fraudulent voter rolls to be created.

Illegals Voting a Felony

We favor laws that make casting of a ballot by an illegal alien a felony resulting in immediate deportation with no possibility of return.

Prohibit Exit Polls

We favor prohibiting all exit polls announcements until all voting has been completed in Hawaii. In the case of contested elections, exit poll results will not be announced until that the proper authorities decide election.

Voter News Service

We call for a congressional investigation into Voter News Service (VNS) out of New York City. This investigation should focus on the role of VNS in calling past elections.

Public Opinion Polls

We urge voters to carefully consider how public opinion polls can influence public opinion, and the ways in which opinion polls can be manipulated by the choice of respondents, and by the phrasing of questions to get a desired response. While it is the First Amendment right of pollsters to publish their conclusions, voters would do well to disregard opinion and exit polls and vote their conscience.

Debates

Any candidate who has a ballot line and a theoretical chance of winning shall be admitted to any and all televised or published debates; otherwise the cost of the media coverage shall be treated as an in-kind contribution to each of the participating candidates. Any media outlet receiving Federal funding (e.g. PBS, NPR) shall be required to give equal time to all such candidates.

National Primary

We favor a single national primary election for all candidates for Federal office in August, according to the same rules as used for the General election in November.

Open Primaries

Whereas various states are trying out several different forms of open primaries, the Reform Party USA supports evaluation of the benefits of each of these systems before making any national recommendation.

Announcement of Election Results

All election return results shall be posted at each local polling place after counting takes place. Only a designated election official having jurisdiction over all relevant polls shall announce consolidated final vote tallies for multiple polling places. Under no circumstances shall intermediate tallies be announced prior to announcing the overall totals. Disclosure of intermediate tallies by election workers or by media prior to official announcement of the final vote result shall be a felony.

Election of Election Officials

The Secretary of State, County Clerks, or other elected officials responsible for counting and certifying votes shall recluse themselves from presiding over their own election. It is recognized as a gross conflict of interest to be anywhere near the handling of a ballot involved in their race.