Here are some recommendations for caucus resolutions at this evening’s precinct caucuses. The operative aspect is underlined with explanatory information offered in parenthesis/italics. Most caucuses begin at 7:00 PM at consolidated locations in your county. Contact local county Republican offices for locations.
Resolved, citizenship status added to census questionnaire
(responsible party to be asked about every household resident – how else to have s census of how many people live in this country AND how many are citizens)
Allow verification of voter eligibility by organizations during their sponsored voter registration events.
(organizations, Republican and other civic organizations, who engage in voter registration drives should not be required to facilitate unverified registrations or be required to allow ineligible voters to participate in their activities – 2016 RPI precinct caucuses were required by troubling directives by party leaders to allow anyone to vote at the caucuses who registered at the caucuses, but no pre-verification was allowed to satisfy integrity of the system. Strangely ID could be required of those already registered but that could be circumvented with a new registration and no accompanying verification. It was a “I’m here to vote in your caucuses, let me in” approach. This violated Republican commitments to the integrity of the caucus system. The supposed theory behind the interpretation was that only the County Auditor can register voters, which is not the issue, but rather the ability of organizations to restrict their outreach and eligibility requirements for their activities and not merely be a pass-through for unverified “voters”. All voter registrations are subject to County Auditor office verification)
Allow and facilitate online access to current voter rolls
(current inexpensive technology should allow easy access to continuously updated voter rolls. Fees could be made less. Trips to the County Auditor’s office and delays in producing and dependence on presence of any office personnel would be made unnecessary, security is unaffected.)
Support Governor Reynolds in opposition to any city or community in Iowa becoming a sanctuary for illegal immigrants who have broken the law.
Too many jurisdictions in Iowa have essentially adopted sanctuary city policies. They should not be granted other jurisdictions’ support for their blind eyes to state and federal law breakers. Sanctuary cities impact tax obligations (welfare, education, and social service related) of overlapping jurisdictions along with crime enforcement of overlapping jurisdictions.
We support the grass roots nature and development of our county, district and state platforms and believe they should be adhered to and added to as appropriate and not diminished to platitudes.
(These suggestions serve as cases in point. A generalization about preserving voter integrity does not guide our Republican officials as to acute problems or efforts that circumvent platform generalities. Items with more specification might be encompassed by the spirit of the generalities but are regrettably ignored. Calling officials to task is an enhancement of the grassroots nature of the caucuses)
As regards RNC delegate selection processes at any level we oppose efforts that in any way diminish grassroots decision making or turn it over to select bodies.
(The continued diminishment of caucus processes and their grassroots merits devolve conventions to seat-warming non-events and the caucuses to little different than primaries reducing any claim of Iowa to uniqueness and its influence. Delegates can have the discipline to require transparency in who THEY vote for directly and commitments they require.)
Congress should make mechanisms for limiting the vote to citizens of the United States more uniformly secure and enforceable. Electoral college votes and seating of federal delegations from jurisdictions not in compliance with federal law or that are demonstratively lax in insuring the integrity of the vote under current law, those federal elections results should not be recognized whatever the venue.
(Consistent with the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that Congress has the authority to enforce that citizens have the right to vote and that non-citizens have no such right to vote: Failure to ensure the integrity of the vote by not assuredly limiting voting to citizens, as we see in California which has adopted default or automatic additions to voting rolls, in our federal system diminishes the impact of citizen voting everywhere. Corrupt political processes in some states or misuse or corruption of the federally enacted Help America Vote Act which is used to justify what are profoundly insecure protections safeguarding the integrity of the vote should not be recognized as they impact the federal system)
