On the afternoon of Feb. 23, I voted early in Tennessee’s presidential primary at the Hamilton County Election Commission on Amnicola Highway. When I entered, several other citizens were voting, and I was greeted pleasantly by the eight or so workers conducting the election. Since these patriotic citizens are our friends and neighbors who have volunteered to carry out this very important function of our democratic republic, I told them all how grateful I was for their service and how important their work is to our way of life. I also said that I had been involved with politics for 44 years and am old enough to remember when Republicans asked voters to vote early and absentee when appropriate.
Folks, the reality is that we conduct elections better than any other country in the world, and while improvements can always be made, there is overwhelming evidence that we can and should trust the outcome of our elections again this year.
My belief is that the United States is exceptional, not because of our military power, economic prowess, or even our extraordinary innovation, but because we hold regular elections, freely elect our leaders, accept the outcome and peacefully transfer power.
For seven years, I have been privileged to work with the crosspartisan group Issue One and 200 former members of Congress, Cabinet secretaries and governors in a bipartisan way to promote accountability, transparency and the rule of law at the federal level. Today we stand united behind four core principles that must be honored at this critical time in history.
First, we must accept the outcome of our free elections and peacefully transfer power. Second, we oppose all forms of political violence and support adequate funding for the security of those brave Americans working to carry out our elections. Third, we must reject misinformation and efforts to intentionally mislead the public before, during or even after Election Day. Finally, we stand strongly behind the Rule of Law under our Constitution whereby all citizens are held to the exact same standards.
While state and local officials carry out our election processes, I have long advocated for a set of “best practices” for states to follow so that we don’t federalize elections but have more uniformity in how and when votes are counted. For instance, in Tennessee, all early and absentee votes are processed ahead of Election Day so that when the polls close, tabulations can be made swiftly and results can be made public before people go to bed. However, as we witnessed in 2020, Pennsylvania doesn’t allow early votes to be counted until Election Day. This did not affect the legality or legitimacy of those votes, but it did shape how they were perceived. When it takes days to tabulate the outcome of a close election, it erodes confidence and drives conspiracy theories.
Sharing best practices between states would promote consistency and help restore needed confidence. Common sense improvements like improved cybersecurity protections, clear and strong voter identification rules, and secure provisions for early and absentee voting would go a long way here.
During my decades of public service and political involvement, many elections have been called “the most important election in our lifetime.” That reference is usually made based on who might get elected or a political party coming into power. This year, however, in order to “keep the republic,” as Benjamin Franklin said, we must hold a free election, accept the results, peacefully transfer power, prevent any political violence from occurring and uphold the rule of law.
The world is watching, and everything we hold dear is on the line.
Former Congressman Zach Wamp represented Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District from 1995 to 2011. He currently co-chairs Issue One’s bipartisan National Council on Election Integrity and ReFormers Caucus.