Trump's former spy chief is calling on Congress to create an election oversight commission

[CousinIT]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/17/politics/dan-coats-election-oversight-commission/index.html

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's former director of national intelligence called on Congress to create a commission to "oversee the election," an especially notable proposal from a former senior administration official that comes as the President continues to sow doubt about the integrity of the upcoming contest.

Former DNI Dan Coats outlined the proposed oversight commission in an opinion piece published Thursday in The New York Times in which he wrote that "our democracy's enemies, foreign and domestic, want us to concede in advance that our voting systems are faulty or fraudulent; that sinister conspiracies have distorted the political will of the people," among other things. As a result, Coats wrote, the "most urgent task American leaders face is to ensure that the election's results are accepted as legitimate."

Coats said Congress should "create a supremely high-level bipartisan and nonpartisan commission to oversee the election. This commission would not circumvent existing electoral reporting systems or those that tabulate, evaluate or certify the results. But it would monitor those mechanisms and confirm for the public that the laws and regulations governing them have been scrupulously and expeditiously followed — or that violations have been exposed and dealt with — without political prejudice and without regard to political interests of either party."

Though Coats doesn't take direct aim at Trump in the op-ed, it nonetheless presents a contrast with views espoused by his former boss, who has frequently made unproven claims that American elections are rife with voter fraud, stoking fears that the results might not be recognized as valid by millions of Americans

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[kentuck]

1. The United Nations should be over-seeing our elections.

We are now as reliable as Third World countries.

[Karadeniz]

16. Europe was planning on sending 400 monitors. Due to Covid in the US, the number is now

30 and I'm not sure they'll be here in person.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Dan Coats: As long as REPUBLICANS are doing the "overseeing" . . . .

[Laelth]

3. Coats' goal is to maintain FAITH in our Republic's democratic processes.

I get that, but what if this commission were formed, and it came to the conclusion that Russia did, in fact, significantly alter the outcome of the 2020 election? What could we realistically do about it? Probably nothing. Wouldn’t this commission, then, actually ERODE confidence in our elections? Wouldn’t such a commission actually work against Coats’ stated goal?



-Laelth

[KS Toronado]

4. Believe exit polls at every voting location could do more good.

[robbob]

5. Didn't reThugs eliminate exit polling

When declared results started contradicting results expected from the exit polling? Or was that just another bad dream I had?

[KS Toronado]

8. I think it was along the lines of " Don't believe what your eyes are seeing "

[Mister Ed]

7. In previous elections, yes.

But with the massive shift to absentee voting and mail-in voting that's expected this year, I wonder whether polling performed outside the precinct doors could give an accurate picture.

[KS Toronado]

9. Well it would give an accurate picture of in-person voting.

Plus some states have restrictive absentee voting laws. Exit polls there would expose cheating.

[robbob]

10. I don't know the answer to this,

but isn’t it possible to know vote results from polling stations vs. mail in ballots, etc? So at least you would know if results from specific polling stations matched expected results from exit polls.

[KS Toronado]

15. Getting confused what your actual question is. First off there are no

" expected results from exit polls ", exit polls are simply a person asking voters when they
are leaving the place they just voted at " Did you vote for tRump or Biden ". Some states
have rules to follow if official results and exit polls vary by more than 2% to determine if
foul play is involved. We all know tRumpie and his cohorts will do everything possible not
to go to jail right after the election. It's up to us Democrats to catch their cheating wherever
we can. Hope this helps, or am I misinformed or overlooking something? I'm not a
STABLE GENIUS.

[robbob]

17. No sorry, I was addressing my answer to "mrEd"

Who wondered if exit polling could tell us anything given the large numbers of mail in voting that would happen this year. I was basically agreeing with your observation; if we know what happened at an individual polling station then we would know if the exit polling (ie the “expected result” (based on trends found in the exit polling)) matched up.

I do believe exit polling is used in many countries (I wanted to say “third world countries”, but I don’t know how widespread the practice is) as a way of detecting fraud.

BTW: genius or not, I’m pretty sure you’re more stable then the person who coined that moniker!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. Exit polling used to be extremely accurate,

but that was before the rise of early voting in many places. For the few states that don't have early voting, well shame on them, but exit polling would be useful but for those states and those states only.

[marble falls]

6. We need a non partisan or GAO division for election oversight with watchdogs a President ...

can't have fired.

[KS Toronado]

11. A Biden adminstration will be addressing voting issues before the 2022 election.

[marble falls]

13. That's because Biden has nothing to hide or run from. He actually is paying attention to us and ...

concern and does more than lip service.

[Tommymac]

14. Paper Ballots. No electronic machines.

Yes - it will take longer, but what is more important, speed or accuracy?

Until absolutley secure electronic voting machines can be developed distributed and securely maintained, along the lines of ATM's, the best way to fight election fraud in the 21st century is to go back to 19th century technology.

And get rid of CU too. Get the private money out of elections and they will be more secure too.