Secretary of State Diego Morales Releases Joint Statement with Fellow Secretaries on Election Integrity & Opposing Federalization of State Election Processes

MILWAUKEE (July 18, 2024) -The undersigned Secretaries of State are the Chief Election Officers for their states.

These six Secretaries of State are attending the Republican National Convention (RNC) this week in Milwaukee, WI. The Convention provides an opportunity to communicate with officials from throughout the nation regarding the Secretaries' election integrity concerns regarding any attempts to federalize state election processes.

The Secretaries emphasize the following areas of concern in an effort to restore voter confidence in the election process:

• According to the United States Constitution, the responsibility to determine the time, manner, and place of state elections rests with each state's legislature. Registration of voters, the casting of ballots, and the counting of ballots must be in accordance with the laws prescribed by the respective state legislatures.

• President Biden's Executive Order No. 14019 relating to voter registration is a classic example of federal overreach and is clearly unconstitutional. It should be rescinded immediately.

• No votes should ever be accepted or counted that are derived from outside the laws as passed by an official act of each state's legislature.

• Only citizens of the United States should be able to register and vote in state and federal elections.

• Photo voter ID is fundamental to secure elections.

• Drop boxes for election ballots should not be used.

• Voting by mail, absentee voting, ballot harvesting, early voting, curing of ballots, and other means of voting must be specifically authorized by an official act of the state legislature.

• While we focus on voter list maintenance, registrations are constantly changing. Therefore, blanket mailing of ballots to entire registration lists should not be done. Similarly, pre-populating information on, and the mass mailing of, absentee ballot requests should not be done.

• The safest and most secure way to cast a ballot is on Election Day at a polling location managed by trained poll workers from both major parties where every voter is guaranteed an opportunity to cast a ballot free of any undue influence from another person.

• All votes should have a verifiable, auditable paper trail. In the event of any discrepancy, the paper ballots should take precedence.

• Get election information from your Secretary of State or Board of Elections and local election officials and their websites.

We believe that these are fundamental steps to restoring confidence in our elections.

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