How Would You Build An Accurate And Sustainable Qualified Voter File (QVF)?

Editor’s note: This is a follow-up article to the author’s original commentary on QVFs. See the post from December 18th HERE.

I’ve given some thought to this, because it is not simple. You’d have to start from the records of the utility companies that serve each county.  Every residence needs electricity and/or water(generally both), so I’d start there and build the composite database of these bill-payers names and addresses.  There would be a lot of duplication here, and that would need to be eliminated so two records don’t get created when John Smith and John J. Smith are the names used by the power and water companies at the same address. Further follow up verification might be needed for elimination, because John Smith, and John J. Smith, or John Smith Junior, could be a father and son.

Do some have wells and live off grid?  Yes.  Very few at this point. Counties have records of wells being dug, so a mailing could be done to these dwellings alerting their residents that a new voter database is being built and that they need to visit the county elections office within 60 days to get added to the database.  As for all others, they’d need a U.S. passport, an American birth certificate or a Certificate of Naturalization.

For this to work, a temporary suspension of fees for these documents would need to be put in place. Passports can cost nearly $100 and Birth Certificate copies are also charged at a hefty rate. To not exclude the impoverished from voting, these fees would need to be suspended temporarily.

Are some people alive that were born here, at home, for instance, that do not have a Birth Certificate and/or a passport?  Possibly.  They might need a Provisional Ballot if they show up claiming this on election day. I think their ranks would be very small because nearly everyone went to elementary school at some point, and schools need some documentation about children who attend them…at least they used to, until our government adopted a policy of unfettered admission of illegal immigrants.

Because most residences could contain multiple people over 18 who could be eligible to vote, spouses, domestic partners, adult children, elderly parents or relatives, or roommates, I’d send a letter, or e-mail, out to the bill-payers asking for them to come in themselves, and also to tell these other people who reside with them to visit the county elections office within 60 days, and bring a U.S. passport, American birth certificate, or Certificate of Naturalization and register to vote by adding their names to the database and the address where they currently reside. If not the original address that received the letter or e-mail, they would also need to bring a copy of a lease, bank statement, car insurance policy, or a Driver’s License with the accurate current address on it. And yes, some type of program to provide rides for these people would need to be in place.

Some would argue that I’ve cut the homeless population out from the voter roles. This group, if its members choose to register, could do so using the address of the county elections office as their “home address.” This would avoid the problem of 20 people being registered as living at Taco Bell or at a church. No ballots would be mailed out to them, but they could pick up a ballot at the elections office after they were looked up and located in the voter database so their ballot could be printed.

The maintenance of this database would be very important and would need to take place monthly. The court system would need to provide names of those convicted of felonies, and the marriage license issuers would need to provide names and addresses to elections departments so they know who is eligible to re-register under a new name (while simultaneously removing the name that’s out-of-date). The DMV would need to report those who have changed addresses to the elections department and provide the new addresses. If the move takes the voter out-of-county, the record for that voter would need to be removed. Right now, many states just suspend the record for these people who have moved away by setting a flag for the suspension.  This is prone to malfeasance, however, because a huge number of flags can be set back to “active” status and ballots printed and mailed to this group, thereby creating thousands of ballots that can be waylaid.

Are there issues with transgender individuals? They would need the usual documents proving they are eligible to vote and residents of the county in which they wish to register, as well as documents that show an official change of name from the county social security office if they have changed their name to match their desired gender.

The practice of allowing third parties to maintain voter roles should end immediately.  I think the detailed information I’ve provided demonstrates that at least one person could be responsible on a full-time basis, even in a sparsely populated county.

Have I forgotten anyone?  Yes.  All the illegal aliens.  We have no idea what their number is. Probably between 20 and 40 million. They might try to present forged documents for place of birth, Naturalization, or American passport, so a stiff penalty would need to be in place for this transgression.  How about immediate deportation of the individual when convicted? And what about the family? It would have to go too if the person convicted was the breadwinner, or if nobody over 18 remained in the household to care for and provide for the others.

So what have I forgotten?  That forged documents would need detection methods, in general, and that penalties would need to be stiff to discourage their use.

Could the U.S. passports presented be expired.  Yes.  Many people obtain passports when they want to travel out of the country, but do not renew them regularly because of the fees associated with renewal.

Why do you think that New York is now allowing illegal aliens to vote in “local” elections? It is because, with the simple global command to reset a flag in the database of voters, these names and addresses, when added to the voter roles, can be sent ballots for ALL elections. We are on the cusp of millions of people who are not Americans being added to our voter roles.  New York’s recent actions ar the harbinger of more blue states enacting voting rights for illegal aliens in “local” elections. Schumer could not contain his glee when he broadcast his ultimate desire for all the illegal aliens who have been allowed to enter the country, or who entered surreptitiously, to get a path to voting and citizenship.

By Jennifer Mitchell Towner

Jennifer Mitchell Towner worked in the computer industry from 1979 to 1998. Under a program called Encorps, she became a high school math, French, and Consumer Finance teacher in 2009, retiring in 2019. She holds two BAs from U.C. Berkeley in Math and French and an MBA from Stanford University. The books she published in 2021, Good Boots and Kipper the Nipper are on Amazon