Closing Election Loopholes Act of 2016 (PASSED)

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I will not vote to repeal the 20 minute rule.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

My concern is that even on TWC Extreme Internet, this site is still glitchy as hell and sometimes I find it completely unoperable. That is especially the case in the early morning hours, which with my work schedule is the only time I have to get on. You click post and the post doesn't appear, you have to exit the page to get it to go back to the thread. Then ten minutes later the post appears and because of it, you have now voted twice.

I have never had it happen during an election, but it happens enough in other threads that it could very happen during an election. I am also sure this caused one of the June 2009 votes to be discarded in that 1 vote election, though perhaps I am mistaken.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

INVALGHAZI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE MUST HOLD HEARINGS NOW!!! 

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

So, do I take this that there is no interest in ensuring that we have a clarified process for certification of elections?

Dkrol introduced a separate bill to address this.

Ah, glorious news! I missed it because it was actually introduced before Cris sponsored this bill.

Can someone please clarify for me, however, what the status is on the executive slot? Unless something was changed, it was my understanding that we added an executive slot for legislation a couple of years ago, and that the President did not need legislation to be sponsored on his behalf by a Senator in order for it to be introduced.

A "couple of years ago"? If it was before October 2014, it would have been wiped out with the overhaul of the rules.

So, do I take this that there is no interest in ensuring that we have a clarified process for certification of elections? I've just never liked the idea that we often seem to certify election results within less than 24 hours; on more than one occasion, this has led to the formal, recognized vote totals for one or more candidates being in conflict with who and which votes were eligible. It has never been a discrepancy that led to a coup in terms of who would win, but one only need to look back to the June 2013 Presidential Election to find the most recent example of how it could happen. Probability is a bitch: sooner or later, it will happen if we stay the current course.

I never recall saying that there was no interest. However, I fear that with a full week lag time between the vote an certification you 1) run the risk of votes being deleted or just diappearing on this crazy site and 2) the concern about special elections who normally take office immediately after the election.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I would also point out that attempts at intimidation are to my knowledge illegal, as well.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

There was a stated desire I think by someone earlier in this thread about the 20 minutes as it relates to the end of the election. Say the election only has 5 minutes left or 30 seconds and a person votes. Do they have ability to change it at say 12:15 AM?

I know this has come up before in discussion at least, but I don't recall if there was ever any certainty as to how it would be handled if it came up during an election. Would there be interest in addressing it now?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

AYE