To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate

Federal elections need to be non-partisan

In many states, an elected, partisan secretary of state is responsible for running elections. In others, the chief election official is appointed by a partisan elected official. The temptation for partisan officials to limit the number of votes cast by their opponents has proven to be very strong. Ohio attempted to limit early-voting hours in selected precincts. In Florida and Colorado inaccurate purges of voting rolls removed citizens.

Election officials should not be advocates for any political party.

In order to avoid partisan voter suppression, elections must be controlled by non-partisan professionals.

Why is this important?

In state after state, elected partisan secretaries of state directly control elections in a partisan manner. Fewer voting machines are provided to areas where the opposition party is strong than to areas dominated by the party in power. These partisan secretaries of state use their position to suppress votes and disenfranchise voters.