Books
Election Integrity Greatest Threat Facing America
The people’s voice must be heard, writes Jody Hice, founding member of the House Freedom Caucus.
Sacred Trust: Election Integrity and the Will of the People By Jody Hice Humanix Books 256 pages, $24.96
E BY MARISA HERMAN
lection integrity wasn’t even an issue on Jody Hice’s radar when he was elected to represent Georgia
in 2014, but it was a priority by the time the Republican congressman finished his last term in office in 2023. As soon as the first case
of COVID-19 was detected in the United States, Hice remembers Democrat law- makers rushing to con- duct hearings about what essentially amounted to an attempted federal takeover of elections. With Americans con-
cerned about their health and livelihoods as an unknown pathogen was rap- idly spreading and infecting people, it didn’t sit right with Hice that Democrats were “focused on changing election procedures.” Using COVID-19 as an
“excuse,” he witnessed how the left started pushing a “completely false” narrative surrounding voter suppres- sion and began chipping away at one of the key pillars that the nation was founded on — the electoral process.
50 NEWSMAX | JUNE 2024 While he is no longer represent-
ing the Peach State in Congress, he is bringing attention to the importance of election security in his new book, Sacred Trust, where he outlines why it matters and highlights key principles of secure elections. “Elections are not about who wins
or loses a particular election,” Hice said. “What it is all about is whether or not the outcome was an accurate rep- resentation of the will of the people.”
With many polls indicating that
election integrity ranks as one of Americans’ “greatest concerns,” Hice said the ballot box “has to be pro- tected.” He argues that a “sacred trust”
exists when it comes to the ballot box on the side of the voter, who must believe they have a voice in determin- ing who their leader will be, and on the side of the government to “defend and protect” that safeguard. “We have got to protect the sacred-
ness of the ballot box,” he said. While the U.S. Constitution charg-
es states with putting their own rules and procedures in place for elections, Hice out- lines policies that should be “universally accepted and embraced principles from both sides of the political aisle by Ameri- cans who believe we need fair elections.” The book explains the
importance of having updated, clean voter rolls, requiring photo identifica- tion so a voter can prove they are who they say they are before casting a ballot, and the potential dangers of allowing mail-in ballots. Hice points out that the “Building Confidence in U.S. Elections” report of the Commission on Fed- eral Election Reform pub- lished by former President Jimmy Carter and James Baker in 2005 determined that mail-in ballots were a horrible idea that pro- duced a ripe environment for fraud. It was a conclusion that Hice said was “well
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