The EAI Blog is a forum for our members and followers to post and share a variety of perspectives on topical issues. We encourage diverse, and civil debate. These opinions do not necessarily reflect the position of the Institute.

All-Mail Voting Doesn’t Increase Participation

Bill Gardner, New Hampshire’s Democrat secretary of state has been in his office since 1976, so he has seen and overseen quite a few elections. He testified before congress in vehement opposition to H.R. 1, the proposed legislation that would, among other things, expand vote-by-mail in throughout the nation. Proponents nationally, and here in Vermont as we debate our own proposal to absentee ballots to all voters regardless of request, say this will increase turnout. 

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The Costly Montpelier Hotel Fiasco

Everybody in Montpelier is already well aware of the decades long and now abandoned Capital Plaza hotel and parking garage project, but for the benefit of others let me quote Charles Martin, of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.

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Voter fraud in three easy steps

By Matthew Strong

In this third and final installment of an investigative series into Vermont election security and the impacts of S.15, we look to Town Clerk feedback, and what simple measures could be included in S.15 to make it work, and another option to mass mailing ballots every election.

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Left-wing Host Pokes Fun at Low-Covid Information Leftists

On April 16, Bill Maher gave a scathing, pointed monologue that somehow managed to get his left-leaning audience to laugh at themselves.

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The “Cloud Tax” is Back! (And You Won’t Believe Where….)

For years, legislators on the left have been eager to tax so called “cloud” services, or, as the legal language refers to them, “specified digital products transferred electronically to an end user regardless of whether for permanent use or less than permanent use and regardless of whether or not conditioned upon continued payment from the purchaser; or - … vendor-hosted prewritten computer software and the right to access and use vendor-hosted prewritten computer software to perform data processing services.”

In English, think Spotify, Pandora, TurboTax, Adobe products, Microsoft Office, Netfilx, Hulu, etc. and so on ad infinitum.

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Vermont on Path to Having Least Secure Mail-In Voting Process In the Country

By Matthew Strong

Following Secretary of State Jim Condos’ appearance on the WVMT radio show, Morning Drive, where he was confronted by a caller claiming to be a Middlebury landlord who witnessed students “scooping up” and fraudulently submitting unclaimed or unwanted mailed ballots in the last election, we have been asking the Secretary’s office for specific details regarding security measures, or lack thereof, in Vermont’s proposed vote-by-mail bill, S.15. So far, Eric Covey, spokesperson for the office, has been adamant that there is no fraud in Vermont, but evasive regarding specific questions about specific vulnerabilities in the system.

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Defending Donor Privacy

One of the big causes on the Left is to make nonprofit organizations reveal their donors.  A case in the US Supreme Court, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra, challenges California's blanket requirement for nonprofits to disclose their top donors on their tax reports. 

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With Woke Friends Like These….

With the “Woke” seeping with their poisonous politics into every aspect of American culture like a bad smell, it’s sad but not shocking to see Major League Baseball caving to calls to move the All Star Game out of Atlanta, Georgia, to Denver, Colorado. Here, in a nutshell, is why this is so colossally stupid, and why this episode should serve as a cautionary tale for Black Americans who think it might be a good idea to get into political bed with these dishonest, selfish, manipulative people….

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Taxes & Government Spending

Introduction

EAI believes Vermont is spending money on government services at an unsustainable rate. In order to pay for these services, Vermonters are being asked to pay more in taxes and fees with each passing year. Taxation must be circumscribed and limited else it will “defeat and render useless the power to create.” By what principle should it be limited? There is a principle embedded in our system which provides inherent limits to all taxation. It is so basic to our political institutions that it should govern every legislator, every executive, and every judge. It precedes all our constitutions, all our laws, and all our political institutions. It brought them into existence; it sustains them; without it they are a nullity.

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Bill Would Fine Contractors $5000 for “Unauthorized Practice”

The Vermont House will act on bill H.157 the week of April 5 to require every contractor to register with the state Office of Professional Regulation if the value of the work and  materials provided to a home owner amounts to $2500 or more.

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