There’s a kerfuffle in progress over ex-President Joe Biden’s (D) extensive use of the autopen to sign a plethora of Presidential edicts, nominations, and especially pardons. That kerfuffle has spilled over into questions of who actually was in charge of the White House given Biden’s mental capacities, but I’m concerned here only with the autopen.

The purpose of the autopen is to sign documents that are time sensitive and need to be signed right now, but the President is out of the office and cannot get back within the time available. That’s a perfectly fine purpose.

However, as we’re seeing now, it’s far too easy for person or persons unknown to abuse the autopen, especially in the absence of any sort of logs memorializing each use, who actually manipulated it, and who authorized its use. So: get rid of the autopen altogether.

Replace the autopen with a Remote Pen that has the pen connected to the President’s hand over the Internet (via a secure connection that authenticates both the President and the White House end). The President can use a suitably designed connected pen (a proper item in the Internet of Things) to sign a blank piece of paper (to be subsequently destroyed), with that personal signature aped over the Internet connection by the Remote Pen passing over the document to be signed. That has the President personally signing the document(s) he needs to sign, rather than a functionary independently manipulating an autopen and document.

Aside: given the number of witnesses “testifying before the House regarding who was running the White House autopen and the White House in general, I do wonder: what crime(s) do these personages think they might be charged with?