A friend of mine wrote about concerns raised immediately following the 2020 election. Despite the multiple reports of voting irregularities – from non-resident voting in Nevada to unsupervised tabulations in Michigan and Wisconsin (and Georgia) to the wholesale ignorance (as in intentionally ignoring) of state law in the voting process and tabulations in Pennsylvania – we have been told to accept apparent voter fraud…. because it has not been shown to impact the election results. Some chastised President Trump for continuing in his lawsuits when it became clear the end result would not be a Trump victory… others did things that make “chastise” a very mild word to use describing their attacks on the President’s actions.
Those who seem hell-bent on the “nothing here, move along” story fail to recognize the fundamental issues at play in any illegal voting activities. Curious how we have heard that mantra (move along….) from mainstream media and others when embarrassing stories might place Dems in a poor light (Uranium One, Hillary’s damaged server, Beau Biden’s laptop come to mind)? The point is that allowing any continued voter fraud to occur without repercussions creates two separate conclusions – those who commit and fail to receive negative consequences are emboldened to continue and those who see questionable actions that are ignored lose hope in the integrity of our electoral process.
The media demands proof before recognizing it may be a story … when it comes to voter fraud benefiting Democrats. Where was the same analysis used when allegations are made against those from another party – Russia collusion, impeachment allegations (in this case Round I or Round II)? The answer – there is a documented and unabashed slant in news coverage at the national level, and it has become more and more unapologetic over the past decade.
My friend (who has a scientific background) noted that data found in a laboratory that is compromised must be rejected and the experiment repeated to exclude any corrupted data. Applied to elections, any totals impacted by manipulated or erroneous votes must remain uncertified until a review is conducted to ensure no fraud or error has been involved in the vote process (whether that excludes a certain group or an entire vote) The existence of impropriety is the required element, not that it had a certain effect on the outcome.
This is particularly true after this past year. Each state legislature is tasked with establishing election laws for that state – yet several states deviated from those rules either by executive fiat or judicial interference, despite their respective legislature having ample time to address any appropriate deviations prior to the election cycle. All actions (with one exception) taken outside those legislative bodies were unconstitutional and should be ignored – but in many circumstances the applicable source of appeal (the judiciary) failed to rectify the actions.
The U,S, Constitution does include language allowing actions outside state legislatures – but that refers authority to Congress (not judges or executive branch officials). This past cycle argues well for a national standard concerning the processes of managing, voting and tabulating elections of federal offices. While our system has established a federal system with limited reach over the states, fundamental fairness mandates equal treatment of a voter in Pennsylvania or Georgia to a voter in Florida or Texas. Allowing such divergent processes – coupled by wholesale violations of the local laws viewed by the blind eye of justice – only serves to drive further division between those who abide by the law and those who manipulate it. Only with a uniform voting process (limited absentee/early voting, voting with proper Identification and consistent tabulation of votes) across state lines will we begin the process of restoring integrity to our national electoral offices.
