It can’t be denied that the current national election in the United States, held in November of 2020, has been a mess. If you’re willing to count that not being the case, I would imagine you’re strongly in the minority.
Whether you think one candidate won the presidency, or another did so, you’re bound to find people around you who—if they were willing to be honest—have doubts about that being the case.
As time has gone on, it’s become more and more likely, things will fall in a given direction. That said, many observing the process—whether casually, or more intently—are pretty well of a mind, that there are serious questions to be answered.
Where I have an interest in seeing a certain presidential candidate (along with those for various other elective offices) win though, that’s not the major issue where I’m concerned.
Anybody who knows me, is aware my larger focus pretty much at all times, is the future.
Where the person making his or her way into the White House at present will affect the next four years at a minimum, the integrity of the balloting and voting processes in the country, almost certainly will do so, for a substantially longer time.
The point here is, where I’m concerened about the outcome of the present elections, my greater concern, is in the future legitimacy of the American political selection process.
Where the process is still playing out, in the very near future, things will wrap up and a victor will be chosen for various offices.
When that occurs—short of some startling, and very high level corruption charges that can be substantiated being argued—the proverbial water will have made its way under the bridge, never to be seen again (at least, not in its current form).
As such, the present moment may be of import where the most recent outcome is concerned, but we must look to the future, with an eye toward bettering the process in the coming years—and by that, I mean making sure it’s as upright and transparent, as is reasonable and proper.
Looking at some of the issues we’re currently seeing, I think it entirely fair to indicate, there are at least some questions that cannot be ignored.
The lesser of these, are things like individual voter irregularities.
There have, by way of example, been voters who were told they cast ballots in states in which they previously resided. This is a problem on two obvious fronts.
To begin with, they didn’t do so, which means that vote counted, was techicnically theirs, yet wasn’t cast by them.
Additionally, if the person casting the errant ballot, voted for someone opposing the choice they made, it essentially cancels out their selection. I hope that’s not at all hard to comprehend.
It’s assumed that the number of folks to whom this happened was relatively small, so where it’s a problem, it shouldn’t be a major one.
I’m far more concerned about things like mail in ballots, that obviously never saw the inside of a security envelope. That’s even more significant, when the number of such ballots seems to have been quite large.
Keep in mind, not having been inside a security envelope by nature, makes them invalid, and therefor not countable.
Another concern would be mail in ballots cast from deceased or otherwise inelligible people, as well as from addresses that aren’t residential.
An even larger concern though, is ballot counters who were not observed in certain situations, along with caches of votes that came into counting locations enmasse, and at 4:30AM, technically after any legal ballots should have been accepted.
What makes this even more problematic if true, is that the ballots in question appear to have been overwhelmingly cast for one candidate.
This—on top of the lack of “down ballot voting” in numbers entirely inconsistent with similar data from previous elections—makes the votes in question highly suspect.
Add to this, the fact that many precints, had suspiciously high voter turnout (read here, “in many cases, more than one hundred percent of registered voters cast ballots, when the expectation was more like sixty to sixty five percent”), and things begin to get really ugly.
Then there’re questions about some of the companies providing voting machines and related software (Dominion Systems and Smartmatic among them). It’s literally true, that Texas refused to entertain or certify these systems, yet they appear to have been in use in some twenty plus U. S. states.
Having given ear to multiple presentations talking about these systems (and others), regardless the outcome of the current election, I believe a serious review is called for.
Assuming that occurs, if the problems I believe will be found actually are, those systems should be entirely scrapped and new ones put in place, regardless the related expense.
Put simply if the systems in place are not impeccable, and clearly free from signs of potential foreign influence (not interference, influence), they must be removed from the process.
In my opinion, three additional things should be addressed.
To begin with, any and all back doors must be foreknown and dealt with in some fashion.
Next, any and all auditingmust beinscrutible; and it should occur on all actions involving voting equipment.
Additionally, actual voting machines should have zero connection to any external network (to include, of course, the Internet).
There should be a manual transfer process to wide area connected systems. This is not too much to ask.
By the way, if people can be proven in appropriate venues, to have committed crimes, or can be found guilty of malfeasance in current or future elections, the punishment should be fitting to those crimes or bad actions.
At a bare minimum, guilty parties should be excluded, from future election processes.
Those who have done no wrong, should have nothing to worry about.
The important thing here, is to ensure voters aren’t disenfranchised in the process. The things I’ve indicated are needed in this piece, should help to keep that from being an issue. The voters voices must be heard, regardless whether their choices are good or bad.
In short, we can and must do better than what appears to have occurred in the present situation. This is not an option in my view, and I think you’ll find far too many out there agree with that idea. Elections should be free. Voting should be fair, and transparent. And let’s not forget, correct is more important than fast.
Thanks for reading, and may your time be good.