Earlier this week I saw a post headline saying “Ballots found thrown outside and they all were for Trump” (the latter part in all caps, deemphasized by me here). So, I wanted to get to the real facts here as the link to the supposed official statement in the article, from a less than reputable outlet, didn’t work. But I went ahead and went to the US Attorney Middle Penn District site, and found the real release, which provides better details and debunks the “all were for Trump” moniker: https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/letter-luzerne-county-bureau-elections.
I have seen, and I am certain I will see and hear and so forth, numerous articles and reports of issues with mail, or ballot processing, or what not over the coming weeks and months as it relates to the election that is underway (another this morning from Wisconsin). And with the president of the USA saying he “has to see” about whether there’ll be a peaceful transition of power after the election, as he believes there are “issues with the ballots,” there is certain to be outrage, anxiousness, and fear mongering to ensue. So I want to post here something to set things straight, in context and in respect to the realities. Succinctly, save your outrage folks about fraud and irregularities, because you really need to get a grip and we need to get our head around what is and is not happening.
Here’s my point, first, no one claimed anyone was lily white innocent of voter tampering or of making a mistake or of committing fraud. No one is be-knighted a saint. Let me state what is a clairvoyant fact: humans, by definition, are not perfect. This is why election boards have at least two parties as observers to keep each other honest. Fraud and mistakes and procedural errors happen, there’s no question of that reality. Whether any of this, however, is a significant problem, is what matters.
So second, the fact that this case was caught (or as you’ll read in many present and future cases, it was caught) as in nearly every case, and addressed promptly (within the week, here, often within the day), demonstrates that there is not a significant problem when it comes to our election, because, you just can’t get away with it over 99% of the time. Is it bad that 6 ballots (in this particular case in Penn.) are not going to be counted? Yes, our goal is that every vote counts. Is it so bad that the election (or any election) will turn on it? That is highly, highly, doubtful. And if these do become the 6 critical votes, then there are remedies to resolve the issue that are proven, fair, and effective. Is this a sign of widespread systematic fraud? Most likely not. More importantly, is it widespread systematic fraud that will be effective or have a significant effect on the outcome of the election? Most certainly not. Because it is almost always caught and it almost always is resolved to address the core issues of ensuring votes count and the votes cast are legitimate.
Further, the only way fraud could potentially work is if:
a) there was enough fraudulent ballots to have a significant effect on the race,
b) the candidate actually won the race, and
c) it wasn’t caught in any way (whether legally or through investigative journalism or an audit or through the many other means that it is likely to be).
The level of effort required would be pretty unparalleled at this point, but is it possible? Yes, it is. But it would have to be coordinated, I don’t see how it couldn’t be, and I’d say it’d probably be harder than just running a campaign in the first place. The moment there would be a whiff of any fraud at play, however, the game would be up and it would be roundly resolved, not in the favor of the cabal who attempted it. It’s just not worth it and it’s just not likely, especially at the national (too many wrinkles) or local level (too expensive and too known). Where there’s been more marked cases has been for state offices, and NY has been a poster child for this in the past (even up through the 1980s), but so has the southeastern US and other places. It’s a dying art, and that is why it’s probably getting so much attention (aside from 45’s false hyperbole and cult following), in that its rare enough to make you think it’s not possible or worth trying, yet cases persist, even as they are almost always caught.
So, please, you and others who are outraged, nervous, or plain unhinged, keep posting about cases where folks, left, right and center, try voter fraud, have errors, make mistakes, and so forth, where they are caught and the election is proven to be well secured. There will be many, this isn’t really new. All it does is show that the problem isn’t with the ballots or the system for absentee/mail in voting, because it corrects itself amazingly well, especially with the heightened awareness you and yours are putting on it (hence why it seems that there is “so much more of it”, yet it’s just a symptom of the fact that we can get information (good or bad) faster and with more volume than ever before). What is proven here, and in the numerous posts and articles and reports to come, is people take voting seriously and holding people to account; that isn’t a problem, that is a very good thing. There’s not a “problem with the ballots”. Quite the contrary. The focus is on them and it will be watched ever more carefully, making sure we have a free and fair election, to the best of our human capacities, imperfect as they are. To that end, hold your outrage for how people, who are entrusted with offices of public trust, behave when they receive the results. Let us pray they act in accordance with our highest principles not our lowest, carnal responses, and we make no excuse or quarter for the latter.
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