Tag: election integrity

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SHOULD VOTERS TRUST MACHINES?

The latest glitch in the California recall election is enough to alarm any voter. People who came to the polls in San Fernando Valley were informed that they had already voted,  and therefore couldn’t vote again.  Turned out they actually hadn’t voted—it was just a malfunction of a voting machine. Consequently, they were given provisional ballets. Oh, this is so scary.  Anything could happen to provisional ballets.  They might be disqualified, or even thrown in the waste basket.   As a result of this debacle, everyone is wondering: Should voters trust machines?

The integrity of our voting process  has always been fragile.  My first year out of college, I had a roommate who was a volunteer at a voting site on the South Side of Chicago. I think her father was a big wheel in the Republican party in downstate Illinois.  Therefore, she was more involved with  politics than anyone I had ever known at that age.

This was the year that Kennedy was elected in a very narrow victory over Nixon.  That evening,  Carol came home from her stint in a snit.  Seems bottles of whiskey were being passed out to folks who voted they way they were told.  The story of Joe Kennedy stealing the election in Illinois is pretty much accepted as history nowadays.  But at the time,  the public was too naïve to think anyone could get away with such blatant bribery and election rigging. Supposedly, you can’t give food and drink to people waiting in line to vote.  But apparently they did this year in certain cities.

 People shouldn’t have to stand in long line  lines to vote.  I wouldn’t vote at all, if that were the case.  Because I’m retired, I can go to the polls at a convenient time, but not everyone can.    I’m pretty much okay with mail in ballots, as long as they’re verified with a voter ID.  Signature matching?  I dunno.  A lot of young people don’t sign their name in cursive.  They just scribble a few lines to represent their signature. Cursive isn’t even taught in some schools.

Should Voters Trust Machines? Probably not.
Should Voters Trust Machines? Hand counting votes would restore trust in the process.

As a matter of fact,   I  believe we’re way too reliant on computers to do the counting.  As the saying goes, there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip.  My pc messes up a lot.  Push the wrong button, and the results are totally skewed.  And since they have to do hand recounts on close elections, it seems to me they may as well do hand counts to begin with.  Should voters trust machines?  Let’s take the time to get it right, and restore faith in the voting system

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WHAT IF IT WERE TRUE?

In a couple of days, the electoral college will vote to certify the presidential election.  A lot of Republicans are going to protest, saying there’s proof of voter fraud in several states.  I doubt if that effort is going anywhere, but it makes you wonder if they’re going to keep pursuing it,  like a dog with a bone. What if it were true, after all?   Would we have to redo the entire election?

What if it were true? If election fraud was proven, would we redo the election?
What if it were true? If voter fraud is proven later on, would we redo the election?

This latest election has been a wake up call for many voters, who thought the voting process was uniform across the United States.  In my state of Indiana, you have to have a valid ID, and a signature check in order to vote in person or by absentee ballot.  That seems like a pretty reasonable requirement. However, I  did not know that other states have different rules.  You can vote by mail with no signature or identification.  Paper ballots can be run off on xerox machines, and they will be considered valid.  In states like Nevada, people can vote twice.

Up until now, I believed that real people counted the votes.  I was unaware that the task had been assigned to machines.  It really undermines a person’s faith in the entire electoral process.

If certain  states have allowed these loosey goosey voting requirements to go on for a long time, then it seems that both political parties are at fault.. Somewhere along the line, someone should have stood up and asked for election reform.  But since they didn’t, they have only themselves to blame for the current mess we’re in.

What’s happened now  is that most  American’s believe  that our  electoral system is deeply flawed.  Many of us have lost faith in the entire process.  That’s not good for our country in the long run.  The Democrats may have benefited from the loopholes in the system this time around, but it could come back to bite them in future elections if the Republicans figure out ways to beat the system in future elections.

Again, what if it were true?  What if proof of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election  finally comes to light a year from now?  Would  we have a do over election?  Would Biden have to move out, and Trump move back in the White House?  There’s no precedent for this scenario, and no rules established.  I guess the legislature would have to figure it all out.