A recent article in the Epoch Times titled Voter Fraud Convictions Challenge Narrative of Secure Elections provides an overview of the many electoral , lets call them 'shenanigans', that have become inconvenient truths to the 'safe and secure' declarations by those liking the results. For decades American machine-based complex electoral system has been suspect. After every election usually just the losing side has declared they have been robbed due to fraud, miscount, Russia interference, machine malfunction, foreign hacking and the like.
There have also been many cases of proven fraud in various forms and even proven machine malfunction.
The most recent presidential election of 2020 was perhaps the most debated and even today according to a Rasmussen poll some 30% of voters believe that the election was 'rigged'. Of course 'rigged' is a broad term and it includes electoral interference in a multitude of ways; fraudulent votes, misinformation or disinformation, by media withholding information on Hunter Biden's laptop, the ex CIA authorities claiming the laptop was a Russian plot, the modification of absentee vote procedures contrary to state legislation with COVID as the excuse. Indeed an article in Time magazinedetailed the extent to which the Democratic party 'fortified' their votes by let's face it 'shenanigans'.
The Epoch Times article lists several recent electoral fraud cases when laws were broken courts found and sentenced guilty parties, and even nullified elections. After the 2020 election, there were thousands of affidavits by observers and election workers of what appeared to be fraud. Many led to court cases, some 60 in total. Most however did not go to face judgement as the claims were dismissed due to technicalities. The few that did go to court mostly resulted in wins for the claimants.
So why am I revisiting this issue today some 3 years after the last election? We are now 11 months from the next significant election and nothing seems to have changed to tighten up the electoral system. Indeed it is in many cases far worse. The media, big tech, Biden's institutions (DOJ and FBI) are even more polarised than they were in 2020. So no matter who wins the election there will be extensive claims of electoral fraud.
If Republicans win it will be against the tide of anti-Republican leanings by most of the power centres of the US political scene. The Democrats will no doubt generate a crescendo of calls to nullify the results, as they did in 2016.
If the Democrats win the Republicans will no doubt also claim they have been cheated, as Trump has claimed now for 3 years, and no doubt with some justification.
So what can be done about this? I would suggest the electoral system must be simplified. Machines invite abuse, absentee voting invites abuse, and lack of identification opens abuse. A majority of the World's democracies have elections with paper ballots, manually counted, with in-person voting on election day. Absentee ballots are allowed but they are highly restricted and with mandatory identification. Results are out within the day or in unusual cases a week. It is not that hard.
The key elements; -
- paper ballots
- in person voting on election day
- voters marked off against a roll after providing ID
- all ballots are manually counted in locations close to where voting takes place
Australia has mandatory voting which also eliminates all the effort by parties to get people out to vote. You do not actually have to vote, but you do have to go and have your name maarked off on the electoral roll, again on the day of the election. Elections are on Saturdays , again allowing people to vote without affecting most people's work. It is your duty as a citizen. This also ensures the electoral roles are up to date, to some extent.
Unless there is substantial reform of the system the US will repeat the farcical situation where a substantial proportion of the population believes the election was rigged. No democracy can survive if elections are not trusted by the voters.
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