Whether or not you say that he won, Joe Biden will be our next president. One can continue to look back at what happened, or one can look forward to what needs to be done.
The
Election is Over.
We had an election. Irregularities and fraud were alleged. Legal processes for those allegations were followed. The states certified their results. The electors voted. Joe Biden won that election. The votes of electors and the slates of electors can be challenged on Jan. 6, but those challenges will most certainly fail. The vote of the electors will be certified, and Joe Biden will be inaugurated as our 46th President. That is how it works in America.
I am in my 70s and every election that I can remember, whether for president or dog catcher or anything in between, has included allegations of cheating and irregularities. Sometimes recounts do change a result. That did not happen in this election.
Certainly, with mass mail-in ballots, use of electronics with its possibilities for hacking or other tampering, one can perhaps reasonably assume that some fraud occurred. There is documented evidence of some irregularities and even some cheating. There are certainly suspicious vote drops and failures to follow some state election procedures that should make one at least question what went on. But fraud has not been proven. And even if it were, that does not mean that the fraud would necessarily change the ultimate outcome of the election.
In America, we are supposed to accept the results of elections, of due legal processes, even when we do not like those results. In recent years more and more seem to find doing that to be difficult if not impossible. How many Democrats never accepted that Trump was a legitimate president? Before that, how many Republicans refused to accept that Obama was their president? How many Democrats refused to accept that Bush, not Gore, was the legitimate winner of that election?
Refusal to accept suggests not only a selfishness, but also a lack of understanding of how America works. It sounds like schoolyard kids. I don’t accept you. Well then, I won’t accept you. He started it. No, he started it. If he did it then I will do it. And on and on. But it goes nowhere.
Time to grow up. Time to review our Constitution and begin to understand how our Democratic Republic works.
I realize that some may say, “but state election procedures themselves were not followed, so this is different.” No, it is not. Those procedures could have been, and many were challenged before the election even took place. The challenges either resulted in some changes or failed. Others were challenged after the fact; those challenges also failed. Either way, there was due legal process before, during, and after the election.
Just because one thinks that legal challenges were wrongly decided does not change the decision or make it procedurally or legally wrong. Anyone who follows and understands our legal processes knows that sometimes the outcome of those processes is not what one might have wished it to be. Sometimes they are not or do not seem to be fair. But, in this country, in our Democratic Republic, we follow the legal processes and accept their results. That is how we avoid the rule of the mob, the rule of dictatorship, and how we keep our freedoms.
You do not have to congratulate Joe Biden, you do not have to like Joe Biden, you do not have to say that he won, but pursuant to our Constitution and our rule of law you do have to accept that he will be our President on Jan. 20 of 2021.
For
the Future
So, rather than whine because one did not get what one wanted, rather than continue the schoolyard name calling, it might be far more productive to work to make elections more secure in the future.
Here is one suggestion. People unhappy with the questionable integrity of this election (that should be all Americans!) can mobilize within their states to petition their state lawmakers to make changes in their election laws. I would suggest the following:
1.
Requirement that voting occur only in one of
two ways: in person during the
designated voting period or by a requested absentee ballot.
a.
In person voting must require that the voter show a
photo ID of a type approved by the state’s voting authority.
b.
Absentee ballot must be requested, and a valid
reason must be given for the request.
Such reasons might include but not be limited to: being out of the state during the election
period; being an invalid or impaired in a way that prohibits one from physically
going to the polls; having no reasonable means of transportation to the polls;
etc.
c.
Submitted absentee ballots shall use signature matching
or similar verification before the vote is counted.
2.
Required steps for security of the voting and
counting procedures.
a.
Requirement that appropriate steps be taken to
guard against cyber-interference with the election, including but not limited
to checking and protecting voting machines and tallying machines.
b.
Requirement that even when machines tabulate
votes that paper ballots be preserved.
c. Requirement that one observer from every major party represented on the ballot must be present in each polling place during voting and present during any handling, including verification and counting of ballots and votes.
With relatively simple steps such as these, perhaps we could instill a greater faith in our election process. None of the above are difficult to implement and would go a long way towards election integrity, and in dispelling allegations of cheating, irregularities, and fraud, whether real or imagined.
In the meantime, we all need to remember that this is America and we are Americans. We don’t always get what we want. Neither do we necessarily get what we need. But, because this is a government of/for/by the people, we are always able to look forward and do more than simply wring our hands over what has already happened. Even if we feel what happened was wrong, we have the right and the power to stand up and turn whatever hate we may have for what has passed to hope and action for the future. That is America.
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