While we wait for the 2020 Election to be settled

Limbo.  Stuck.  Apprehension.  Frozen.  Worried.  Anyone to the Right of AOC likely feels one, many, or all of these emotions.  All due to the 2020 Presidential Election, presumably held nearly THREE WEEKS AGO (11/3), but still unsettled.  Former Vice President Joe Biden, along with Senator Kamala Harris, seem to have won enough Electoral College Delegates to defeat the incumbent President Donald Trump, and his running mate, Vice President Mike Pence.  But, like all things 2020, nothing is settled at all.  Let’s dig.

Every ‘battleground’ State is either under recount, legal challenges, or both.  We have had every possible accusation of voter and election fraud, from dead people voting, to mysterious 3am vote counts all going Biden’s way, to simply unheard of voter turnout in MANY districts, to allegations that the ballot counting hardware and software from Dominion Voting Systems (coincidentally in ALL of the ‘battleground’ States) is fraudulent, and can a.  Add votes to a contestant, b. Subtract votes from a candidate, c.  Shift votes from one contestant to another, d.  Apply an algorithm to the votes (some nefarious calculation), rather than just counting, e.  You name it.  All of the ‘battleground’ States but one (GA) all have similar demographics:  they have Democrat Governors and Heads of Elections, Trump won them in 2016, and the Dominion hardware/software thing. 

Lawsuits are flying fast and furious.  Former NYC Mayor Rudi Giuliani heads a team of high-profile legal staff, including Lin Wood, Jay Sekulow, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis.  Suits are at State level (MI, WI, NV, AZ, PA, and GA), and some are expected to percolate to the United States Supreme Court.  Late breaking news has the Trump team distancing themselves from Sidney Powell, who has made quite serious claims (Dominion related, mostly).  Now, this could be a formality, as Ms. Powell has never formally represented Mr. Trump—and it could be a potential conflict, as she is head counsel for General Michael Flynn.  I’m not a lawyer, so please find that ‘grain of salt’ everyone talks about.  I do not know the ins and outs of that world, so I’ll leave it for other non-lawyers (media) to chime in.

But the point of this article:  how do the 73 MILLION people that cast votes for Trump/Pence feel right now?  Note:  73M would be the most votes EVER cast for a single candidate—except for the Biden ticket in 2020!  Most non-Liberals feel if Biden/Harris win this thing, it was an illegitimate ‘election’.  And most know that the evidence necessary for the Court to overturn an election must be severe, blatant, and of a HUGE quantity.  So we wait, knowing that Trump’s re-election is in the hands of the Court.  By existing vote counts, if the States certify them, Biden will be elected the 46^th President of the United States.  Hence the limbo.

The silver lining to this extremely dark cloud (for GOP and Conservatives):  the Blue Wave that was forecast was so WRONG, it brings into question the validation of the entire polling process.  They weren’t just ‘a bit off’, they were astoundingly off.  Not only did the Democrats NOT pick up the predicted seats in the House of Representatives, they LOST at least 11 seats from their former majority.  Not only did they not take the majority in the Senate, as was forecast, they have a best-case-for-them 50-50 split, pending two run-off elections in GA, early in January.  If they lose either of those seats, their ability to ram in Liberal policies, such as adding members to the Supreme Court, eliminating the filibuster, and affecting the Electoral College, is almost nonexistent.  They may have trouble even getting bills approved in the House—only 6 Democrat defectors, and no GOP support, would prevent bills from passing.  Of the 27 seats that the polls listed as ‘trending Democrat’, the GOP won…27.

A bigger question, regardless of the outcome of this election:  was cheating involved?  Not on a vote-by-vote basis—that is almost a stone-cold lock.  And the statistical analysis performed by many others certainly sheds flood-lights of doubt on the entire process.  We already have waves of distrust in MANY of our institutions:  media, law enforcement, judicial system, educational systems, and government as a whole.  How does our Constitutional Republic weather a storm if most don’t have any faith in electing representatives?  And, if there was cheating, and it goes unpunished, what is to keep it from continuing?  That is a winning formula, if you can make it work.

The next meaningful date is December 14^th, when Electoral College delegates cast their votes (pending court challenges).  If the Court deems the election was illegitimate, the Constitution demands that the House, with one vote per State, select the President, and the Senate selects the Vice President in the same manner.  If this happens, Trump/Pence will be re-elected, as the GOP controls 30 of the 50 State Houses.  I don’t predict the PAST well, so I won’t even attempt to predict the outcome of this process, or all of the legal wrangling.

But the potential damage to the accuracy and confidence of our election process needs to be FIXED, right now.  Voter rolls need to be culled of dead and moved away folks, period.  The ‘mail-in’ ballots allowed this year (due mainly to COVID-19 response) need to be eliminated—their inability to verify the voter is such a recipe for fraud as to be too inviting to skip.  Dominion Voting Systems hardware and software needs a front-to-back, comprehensive audit.  It is a tabulation software product, COUNTING votes cast.  Any other ‘algorithm’ is not only unnecessary, but ripe for vote fixing.  And access to these machines and systems needs to be as bulletproof as possible.  The in-person voting process should be cleaned up as well, requiring a government issued ID to PROVE whom is voting.  Every other adult activity requires such an ID in the United States (and most anywhere else).  Any excuse to skip this requirement is specious at best.  Lastly, ‘voter harvesting’, where third-parties can go gather ballots from others, needs to stop YESTERDAY.  To summarize:  if you can’t verify who the voter is, and whether or not that voter has already cast a ballot somewhere else, and the chain of custody of the ballots is not as stringent as our cash at an ATM, trust will NOT be re-earned.  And it shouldn’t be.  So, we wait.