Dakota Beacon

America has not been this fragile since the War Between the States.  The legitimacy of our elections has come under attack for the last several election cycles, first by Democrats who claimed that Hillary Clinton was the "real winner" in 2016,  with Russia manipulating the vote, and by Republicans who claim evidence of election fraud since then.   A free republic is only as valid as its election process.  That said, we are in a lot of trouble.  If we cannot believe in our eletions, if they are open to manipulation through our vote-counting process or even if we just no longer believe they are legitimate, our leadership, our government, can no longer be deemed to be "of the people".  America is needlessly vulnerable to falling as a free country.  Only the people can do anything about it.  In North Dakota this effort is already taking shape.  

A random conversation with a friend resulted in another very interesting conversation with Lydia Gessele of Chasely, ND.  Ms Gessele is spearheading an initiative which would ban vote tabulation machines in the state of North Dakota.  Her involvement in this effort, however, is anything but random.  She was an election judge in 2022.  In that election she became acutely aware of serious problems with the vote-counting process.  It seems that the number of votes was not being tabulated correctly, indicating that either some votes were not being counted or that some were being counted more than once.  “There were a lot of votes that simply were not accounted for,” Gessele told us.

Ms Gessele told me that this initiative is not the work of any particular organization, but rather of a number of concerned citizens individually, who see the obvious danger in our elections being skewed, either through deliberate subversion or simply malfunctioning and unreliable means of counting our votes, and come together to fix the problem.  

The decision was made to go the initiative route.  This means that although support from the state legislature is welcome, the measure will not need to be approved by that body.  This will be a straight-up vote of the people, pure democracy, if you will.  Despite the fact that this measure is intended and designed specifically to provide fair and open elections and eliminate any doubt as to their legitimate results, there are those who are persisting in calling this an “anti-voting initiative”.  On the contrary, according to Gessele, the initiative proposed guarantees that the qualified electors will be able to observe the counting of ballots, that the counting will be verifiable.  “This is not a ‘party’ issue - election integrity affects everyone, regardless of party,” she notes.

Among other items, the proposed amendment would eliminate drop boxes and will limit voting to one day, rather than a “season”, as we have seen in recent elections, thus eliminating early voting.  Absentee ballots will not be mailed out to voters without a written request for them.  Gessele observed that many people had told her about receiving ballots without requesting them.  “People were telling me that they received ballots - actual ballots - in the mail that they did not request.”  When this happens there is room for a lot of error - as well as corruption.  People might conceivably vote twice - even without intending to - ballots could be lost or given away or even sold.  Sometimes they are returned to the Secretary of State, or a local Auditor’s office and these are not always accounted for.  “Even if they are returned to a county auditor, there is the possibility of an unscrupulous person in the office,” she noted.   Mere carelessness could be a factor.

With the proposed change to North Dakota election laws, ballots would have official watermarks, to ensure accuracy.  Elections would be by paper ballot and hand counted without interruption, and then scanned electronically.  The paper ballots would be preserved until they are scanned and the electronic versions maintained for at least six years.  Voters would have access to information about their elections.  There is a website where those who would like to see the full text of the proposed amendment can read it, as well as contact information for the group if they would like to participate in this project.

The goal at this point is to acquire about 32,000 signatures in order to get this measure on the ballot and give North Dakotans the opportunity to vote up or down on it.  Since the beginning of the effort, last Friday, 120 people are involved and there are already some 500+ signatures.  We asked if there was support or push-back from the state legislature.  Apparently those who oppose the proposed changes are spreading false information that it is an attempt to “suppress voting”, which seems ironic, given that no one has anything legitimate to gain by elections that are not verifiable or open.  On the other hand, at least a couple of legislators, Jeff Magrum and Lori Van Winkle, are assisting with circulating the petition.  However, she notes, “This has support from people across the spectrum - a lot of Democrats are concerned, as they should be about their votes counting, about election integrity.”

According to Gessele, many North Dakotans are unaware of the serious problems with the voting machines and hence our elections.  There is more lack of awareness in eastern North Dakota, she believes.  Although we hear a lot about Dominion voting machines, they are not the only ones that have been found to be inaccurate.  North Dakota uses ES&S machines and they, too, are producing problems.  In 2022, some votes just simply disappeared - they were left totally unaccounted for.  When we learn that the tabulating machines have not been certified by the Secretary of State since at least 2016, it is not surprising.  These machines, for their results to be accepted officially, are to be certified at least once every year.  The software is not up to date.  Gessele informed me that the tabulating machines are operating on Windows 7.0, which indicates lack of care in our election process, as this version has been outdated since the Obama administration era and support for this version ended in 2014, leaving any election result which uses it vulnerable to hacking.  Obviously something needs to be done to protect our process.

North Dakota is pioneering in the movement to take back our elections from “the machine”, although people in other states have contacted Gessele, showing interest in following North Dakota’s lead.  One person who has provided helpful information is Jessica Pollema of the South Dakota Canvassing Group, a group of citizens concerned with preserving our election process and ensuring that everyone’s vote counts (“once!”) because they realize that our freedom is contingent upon free and open elections.  Pollema alludes to findings that South Dakota had some of the most questionable, problematic elections in 2020.  This goes under the radar in part because South Dakota, like North Dakota, is a “small state” in national elections.  However, this is not a small problem - it is a huge one.  Every office is important.  A governor appoints replacements for U.S. Senators.  Local elections are vitally important, whether for city council seats, state legislators, secretaries of state or school boards.  The effect on our lives - every day - is incalculable.

The target date for petition signatures is February 12, but those working on this are really looking at late January, 2024, just to be sure.  Everyone involved in this effort knows that every “t” must be crossed, each “i” dotted - the petitions will be carefully scrutinized.  

This is the kind of hands-on democracy that requires us all to do our part.  There is no good reason to attempt to keep this initiated measure off of the June primary ballot - unless we are no longer interested in the people’s voice.  As an initiative, this bill will have its final vote on June 11.  It thus by-passes the legislature and goes straight to the people.  If we want to preserve our right to participate in our own government, this offers us the opportunity we need.  There is no legitimate reason to deny the people an opportunity to vote on this.  The only reason would seem to be a desire to silence the people’s voice and continue down the road we are on now, which is taking us farther from our founding principles of self-government.  If we are unwilling to take responsibility, we really have no right to complain or blame "the government" or our leadership.  Either we need to accept the challenge or resign ourselves and our posterity to eventual enslavement.  We have the opportunity now to act to support the republic we inherited and our forebears fought to establish and preserve for us.

When asked by a passer-by what kind of government our Constitutional Convention had given us, back in 1787, Ben Franklin famously answered, “A republic, Madame, if you can keep it.”  Our Founding Fathers knew at the time they crafted our Constitution, that it would need to be defended by each generation.  Ronald Reagan, perhaps said it best in our own time:  "Freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction."  His words are chilling.  It really is up to us.  Our free republic has become very fragile - not only from election fraud, but just as importantly, due to the appearance thereof.  An election is only valid if we can verify it, if we can see evidence that it is legitimate and most importantly - if we can believe it.  

Lydia Gessele and those she is inspiring is proof that our republic is still here, however endangered it may be.  The spirit of our founders is still alive and well in North Dakota.  

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