Dakota Beacon

We can no longer permit our federal elections to be handled by the states under 50 different systems and 50 different laws.  What it amounts to is a violation of equal protection.  How the various states want to run local elections might be another story.  It is up to citizens of each state to allege such violations, whether individual or party or candidate organizations. This is not something we should any longer put on the honor system.  It may be that the people of Michigan are fine with having their elections subverted, but the rest of us should not be paying for it with anyone on the ballot for a federal office - Senate, House or President, nor should America be bound by the vagaries of Michigan or Pennsylvania or Nevada laws and practices.

We have instances of every kind of voter fraud, giving credence to Joseph Biden’s own claim that the Democrats have assembled “the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics”.  There is an astounding variety of ways in which the election of Biden was supposed to be secured - throwing away ballots marked for Trump;  insisting on voters using sharpies (used in “Republican-leaning” precincts) that could not be scanned, ensuring that these would be tossed out as “spoiled ballots”; using COVID as an excuse for mass mailing of applications for ballots or even ballots literally; ballot harvesting in many locations; postal workers instructed to back-date envelopes containing ballots; ballots which were counted which had only one candidate - Biden - on them; preventing poll watchers and observers of the counting from being able to see the ballots or watch the counting; putting up opaque coverings on windows so that no one could see the room where the counting was being done; mysterious “bomb threats” and “burst water mains” which actually did not affect the counting buildings used as an excuse to stop counting; stopping of all counting in just those   states which were considered “battleground” states, when Trump had a comfortable lead, some for more than a day - when counting resumed there was a sudden spike in only Biden votes, in several notable cases with no votes whatsoever for Trump (a statistical impossibility).  If all of the above were not enough (and it is) there was still one important tool left - the “hammer and scorecard” - the Dominion tabulating system and software used to switch votes from Trump to Biden.  Several “glitches” were caught.  If they hadn’t been, the “hammer and scorecard” fraud would have gone undetected and gone down as just one more “conspiracy theory” for tin hats.  We know these were not “glitches”.  “Glitch” means a “defect or malfunction in a machine or plan” and this was not a “defect or malfunction”.  It was a built-in enhancement - in fact, it was key to the function of the tabulation program.  If you doubt this, remember that in no instance did this so-called “glitch” produce a vote switched to Trump.  That, too, is a statistical impossibility.

Dominion allegedly has ties to several powerful Democrats, including the Clintons, Diane Feinstein and Nancy Peolosi.  It was used, in fact, by Hugo Chavez to steal the Venezuelan election which destroyed that country.  And this was said to have been used in this election in 33 states!  This, alone should end the absurdity of allowing 50 different states to run federal elections.  This feckless and irresponsible approach to our election process will destroy America in a short time.  It is insanity to put our nation in the hands of the Chicago or Detroit political machines.  

I have had the odd occasion to go to the local federal office building.  It houses some federal officials’ local offices and the local semi-functioning branch of the I.R.S.  Only one door is open to the public.  When you go in, there is a full-size scanner and x-ray conveyor belt somewhat like you’d see in an airport.  There are two armed federal employees.  I always set off the alarm because I have a metal plate in my arm.  So they have to scan me with a sort of “ray gun”.  This is just so I can pick up a form in the I.R.S. waiting room.  The guards are there even if all they do is tell me the office is closed.  Yet our polling places seem to have been open at all hours.  There were reports - during the stop in vote counting - where poll watchers filmed people coming and going at the vote counting areas.  They were totally unsecured.  Commentator Bill Whittle observed that because one of the workers with free access appeared not to have ballots in the wagon he pulled into the area, that this issue was “debunked”, when, in fact, the real issue was not the contents of the wagon, but the total lack of security of the area and the broken chain of custody of the ballots.  That was not “debunked”.  That charge stands.

When ballots are delivered in multiple unofficial vehicles at vote counting sites at 4:00 a.m. during a stop in counting when observers have been sent home until the next morning, there is no security and no confidence in our system.  We are no better than Venezuela in our election process - and we know where that takes us.  We are no better than our election security.

It would be relatively simple to correct much of this and restore confidence, hopefully, in our elections - confidence which has been lost this time.  We might need to vet and add people to the counting and handling staff and these people should have to get fairly high security clearance to even work there.  Instead of hiring high school students and part-time temps and having them trained by activists and employees of corrupt political machines, we should have people who are highly trained security people perhaps “loaned out” for three months for training and for the actual job.  Our elections, I should think, are worth that.  

First of all we need uniform, federally-issued, specially and secretly marked ballot forms.  We must ensure that we count no counterfeit ballots.  My brother reminds me that our lottery tickets are very closely controlled.  There is really no way to counterfeit these.  The numbers are traceable, it is not possible to change them and you can trace them to the exact point of sale. If we can do this for a $2 lottery ticket we can sure as hell do it for our elections process.  

We must return to the “traditional” concept of voting in person on election day, not voting early and not voting via mass mailing.  We have a system which easily accommodates every eligible voter - those who cannot vote in person need only request an application for an absentee ballot.  This process could be started earlier so that signatures, addresses and other identifying information provided on the application can be verified before sending a ballot.  No absentee ballots should be accepted before, say, one week prior to Election Day.  We should all be voting with the same information.  In-person voters should be told they must have state-issued photo I.D. and proof of address in order to vote.  We could, perhaps, use a computer system, also carefully vetted, to cross check for possible multiple votes.  The area can be secured by an armed federal employee during voting hours, just as the federal building is guarded all day by the two employees in Grand Forks.  When the polls close the absentee ballots for that location should be delivered and counting of in-person votes commenced.  It might take all night.  In any case, election judges and clerks need to plan on being there until the end of the counting and signing off on their totals.  Absentee ballots should be counted after the in-person ones and cross-checked against the list of voters and verified again before they are tabulated.  No computers should be used, just hand-counting, even if it takes a week.  Computers have a terrible reputation now, and voter confidence must be restored.  None of us will ever trust computers for this again.

The counting should be held where everyone who wants to observe may do so.  Inside the secure counting area observers for both (all) candidates’ parties must have adequate access to be able to easily and clearly see what the counters are doing, and during voting should sit near the election officials and keep their own records of who voted and approximately when.  We could provide livestreaming of the entire process at all locations, as well as security cameras and microphones.  We need to hear what poll workers are being told and see what they are doing.  Absolutely no deliveries of ballots to count should be accepted 10 minutes after the polls close.  All that would be needed is for the ballots to be taken to the polling place within that time frame to be counted.  If there is a genuine “glitch” in getting the ballots there this must be dealt with as a separate issue, complete with high security to ensure the legitimacy of the ballots.  I have worked at polling places as an official at different times.  It was always a priority to be absolutely secure about ballots.  We used voting machines for in-person voting back then (I think it’s a bad idea and should be stopped) and when the counting was done for that we began the absentee count.  When this was done and everyone there agreed to the correctness of the numbers everything was bundled into a manila envelope, a string secured the closure and red sealing wax was applied to the knot of the string.  Signatures were on the envelope.  We were swearing that what was in the envelope was the true vote.  If someone challenged it we were on the hook to explain everything we did.  We were very careful.

Absentee voting should be cut off at least three days prior to in-person Election Day and absentee ballots carefully checked against voter rolls and verified as to the age, address and eligibility of the voter.  This, too, should be observed by representatives of all concerned political parties.

And then we need to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those who violate election laws - even the smallest and most “casual”.  Chelsea Handler, for example, should be prosecuted for buying the vote of rapper 50 Cent, whether she offered services or cash, regardless of whether he took her up on it or not.  What she did was akin to bribing a judge or a police officer or jury tampering.   Anyone subverting the election at the polls should be fully prosecuted and the punishment should be draconian, not merely severe.  If it is a violation which even has the potential to change the outcome, d the election should be held over again in such district.

Maybe this sounds “elaborate”.  So what?  If our elections are not worth securing, our republic is at an end.  People around the world yearn for what we have - an opportunity to decide our own future and our own leaders.  They would give and have given their very lives for what too many of us take for granted or even find a nuisance.  We can’t put our trust in the state, we can’t trust computers and software, we can’t be in the least casual about the security of ballots and polling places.  There is no reason why, in 2020, our people and our system cannot hold a fair, honest and secure election.  This must be the priority for the administration of whomever is finally certified the winner of the election:  we must ensure that this never, ever, ever happens again.  If we don’t act quickly and with certainty to correct our system and restore voter confidence in the election process, the enemies of freedom will have won.

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