Hanging in the balance
One of the many things that has frustrated me throughout the Trumpian Bombasty is the continual stories about rampant ballot fraud. I am no expert here but this has been debunked over and over and over again. Trump’s own voting integrity commission was disbanded in 2018 after evidence of widespread fraud was not found (google it-you’ll find multiple sources). Does he ever talk about that in his incoherent Twitter rants? No, he does not.
This feels like a set of conspiracy theories to me and if I were an election official, I would be highly insulted that people apparently do not trust the system. A popular blogger who I have followed for a long time worked a Detroit precinct on Tuesday and here is what she has to say on the subject. A great read. My cousin the Grand Poohbah is a long time poll worker in another state. She doesn’t blog but I bet she has plenty of first-hand observations about voter fraud or lack thereof.
These folks are trained to follow detailed rules and procedures for all aspects of working the polls. And they are not doing it just for fun, although I’m sure it can be a lot of fun. They care deeply about making sure our elections are fair and our votes are counted accurately.
I do have a little election fraud story of my own. Back in the dark ages when I had my “childhood” career, I worked with a woman whose father owned a small apartment building in Ann Arbor. His legal residence was in one of our little satellite villages. Dexter maybe? Anyway, he felt so strongly about a certain proposal on the Ann Arbor ballot (I totally forget what, likely something to do with real estate or taxes) that he voted in both Ann Arbor and Dexter. Or tried to. Guess what? He got caught.
Our dedicated, hard-working election officials deserve our utmost respect, especially when working during a pandemic.
November 6th, 2020 at 6:58 pm
The latest disrespect and threatening behavior toward poll volunteers adds on to the same disgusting behavior toward doctors and nurses who are now the “enemy” if you don’t believe in Covid. Which was supposed to gone after election day. Hmmm.
November 7th, 2020 at 11:03 am
Thanks for the good words re election workers! We only turned away a couple of voters. The one call I had to make to the BOEC (Board of Election Commissioners), was for a voter who had moved from St. Louis County to St. Louis City. She didn’t show up on the City’s list, so they sent her to us, but she didn’t show up on our lists either. The BOEC worker checked and she was deleted on the county list, but had not be registered in the city. She checked the state-wide registry, and she wasn’t there either. I was able to give her a registration form to mail in, so next election she will be able to vote. She was disappointed, but note angry.