Commentary
FOR SIXTY YEARS, my voting experience was about the same. Where ever I lived, I could vote any time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Election Day. If necessary, my employer permitted me to vote on their time if necessary. My identity was confirmed. If I was going to be out of state or the country, as I was one year, I requested an absentee ballot.
In 2020, there really was no Election Day. Yes, November 6, was officially Election Day, but in a number of states, early voting was permitted. By October 15, 2020, 22 million Americans had already voted.
On their wish list for voting reform, Democrats now want Saturday and Sunday voting permitted, and they would like Election Day to become a national holiday. In reality, they want the federal government to control the voting process.
While it has been common to allow those in line at the time polls close to vote, in some states the closing times were arbitrarily extended beyond the time specified in state law.
Although mail-in ballots have been the practice in a handful of states, Democrats latched onto it and promoted it across the nation, using the pandemic in their reasoning. President Trump and Republicans saw this as another move by the left to corrupt our election process. Some states mailed ballots to every resident, paving the way for ballot harvesting.
As a result, mail-in ballots seriously affected the integrity of the voting process. Voters didn’t follow instructions plainly printed on the ballot. The verification of signatures was a problem. There were reports of more ballots received than residents.
Voting by absentee ballot has also become more lenient. Today, only 16 states require the voter to provide an excuse for requesting a ballot. Those serving in the military have used this procedure since the Civil War.
Voter-ID is perhaps the major stumbling block in true election reform. Until every citizen is required to have an approved voter-ID, integrity in the process isn’t possible. It allows for residency and signature verification at the polls.
Democrats continue to insult their minority voters by publicly stating they are unable to secure such identification, even though states have made it quite easy to secure one.
Though such IDs are widely required for a host of reasons – driving, entering a government facility, boarding a plane, purchasing cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, to name a few – the left continues to oppose voter-ID’s.
Then there’s the water issue; providing bottles of water to those in voting lines. Whose bone head idea was that? Democrats. Forget the electioneering boundary; they want their supporters to be able to seek votes by handing out bottles of water. That boundary is just 30 feet in Alabama, 200 feet in Alaska, and somewhere in between in most states.
While we Republicans are regularly accused of voter suppression and racism in discussion of election reform, we must continue to press for true voter integrity.
It’s a political football not unlike the NFL, but at least we have elected representatives hopefully fighting for our values. Roger Goodell and his team owners have caved to the Black Lives Matter movement and the millionaire players, who couldn’t care less what the fans want.
Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.
