On Election Audits and Fires Without Fuel
Arizona private Trump supporters spent $5.7 million reexamining 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County and the taxpayers will have to foot the $2.8 million to replace voting machines the “forensic audit” tainted. If you spend that much money, you must have thought you’d come out with startling election fraud proof. Nope. In fact, the “audit” showed Biden won by MORE votes than originally tabulated. Normal people would hide their heads in shame and apologize for a massive mistake. But America isn’t dealing with normal people anymore.

Our politics are now like a reversable jacket. You think you’re wearing grey, but once flipped around, it’s paisley. The Arizona “audit” reported Biden still won. You wouldn’t know that from the Trump take on it. It’s a victory, they boldly claim. The “audit” pointed to a number of what it claimed were questionable votes, that if ever verified, might change the election results. Never mind, that the “questionable votes” weren’t questionable at all. They had all been explained to the novice “auditors” by actual and experienced election officials, as verified and legitimate votes. But let’s not have facts get in the way of something that stirs the hearts of the Trump base. They know their guy couldn’t have lost, there has to be fraud out there, so like a gold digger, they just keep prospecting.

Now its on to Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania. Trump WON Texas and Florida. He’s auditing his own victory in those states. Why? Because he wants to negate the votes in Democratic-voting areas in the upcoming election. Then there’s Pennsylvania, where Trump lost. In Pennsylvania, the taxpayers are going to have to foot the entire bill. Here the aim of the Republican-controlled Senate is to justify stringent voter restrictions that enhance their grip on the state’s electorate. Surprise, surprise, the targets are minority areas of the State. But the intent is thinly covered over by stoking the belief that the election process has to be fraudulent or Biden could have never won.

The perpetuation of the “big lie”, flies in the face of an unprecedented number of court reviews, official recounts and now private audits that show the election result was fair and accurate. Yet it goes on. Its purpose is to destroy our collective faith in our most basic democratic process. The right to vote. The ultimate end game is to convince enough people that only the Republican Party will able to credibly declare who has won an election. To that end, it wants to turn elections over to private entities and have partisan “auditors”, like Cyber Ninja’s, verify the results. Sounds a lot like some governments we used to decry as authoritarian dictatorships.
This is not to be taken lightly. A May Reuters/Ipsos poll reported “that 53% of Republicans believe Trump, their party's nominee, is the “true president” now, compared to 3% of Democrats and 25% of all Americans.” They are backed up by 147 Members of Congress who objected to the vote count. There’s no way to tell if these people truly believe there was massive fraud, or find it politically convenient to perpetuate the “big lie”. Either way, millions are being spent, the media keeps it on the top line and the legislation that is justified on its false premise is tailoring the electorate to assure Republican political dominance. At this point, a minority party.
The answer is federal voting rights legislation and a ban on private interference in our election processes. That will require a waiver of the Senate filibuster. Democrats know this, but we’ll see if they have the collective clarity to stand up for our democracy. America is enrolled in a real-world civics class we can’t afford to fail.
ihg 9-26-2021

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