What if years prior to the 2020 presidential election, a report had been issued citing 87 recommendations as to what needed to be done to improve election integrity due to voting issues that arose from the 2000 presidential election? What if implementation of only about 10% of that report’s recommendations would have gone a long way toward preventing the numerous voter fraud allegations raised by the 2020 presidential election? What if that nonpartisan report represented the findings of two respected, high-level figures within both political parties? What if, in spite of the report, measures were taken to ensure the report’s recommendations were not followed during the 2020 election?
It took America weeks after Election Day to discover who had won the 2000 presidential contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. Making a similar mistake as they did in 2020, the media were quick to hand Gore a victory, crowning him “President-Elect.”
The delay in determining a winner boiled down to which candidate had earned Florida’s 25 electoral votes. The answer proved to be a roller coaster ride. The television networks initially called Florida in favor of Gore, then for Bush, which generated a concession speech by Gore, only to be rescinded as the final tally was too close to call. The count continued, and, three weeks later, Florida declared in favor of Bush.
However, due to the “hanging chad” issue arising by which it became difficult to determine for whom a ballot was cast due to the means by which it was mechanically punched, lawsuits sent the Florida outcome to the state’s supreme court, which ordered a recount and, eventually, to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS).
SCOTUS issued two decisions. In a 7-2 decision, it first ruled, as being conducted, the recount was unconstitutional since no clear standards for consistency in ballot recounting was being applied. This was followed by a 5-4 vote declaring time had run out to devise a remedy, thus stopping the Florida count with Bush ahead, making him, after 36 days of confusion, the Electoral College winner though not the popular vote victor.
After Bush took office, he established a commission to study the voting process and to make recommendations on how to avoid the problems obviously inherent in it from occurring again. Selected to co-chair the effort was a Democrat, former President Jimmy Carter, and a Republican, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III. In 2005, the Commission on Federal Election Reform issued “Building Confidence in U.S. Elections,” making 87 recommendations.
Those recommendations included, among others, states increasing voter identification requirements, disallowing ballot harvesting, concerns about mail-in voting, maintaining voter lists (in part to ensure the dead were promptly removed), allowing election observers to observe ballot counting, discouraging the media from calling elections prematurely and ensuring proper working order of voting machines. Yet, all of these issues arose again in the 2020 election. It was as if people had read the 2005 report but with a contrary intent in mind – to create a voter fraud-friendly environment.
Both the 2000 and 2020 presidential elections were very close. While failing to implement the lessons learned from the former to avoid the issues from arising in the latter, we already know we can add additional recommendations to the Carter-Baker list as noted in a Daily Signal article.
One of the major problems in the 2020 election was mail-in ballots. The issue is whether they were mailed in a timely manner. It is complicated by the fact the Postal Service often fails to postmark ballots, leaving it up to the vote counter’s discretion to accept or toss it. Thus, one recommendation is that all absentee ballots – other than military and overseas ballots – be received by the close of polls on Election Day. Implementing a single deadline for absentee ballots is imperative to put everyone on notice and on the same footing.
Another 2020 election problem is the failure of state legislatures – as mandated by the U.S. Constitution – to supervise presidential elections. Accordingly, governors and election boards as well as state and federal courts should not be making last-minute changes to state election statutes. Numerous lawsuits have now been triggered for this specific reason and the confusion caused by implementing non-authorized changes to election laws. Despite the fact this may have been done for pandemic-related reasons, nonetheless, our Constitution clearly requires only state legislatures can so act.
A problem common to both the 2000 and 2020 elections involved outdated voter rolls, combined with decisions to send every registered voter a ballot. This issue especially creates havoc when the state in question, like Nevada this year, is a battleground state. The approach leaves numerous ballots “floating around” to be usurped for fraudulent purposes. Despite criticism that restraints on mail-in ballots disenfranchise voters, they absolutely do not. Cleaning up such rolls is the only way to restore credibility to the voting process to ensure only eligible voters vote.
The biggest problem of the 2020 election – one that may have been complicit in an earlier presidential election but went undetected at the time – involves the integrity of the voting machines we are using. For one of the most technically advanced societies in the world to allow technology to be used in its elections that can somehow be manipulated by evildoers is inexcusable. A panel of America’s leading experts must immediately be appointed by the winner of the 2020 election to thoroughly review the voting process, evaluating its susceptibility to manipulation, in order to restore voter confidence.
American democracy has taken several hits as a result of liberals seeking to dislodge some of its building blocks. Among those blocks has been infringing the free speech of those opposed to their viewpoints and the absence of respect for law and order, evidenced by their destruction of their own cities. Failing to ensure the security of a most important block – a reliable voting process – will bring the whole foundation crashing down.
For over two centuries we defeated enemies determined to collapse our system of government; yet today we are unable to appreciate that our greatest threat lies within.
