Americans Elections: Rigged or Not?

If you only listen to the far right of the Republican Party and the middle right who give a wink and a small nod, the answer is voter fraud is rampant, well not rampant but happening, well not happening but it could. Some would have you believe we're no better than a one party third world nation that has special inspectors review all the paper ballots before announcing the results. Naturally those inspectors are appointed by the sitting President and not all of those ballots will reach the final count.

It's all a lie.

Indiana was one of the first States to pass Voter I.D. laws. It was a central theme in the administration of our then Secretary of State Todd Rokita. In the fall of 2003 I attended a Republican Party breakfast with my then boss. The featured speaker was none other than Secretary Rokita. The voter I.D. issue brought many questions. Rokita freely admitted that there were no problems with voter fraud occurring in Indiana but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Although elections are run slightly different from one State to another Indiana is similar to many. Here's how it always worked when I was growing up. You had to register to vote which required filling out a form and signing it. It contained all the standard information including perjury penalties. The form went to the County Election Board, was reviewed and your name placed on the voting rolls and your signature was sent to your voting precinct. On election day you walked in to your precinct, walked to the first table where you gave your name. The poll worker looked you up in their book, found you and sent you to the next table. At that table you again gave your name, you were looked up again and this time you had to sign your name in a book and your signature was compared to the one they had on file, then you voted and left feeling great about your country.

I was a Precinct Committeeman for five years and this was before I.D. laws. Election Boards always had the right to ask for your I.D. if they had questions about your identity. The tools and laws were always in place to challenge when necessary.

Our elections, with a few exceptions in the distant past in small pockets, are not rigged because they don't have to be. With minor exception, our country is dominated by a two party system, the Republicans and Democrats. Together they have created a system that makes ballot access difficult but not impossible. There's nothing nefarious about it and they've done it all in plain view and we the people have embraced it and want it that way. We love our two party system and consistently reinforce it when offered the chance to break it. I say we, instead of you, because I don't want you to feel bad.

The next time you hear someone, be it Trump or anyone else tell you that our elections are rigged, stick your fingers in your ears and hum the National Anthem. They are lying to you in order to scare you, depress you and get you to stay home and not vote.

Our election system is manned on the front lines by your friends and neighbors, do you trust them? The men and women who volunteer to serve on precinct election boards care about their communities and doing everything they can to assure a fair and open process.