Elections Should Be Fair
For Americans this is a critical election year, and it should be a fair election.
By Leland E Pulley
In the United States there have been concerns in recent elections about whether the elections were fair. The main concern is cheating by individuals or political parties to win an election. It is obvious that there has been cheating in recent years. We must have free and fair elections to maintain our form of government.
For elections to be fair, all illegal and unfair practices must stop. Unfortunately, there are several ways to cheat in the elections. To minimize this, here are some recommendations.
1. Every state should keep up to date and accurate voter rolls of those who are registered to vote and able to vote legally. Too many times and in too many places voter rolls have not been kept up to date and this contributes to unfair results in elections.
2. Only citizens registered to vote should be able to vote. However, non-citizens including illegals have been allowed to vote in elections. A political party that supports this is striving to win elections in an illegal and unfair way.
3. Anyone voting should be able to show a photo ID at the time he or she votes. This is not a difficult requirement, and yet some groups have resisted this. Their hope is this will allow more votes for candidates in their political party. This should not be allowed.
4. Several states have used voting machines in elections. With these machines it is easy to change the results or numbers in them to affect the outcome of the election. It is best not to use any voting machines. Only paper ballots should be used. This reduces the chance of cheating.
5. The period to vote before Election Day has become too long. In some states, voting can begin 60 days before Election Day. There is no reason for this amount of time. The maximum period should be 30 days. In most cases there is no reason why everyone cannot vote within a two-week period before Election Day.
6. In recent elections ballots have been received and counted after Election Day. If a political party sees voting numbers they do not like, they can submit more ballots after the election. This occurred in 2020 and resulted in more cheating. All ballots must be received and counted by the end of Election Day.
7. Some people are not able to vote in person prior to Election Day. They may be out of the country, or on military duty abroad, or in serious medical condition in a hospital. There are legal ways for such individuals to get mail in ballots. They can fill out these ballots and turn them in on time so they can be counted in the election. This is the primary reason for having mail in ballots. In the 2020 general election, many voters used mail in ballots when they could vote in their assigned voting place. This helped to legitimize mail in voting. Along with this many additional or extra ballots were filled out illegally and then mixed in with regular ballots. These efforts contributed to more cheating. It should be noted that many countries do not allow mail in ballots. They have learned by sad experience that it is too easy to cheat with them.
8. There have been issues with drop boxes. In the last general election 2020, individuals picked up bags of filled out ballots. Then, they went to various drop boxes and put many ballots in each box. This is cheating. It distorts the real number of actual votes and voters who did vote.
9. It is important to have poll workers from all major political parties working at voting places. This reduces the chance of any party influencing the results of elections in their favor.
10. Normally, individual candidates and political parties strive to raise money to get the message out and persuade people to vote for them. This is not new. However, there have been laws passed on how much money individuals or groups can give to support any candidate or ballot measure. The problem comes when wealthy individuals find ways to give a lot of money and therefore influence the outcome of elections. This should not be allowed.
It is important to get accurate and up-to-date information to voters about candidates for public office and issues on the ballot. An informed public will vote more wisely than an uninformed public. Too much of the time information comes through political ads. Even items sent via the mail are really advertisements for a candidate or political party. Information is available online for those willing to do some research. With all these, the voter must go through a lot of unorganized data to decide how to vote. Here is a good example of helping voters be informed. In one state where we lived, they sent all registered voters a complete voting guide booklet. It had information on city, county, state, and federal office candidates and issues. There were photos of candidates and their positions on issues. This was very informative and helpful. I wish every state did this.
To help ensure fair elections, we citizens can do many things on our own.
Donate money to support various candidates, political causes, and or political parties.
Work on political campaigns to help people get elected to office.
Run for public office yourself.
Put a yard sign out in front of your home to support a candidate or proposition on the ballot.
Volunteer to work at voting places in the weeks leading up to the election.
This coming election on November 5, 2024 is a crucial one. Many wrong choices have been made by government leaders in recent years. These choices have been pulling us down as a nation. I hope many people will get informed and involved. We need to have intelligent voting this election to turn around several trends in our country. The entire election process needs to be open, fair, and legal.
May we be successful in doing all these things is my hope and prayer.
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