MESSAGE
| DATE | 2021-02-25 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Election irregularities on a regular schedule..
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https://www.nysun.com/national/justice-thomas-in-a-fiery-dissent-illuminates/91427/
Justice Thomas, In a Fiery Dissent, Marks Need for Election Reform
By ADELE MALPASS, Special to the Sun | February 22, 2021
The refusal of the Supreme Court to take up a challenge to
Pennsylvania’s last minute changes to its ballot deadlines in the 2020
election was done without explanation by the majority. All the more
clear is the case for reforming our national law on Election Day — the
need for it to be a single date with results that can be announced after
the polls close. It's not election week, month, or season. It’s Election
Day.
Click Image to Enlarge
In 2020, six states failed to meet this standard. These states unfairly
threw the process of counting the electoral college and popular vote
into chaos. Forty-four states managed, despite the pandemic. In 1845,
Congress enacted the Presidential Election Day Act to establish a
“uniform time for holding elections for electors.” It declared that “the
Tuesday after the first Monday in November” is the day on which all
states must appoint electors.
Since the 1848 election, states have been able to meet this deadline
despite the 1918 pandemic, World Wars I and II, and hurricanes. A single
election day and prompt reporting is part of the peaceful transfer of
power. The idea is that voters should not have to wait days or weeks to
hear election results. The longer the vote-counting takes, the more
exceptions made during the counting process, the less confidence voters
have in the outcome.
This was certainly the case in 2020. And the press was complicit in the
disruption by refusing to call election results due to the “red mirage.”
This was an idea first pushed by a Democratic consulting firm funded by
Mayor Bloomberg saying that on election night it was highly likely that
President Trump would appear to have won in a landslide, but would
ultimately lose when all the mail-in ballots were counted over the next
week.
Under this scenario, in-person election day voters are overwhelmingly
Republican, and conversely, mail-in ballots are overwhelmingly
Democratic. The press quickly adopted this narrative, which became the
justification for not announcing results on election night in
battleground states. In the event, the outcome managed to take days or
weeks to announce. Going forward this needs to be corrected.
Let’s hope that by 2024 all 50 states have procedures in place that make
Election Day a real concept. Election day should be a hard deadline by
which mail-in ballots can be processed in advance, but not to be counted
until the polls are closed. In Florida, nearly 44% of the ballots were
cast by mail, and they were still able to hit the tabulation button on
election night. Same for Ohio and Texas. Why should any other state fail
to do so?
It's not just mail-in ballots that can delay a final vote count.
California has made ballot harvesting legal and allows for ballots to be
counted up to 17 days after the election. States allow military and
overseas ballots to arrive after election day and to still be counted.
Many states allow voters to register on Election Day and to cast a
ballot, while it waits for their residency to be confirmed afterwards.
Some states allow people to cast a ballot even though they cannot be
found in the voter rolls, while their registration is verified after the
election. All of these exceptions to counting ballots on Election Day
create a complicated system that leaves voters with doubts about the
credibility of the results. State legislatures are already fermenting on
this issue, eyeing changes to election laws so the mishaps of the 2020
election don’t occur again.
One easy change would be for the Congress to make Election Day a firm
deadline that would require results to be tabulated in an uninterrupted
manner with appropriate monitors on election night after the polls have
closed. The Constitution grants it this power in the clause of Article
II that says: “The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the
Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes.” Such a day
“shall be the same throughout the United States.”
The importance of this was marked today by Justice Clarence Thomas, in a
fiery dissent from the Supreme Court’s decision to turn aside the
Pennsylvania case. “Unclear rules threaten to undermine this system.
They sow confusion and ultimately dampen confidence in the integrity and
fairness of elections.” Let’s hope that by 2024, they will enact clear,
predictable rules and deadlines covering all of America and making it
easy to vote and hard to cheat and enabling states to announce results
on election night.
________
Ms. Malpass is a journalist based in Washington.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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