by Jennifer Amodei
As the recall for a disastrous governor rages on in our once beautiful state, coinciding with the national discussion of how to secure voting as the cornerstone of free and fair elections in the U.S. California sets the stage as what not to do.
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I am old enough to remember when we had a voting day not voting month. We would wait in line at our local school or church greeted by the matriarch of our local community as they would double-check our name was in fact on the list of registered legal voters. Your ballot was counted and the results were announced by the end of the day. Simple enough.
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Now we find ourselves in a sea of millions of mail-in ballots lining the mailboxes of California residence with many times more ballots sent than registered voters in the home leaving too much room for fraudulent intentions. Voting now going for one month and then 7 days past voting day can leave the suspicion that the tally can be altered to fit a particular party rather than the true results of We The People. A broken trust makes its way through the populous as we examine the holes in the envelope figuring maleficent must be at the core as it is clear the trust with the American people is fragmented. Stories of criminals found with hundreds of mail-in ballots make headlines as videos of suspicious characters sifting their way through mailboxes pulling out the recall ballots bring panic to the lawful citizens of a free nation. This is a broken system.
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The over-barring campaign to vote party lines gives way to the once middle ground of a society looking for the best solutions to make their community work. Using guilt instead of a reason to make sensible legislation results in a fractured and most of the time damaging law that doesn’t in the end serve its people it pledges to protect and benefit.
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We are at a crossroads as it is clear there are foreign enemies that would like to see the greatest experiment in self-governing in human history come to a humiliating end. It will be up to us to rebuild trust within the parties and within each other for the greater good of a nation and there is no more important place to rebuild that trust than free and fair elections.
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And although California’s current system clearly leaves too much vulnerability for the sanctity of the voice of the vote to be heard if we can bring sensible legislation here it is clear we could do it anywhere. No more important endeavor is in front of us and one of bi-partisanship is needed now more than ever.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal
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