Ballot Box Blues

It’s Friday, February 2, 2024. I’m Jim Robinson, and this is The Bake. Let’s get cooking.

Last Saturday here in Kern County, a number of local conservative organizations joined New California State in holding a test election to demonstrate to our community and our local election officials that a return to precinct voting was the surest way to eliminate most, if not all, of the doubts about election integrity that surfaced during our 2020 general election. The debate about the efficacy and soundness of that election, and our election system as a whole, has been a bone of contention for well over three years, and has sown toxic political and cultural divisions across our country that have already reached a level of momentum that many voters consider unstoppable.

Kern County joined twenty other counties across California who held the test elections at the same time, applying the same rigorous methods of execution, with identical ballots addressing three identical questions in all locations.

Participant voters had to provide poll workers with proof of identification by way of a state-issued driver’s license or Identification card, as well as proof of residency in the irrespective counties. The results of this election across all counties overwhelmingly signified that those who showed up at their respective designated polling place to cast their ballot were in favor of returning to paper ballots dispensed at the precinct level and completed by each individual upon display of appropriate state-issued identification indicating residency and citizenship, and that each ballot be placed in a transparent storage medium such as a clear plexiglass box to await the closing of the polling place. At that time, and only at that time, the ballots would be removed from the plexiglass box to be counted by poll workers, and the results of the count certified by a precinct judge, who would then transport the batch of certified ballots to the county registrar of voters office to be confirmed and then added to all other votes from the other designated precinct polling places. Once all votes in the respective counties were certified and tallied overnight, the results of the election would be announced to the public the next day.

I suppose now would be a good time to point out what many consider to be deficiencies with mail-in ballots that are gathered over a fifty-seven day period to then be counted by machines, but there is something else of greater significance to be discussed at this time. The cooperative effort of five citizen’s organizations made last Saturday’s election run smoothly, and the counting of the ballots was executed accurately and efficiently, which allowed for the results to be announced within forty minutes of the closing of the polling location. Involved citizens took it upon themselves to be part of a process that has been the hallmark of free and fair elections in the United States for over two hundred and thirty years. They volunteered their time, showed up on time, got the polling place set up on time, and facilitated one of the greatest traditions of our Constitutional Republic in the traditional time frame of one day.

These people and their respective organizations are to be lauded for their patriotic engagement in what is arguably the greatest freedom granted Americans – fair elections that allow We the People a say in how we govern ourselves by electing representatives to stand for our interests and our way of life. This is the kind of engagement that is needed by thousands more people if we Americans expect to hold onto hold on to the liberty and protections that our Constitution has afforded us over the last two and third centuries.

Sad to say that the 2020 election has caused a great many citizens to doubt the efficacy, and ultimately the trustworthiness, of the method used for determining the legitimacy of the ballots, as well as the accuracy of the count of those ballots. The fact that this method of mass mail-out ballots and machine tallying was foisted upon California citizens by means of what smacks of executive fiat continues to feed disconcerting amounts of distrust and resentment. The response by the people is that more and more of them are engaging in myriad political issues. As the 2024 elections are upon us -the mail-out ballots should start arriving in mailboxes by February 5 for the March 5 primary election, voting season has begun. The Official Voter Information Guide cover is awash in encouraging redundancies – “Don’t Delay, Vote Today! … Early vote-by-mail ballot voting period is from February 5 through March 5, 2024…Every registered voter will receive a vote-by-mail ballot…Vote-by-mail ballots can be voted and returned as soon as they are received…In-person voting options will be available in all counties.” How convenient – ballots delivered right to your door, which you can mark and send back the same day, in a vote-by-mail dropbox if you don’t want to pay return postage for your ballot to go by U.S. mail. And you’ll have the results of the election in less than sixty days – or so. (WC – 845)

Does anybody really want another two-month election season? Granted, the two most recent generations aren’t as vested in the tradition of election day and all that this sacred American process has represented since 1789, but that does not make the proper execution of this process any less sacred. The further away from numerous small precinct locations that dispense and tabulate the ballots which accurately reflect the will of the voting public while maintaining the proper chain of custody – which time out of mind has been voter to poll worker to county registrar – the more opportunity there is for fraudulent activity as every ballot passes through dozens of pairs of hands, from canvassers to postal workers to heavily staffed ballot processing centers. This scenario alone is enough to cast serious doubt upon the integrity of our election process.