Donnie Douglas
Columnist
So in the interest of honesty, let’s agree to this: During the 2020 presidential election, there were a lot of fraudulent ballots cast, with more being discovered each day, including some cast by people long ago dead. And when I say a lot, I mean I have no clue how many — and am unaware of any existing mechanism that would answer that question satisfactorily.
While most are focused on the top prize, the White House, there are down-ballot races that are still being determined, with some of the results being flipped.
The most important element to a successful election has nothing to do with the outcomes, but swings on the public’s belief that ballots have been correctly cast and counted. Otherwise, we are Russia.
For the second straight presidential election and the third since 1999, the results will never be widely accepted by the public, although those whose preferred candidates are crowned will selectively grin and bear it.
We all know the culprit: More than half of the ballots cast for president, northward of 90 million, were under the cover of a Trumped-up and inflated fear of the coronavirus. A mask and social distancing work while standing in line at big box stores but apparently lose their protective prowess if the line is to vote.
President Donald J. Trump is no slave to the truth, but as blue state after blue state in advance of the election eased regulations on voting absentee and through the mail, he told us exactly what would happen — and it has.
What explains the fact that the first ballots cast are increasingly the last ones counted?
For me it recalls a conversation a couple of years back with a reporter who disagreed with my editorial position that North Carolina needs to join about three dozen other states in requiring a voter ID. I will quickly add that the absence of one in North Carolina is the fault of Republicans in the General Assembly, who have been unwilling to come up with legislation that was not purposely crafted to make taller the climb to cast a ballot among groups that tend to vote Democrat, blacks especially.
The reporter, incredulous, insisted that there were people who simply didn’t possess the wherewithal to get a voter ID. He argued this even as the state of North Carolina pledged to provide them at no cost. I called his bluff, and challenged him to find five Robeson County residents who would be unable to get such an ID so that we could introduce them to our readers.
He laughed.
I then asked for a single person.
He laughed again, arguing further that the real threat was in the exploitation of absentee voting, which we saw in the 2018 District 7 congressional race, whose results were overturned in favor of a new election. I need to give him a call and tell him he was prescient.
It remains nothing short of incredible that in the age of Everything Made Easy that this nation has been unable to come up with a uniform system for voting that can stand strong against fraud while also making voting simple for all Americans. The fact that we are a republic, a form of government that cedes so much power to the states, is why we have a state-by-state hodgepodge of regulations when it comes to voting — and why it will be left to the court system to sort out this mess.
Except for the absence of a voter ID, North Carolina gets this right, offering an extended early voting period during which people can vote, including the option of same-day registration and voting. I am sure if all states offered that opportunity, then there would not have been a need for 90-million-plus ballots being dropped into the mail.
Had that happened, my guess is the winner of the presidential election would have been the same. Joe Biden.
But it’s only a guess — and that’s not good enough.
Donnie Douglas is the former editor of The Robesonbian in Lumberton.