The next question for the next election cycle is whether we'll know the results promptly. Will we see the composition of the next Congress and who our next president will be in a manner that doesn't border on embarrassing? The past two cycles have been riddled with so many shenanigans and questionable delays that I can no longer blame people who question the legitimacy of our elections. They might be wrong, but you can in our free society. Folks, some people still think the Earth is flat. While satirical, I'm sure there might be a few loopy people who think "birds aren't real," thinking these winged creatures are robots designed as part of a mass surveillance operation by the government. "Tin foil hat" conspiracy theories, like chemicals in the water that turn frogs gay, are hilarious. Not being able to count ballots on time has become an equally comedic pastime.
It's become too good to be true regarding why these election workers can't tabulate the votes. From pipes bursting to people who don't want to work long hours, every excuse under the sun has been lobbed to explain the tortured process that Democrats think is flawless and wholly incapable of being engulfed in fraudulent activity. In Washington, the 2022 primary results were delayed because the election officials didn't want to work on the weekends.
Then, there are the unforced errors that were pouring gasoline on the bonfire. If there was ever a spark to ignite the powder keg, it was local Arizona news channels accidentally posting the graphic for an election test, some of which showed Democratic gubernatorial Katie Hobbs as the projected winner before all the ballots were counted. Fox10 Phoenix issued an apology, but you can see how in this social media era, coupled with the highly charged political climate we're in, how some went off to the races on this one.
During the Georgia runoff, scores of votes vanished in real-time. Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker was never going to win this contest, but the Associated Press and others had to note that the reason votes were taken away was due to user error. Some counties gave officials bad data, so they had to re-tabulate the votes and issue a correction. It's these types of mistakes that keep voters questioning our elections. Will it happen again in 2024?
The sheer irony is that it's Democrats who keep these conspiracies going, given that every delay in the vote count reveals a trove of Democratic votes that end up being the game-changing moment in these contests. We've discussed it on the Triggered podcast—if it's legal, the GOP needs to get in heavy on the ballot harvesting game. It would be nice for some of these state legislatures to make moves to criminalize what I consider to be voter fraud—handing off your ballot to be collected by a random third party—but harvesting is legal. Michigan and Pennsylvania would have been good states to replicate what Florida did, making it a misdemeanor felony, but Democrats made considerable gains in their state legislature contests. A federal ban doesn't have the votes, so we must work within the system. If we can't beat them, we need the "join them" sort-of mentality here. I don't like it, but after two cycles—it's clear the Election Day vote isn't enough to save the day.
It's not like I don't care about the agenda, the issues, and the candidates we nominate in 2024—I do. But if we can't count the votes and have a smooth election, what's the point if it just devolves into a Mickey Mouse process every time? Not to compare us to Europe because only liberals do that, but we've reached a point where it is appropriate. In the United Kingdom, 650 elections are held at once when they hold a general election. Even in the snap elections under Prime Ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson in 2017 and 2019, respectively, you knew who would clinch 326 seats and be entrusted with forming a government. It might be a long night, but you would know, within a timely manner, not days or weeks like we do here and sometimes for just one county.
Democrats may be stupid people with unpopular agenda items, but their legal community and political operatives are brilliant; they game the election system to their advantage and win. It's time for us to do the same, a top-down overhaul in how we fight in this area. There is nothing noble about losing, and there is no longer a dividend earned for playing by their rules and not being aggressive about it. Who cares if we look principled? If they tweak something, file a lawsuit. It's what the left has done for years, and here we are.
