The Democrats and their counterparts in the establishment media outlets have rushed out to tell us, the American people, that Joe Biden is the president-elect. Fortunately for the American people and the integrity of our Constitution, this election is far from over, despite the media’s incessant proclamations to the contrary. Both President Trump and Joe Biden have a responsibility to the people of this great nation to ensure that every legal vote is counted and that all instances and appearances of fraud are thoroughly investigated and adjudicated.
While it is customary for media outlets to make “calls” on which states were won, they are certainly not official. It’s not a complex concept to understand. Even in activities as mundane as sports we all know that it is the referees, umpires or officials responsible for determining when the game is done, not the sports broadcasters on the television or radio. If the contest requires overtime to determine the outcome, so be it. Don’t our national elections deserve at least the same consideration as our sporting events, especially when the fate of our nation hangs in the balance?
Making sure we complete the process is not unprecedented. During the 2000 election, the Gore campaign questioned the “call” in Florida. A legal process played out that included recounts and court challenges. That was all over less than one thousand votes in one state. This year there have been questions in several states. That process lasted thirty-seven days before Al Gore conceded.
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This year, allowing late arriving ballots in Pennsylvania to be counted is in question. The Pennsylvania Governor attempted to get the state legislature to change the law to allow ballots that arrived after Election Day to be counted, but the legislature refrained from making such changes. A state court then mandated that those laws should be counted.
However, the U.S. Constitution is very clear on this matter. It is state legislators, not governors or state courts, who have the constitutional authority for administering elections and ensuring election integrity. Justice Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court required Pennsylvania counties to segregate the late arriving ballots, indicating that this may be an issue to be decided by the courts going forward.
Similarly, there are countless violations of state election law, statistical anomalies and election irregularities in more than a half dozen states that stand to decide the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. For the sake of free and fair elections, the process of fully investigating and resolving these issues must be allowed to play out unabated by partisan interests.
If you listen to the national media, you will hear that there is no evidence for election fraud. Yet such claims ignore numerous examples like the Michigan whistleblower that stepped forward alleging they were instructed by city and state officials to illegally backdate ballots so they would make them eligible for counting. In good conscience, the whistleblower refused, but indicated that others were instructed to do the same. This is one of many complaints that have been referred to the Department of Justice for investigation.
There is no question that this race is close. With all of the stories of burned ballots, boxes of ballots found abandoned, thousands of ballots received from the deceased and whistleblower after whistleblower, Americans deserve to know without a shadow of a doubt that this election was fair, and the correct people take office.
We should have a full audit of the vote count in swing states to ensure there is confidence in our elections now and moving forward. If not, we risk an even deeper cynicism in the institutions of our Republic, which would be a detriment for the future of the United States of America.
Jake Hoffman is a contributing columnist at Townhall, the President and CEO of Rally Forge, one of the nation’s top conservative communications and media strategy firms, and an elected official in Arizona. Follow him on Parler.
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