How Democrats Have Ruined Election Day

On election day, 1980, my dad took me at 2 years old to walk a precinct to get out the vote for Ronald Reagan. In the first 7 presidential elections of my life, I continued the tradition and volunteered to go door-to-door, asking Republican households to go vote. Afterward, I would go home and eagerly watch the returns come in and races get called. Election day in the United States used to be fun. It was an event. To political nerds, it was like Super Bowl Sunday.

Unfortunately, election day is no fun anymore. Democrats have ruined it, like so many other things in America. This is not because the results of the midterm elections were disappointing. It has little to do with who wins or loses. It is about the mechanics of the election itself. There are four main reasons why that special Tuesday in November no longer holds the magic that it once did.

We don’t get results. – Back when there were VCRs, my parents tried to record the Alfred Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest. The only problem was that the tape cut off with Cary Grant hanging from Mount Rushmore, a literal cliffhanger. We had to wait until we could go to the video store and rent it to find out what happened. Nobody wants things left up in the air without a resolution. This is, sadly, how election day is now. We go to bed without knowing who won. It took a few days to find out who had won the Senate, and it took 10 days before we finally found out that Republicans had taken control of the House in last month’s midterms. That is partly because, after the 2000 election, nobody wants to call a race incorrectly and have to pull it back. However, the bigger culprit is that there has been an assault by the Democrats on election day itself for years. Now, there are mail-in ballots and ballots dropped off anonymously at drop-boxes, with at best, questionable authenticity, that take days to count. There is no good reason for this. For most of my lifetime, people voted in person on election day, and we had far more trustworthy and reliable results, and knew most of them on election night.

Early voting. – In many states, there is early voting for weeks prior to election day, before the campaigning is done. This means that if somebody is persuaded in the final weeks of the campaign after they cast a vote, they are out of luck. This also eliminates the ability of voters to take into account some late-discovered information about a candidate. For example, some people believe that the FBI’s reopening its investigation into Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton’s staff and their use of a private email server swung the election to President Donald Trump. Now, many people have already voted, so late-breaking information is too late.

News coverage is terrible. – Years ago, the media was biased in favor of the Democrats, but they generally tried not to turn off half of the country by openly and obviously attacking Republicans and rooting for the Democrats. Now, most of the television news coverage is so bad that it is unwatchable. On an election day when the Democrats had destroyed the economy, leading us to a plummeting stock market, massive inflation, and small businesses struggling to survive, the news coverage steered the conversation away from that and towards whatever sideshow they could come up with. One example was an interview by ABC news anchor David Muir with a moderate Republican, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, at his victory party after he won re-election. While Governor Sununu tried to focus on his supporters and his vision for New Hampshire and our country, Muir kept trying to segway into irrelevant things, like the 2020 election, and the media’s favorite target of hatred and vitriol, President Trump. It was uncomfortable to watch. The media will bend over backward to avoid any subject that will be damaging to Democrats, no matter how obvious. This election, the crumbling economy was the elephant in the room, but what you heard on election day was, “yeah, yeah, inflation, but what about so-and-so?” Every single one of you, whatever your political leanings, know that if the Republicans were in power with a bad economy, the media would be laser-focused on it. The last time the news was fun to watch on election day was in 2016, and not because the coverage was good, but because most of the “journalists” looked like they were about to burst into tears.

Distrust of the results and fear of cheating. – Whichever side you are on, you cannot deny that a large portion of the country does not trust our elections right now. This is a problem. When things are going poorly, people need to be able to vote out those in power. If they distrust our elections and feel like no matter how they vote, the elections are rigged, it leaves them backed into a corner with no other recourse except to fight in other, possibly less peaceful, ways. We need to restore accountability and faith in our elections. When I see a close race on election night, I get a sinking feeling, because I know that they will find enough ballots, however they do it, to make the Democrat win. I don’t trust the results, along with a whole lot of other people, and while there is an easy fix, Democrats refuse to do it because they don’t care if people have faith in our elections as long as they stay in power. If anybody honestly cares about preserving our democracy, they would want to alleviate these fears. Calling people “election deniers” and trying to vilify them does not work. Neither does saying, “you can’t prove fraud.” That is the point. Due to mail-in ballots and a refusal to verify voters with ID at polling places, there is nearly no way to prove fraud. That does not prove that cheating is not rampant. It just proves that we have no way of knowing how much cheating is happening. Instead of gaslighting people who have concerns about our election security, just prove to them that our elections are secure. It is actually very easy to do. Simply require voters to show ID when they cast their ballots, in person, on election day. If we do this, it makes it very difficult to cheat.

Election day can be fun again if we fix these four things. Hopefully, we can do it. If not, what is left for Democrats to try to ruin? Groundhog’s Day?

An Open Letter to Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred

Commissioner Manfred,

I love baseball. Between playing, coaching, and watching baseball I have probably spent more time at a ballfield than anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately, today I am distraught. I love my country, too, but it is in danger.

Our founding fathers understood that people are better off when they are free to decide how to live their lives without government interference. Therefore, they had the brilliant idea of setting up a system where the power comes from the people up to the government, not the other way around. We do that by voting for people to represent us. As you know, we just had a contentious, disputed election where many states accepted ballots without knowing who or where they came from. This is not a baseless claim. Most states did not verify who cast the ballots that were counted. This is a fact. Whether you agree or disagree with the results, there is now a large portion of Americans who distrust our election results, and for good reason. Check out this funny video I made that shows why we need safeguards to secure our voting.

The state of Georgia is trying to restore faith in our elections by simply asking that we verify who is casting the ballots. Your decision to take away the All-Star Game that was supposed to be held this summer in Atlanta is punishing the state of Georgia for trying to protect our ability to choose our government officials at the ballot box and trust the results. Not only is it unfair, but you justified your decision by falsely claiming that the new law was meant to suppress voting. The people who make this claim say that requiring voters to show identification somehow prevents black people from voting. I don’t lightly throw around the term “racist” like many now do, but to say that black people are too dumb to show ID is definitely racist. If you truly want to honor the memory of “Home Run King” Hank Aaron, you need to turn away from the idea that blacks are inferior to whites, not embrace it like you are by furthering this lie about ID.

To be perfectly honest, when I hear that somebody is against voters showing ID to cast their ballot, I assume that the person just wants their side to be able to cheat and assure a political victory. It really makes me question your judgment when the best excuse you can come up with is in essence that no, you don’t want to cheat. You just think that only white people are smart enough to get an ID.

The part that really has me upset is that I don’t know what to do. Baseball is the greatest game ever invented. Many of the landmark moments in my life can be connected to what was going on in baseball at the time. Since you, the Commissioner of Baseball, have decided that cheating in elections is not something to prevent, many people are boycotting the game. Either you are for cheating, which is certainly possible considering the slap on the wrist that the Astros got, or you are a racist who thinks blacks are inferior.

Whichever it is, I have to decide what to do, and here is how I am going to rationalize watching baseball this season. The game on the field is still great. The people around it may not be, but it has been that way before. You may think that black people are not intelligent enough to show identification to vote, but until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, blacks were not even allowed to play in the majors, so you are not the first racist to be involved with baseball. If the game survived them, it can survive you.

Now, I want to give you the opportunity to defend yourself against charges of racism, but the only other possibility is just as bad. If you do think blacks are fully capable of getting an ID and are still against requiring ID to vote, then you just don’t want us to know where ballots are coming from in our elections so that cheating is easier. There is, fortunately, an easy way to tell which you actually believe. If you really think asking for ID discriminates against blacks, you will tell all of the ballparks in Major League Baseball that they are no longer allowed to ask for ID at beer stands. After all, if it’s racist to require ID to vote, it is racist to require ID to buy beer.

This tells me that you likely are just using race as an excuse for looking the other way when cheating happens. The Democrats and the Astros thank you.

Sincerely,

Steven Connally

Funny Prank Proves Mail-in Ballots are a Bad Idea

Check out my video. It’s pretty funny and it shows us that we need to fix our elections. Share it!

Can We Trust Our Elections? Grading Each State

There should be an area of agreement between all reasonable people in the United States. For our country to survive we must be able to trust the integrity of our elections. If elected officials are abusing their power like they are in places like California right now, we need to have the ability to vote those people out of office or else there is no check against tyranny. When dishonest politicians are able to steal elections, they will.

Both Democrats and Republicans say that they want honest and fair elections. Both parties have complained about the integrity of our recent and upcoming elections. Unfortunately, they have different ideas about what is taking away the trust in our elections. We heard a lot from Democrats about Russian interference in the 2016 election. In fact, they have spent much of the last 4 years investigating it over and over again. Many of you may wonder how they allege that the Russians changed the outcome in 2016. Did they somehow hack our voting systems and change the vote counts? Did they fly in Russians to swing states where they cast illegal votes? No. The alleged Russian interference is that they said mean things about Hillary Clinton on Facebook. While that may be frustrating to Hillary fans, it does not actually make it easier for anybody to cast fraudulent votes. Plus, how many of you would change your vote because some stranger said something mean on Facebook?

Republicans ask a different question about voting that we should all agree is important. Do we know who is casting the votes in our elections and that no shenanigans are happening with those votes? If we don’t it opens the door to voter fraud, stolen elections, and the end of our government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Do not fall for the media line that very few people get convicted of voter fraud so nobody does it. That’s like saying a Las Vegas club that doesn’t check ID’s has no underage people inside because no underage people got caught.

How can we be more confident about who is voting and that they are correctly counted? The only way to be sure is to require in person voting, on Election Day, with matching photo ID to verify that the person is who they say they are. It’s easy and it’s common sense. Unfortunately, not everybody wants to have honest elections.

Each state sets up their own election laws, so some are far more reliable than others. Some are unwisely pushing for mail-in voting, with nobody there to verify that the person who filled out the ballot is the actual person that the ballot belongs to, and with no guarantee that the ballot will be delivered or counted. In fact, there is already an investigation into military mail-in ballots that were apparently opened and thrown into the garbage in Pennsylvania. The only time a mail-in ballot should be accepted is for overseas military personnel. All 50 states now allow some form of mail-in voting, so nobody gets a perfect score on preventing voter fraud, but some states at least have a few precautions set up.

Unfortunately, other states not only lack rules to prevent election shenanigans, but they come up with ideas to make cheating so easy that the Houston Astros wish they had thought of it. “Ballot harvesting” is the shady practice of allowing a third party to collect ballots and deliver them to be counted. This has all of the negatives of mail-in voting with the added problem of having partisan people targeting which ballots to bring in. In California this practice caused congressional districts that had always voted one way to flip. In many of the cases the returns had one candidate ahead at the end of election night only to swing wildly to the other side the next day. Whenever the results from election night change like that it raises major red flags as to the integrity of those votes.

It’s pretty unbelievable, but some states do not even require you to show identification when you go to vote. That means we have no idea who is casting votes in those states. Here in California, if I walked into a polling place and said my name is Fred Johnson, then I’m Fred Johnson. Apparently in Pennsylvania their Secretary of State said that they would not even throw out a ballot if the signature doesn’t match.

What we need is a report card to know which states have safe enough elections to trust the outcome. Below you will find it, with a grade based on how many precautions are set up to make sure that each vote has been properly cast by the correct, legal voter.

State	Voting Only on Election Day	Voting In Person Only	ID Required to Verify Who Is Voting	Ballot Harvesting and Other Notable Rules	Grade
Alabama	Yes	No, but an excuse is required	Yes	Absentee ballots require witnesses and must be received before the close of polling	A
Alaska	No	No	Yes, but non-photo ID accepted	A special needs voter can have a representative return a ballot	C
Arizona	No	No	Yes, but non-photo ID accepted	Family member, household member, or caregiver can return ballots	C
Arkansas	No	No, but an excuse is required	Yes	Ballot harvesting allowed, but limit two ballots per authorized agent	B
California	No	No, and everyone receives a mailed ballot	No	Ballot harvesting allowed	F
Colorado	No	No, all mail-in election	No	Ballot harvesting allowed	F
Connecticut	Yes	No, but an excuse is required	Yes, but non-photo ID accepted	Others can return votes for disabled voters, with restrictions	B
Delaware	Yes, but early voting passed for 2022	No	ID is requested, but voters can sign an affidavit to avoid showing ID	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	D
Florida	No	No	Yes	Others can return votes for disabled voters, with restrictions	C
Georgia	No	No	Yes	Others can return votes for disabled voters, with restrictions	C
Hawaii	No	No, all mail-in election	ID is requested, but voters can recite their date of birth and address instead	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	F
Idaho	No	No	ID is requested, but voters can sign an affidavit to avoid showing ID	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	F
Illinois	No	No	No	Ballot harvesting allowed	F
Indiana	No	No, but an excuse is required, and coronavirus is not a valid excuse	Yes	Mail ballots must be received before the close of polling	B
Iowa	No	No	Yes, or another voter can vouch for their identity	Ballot harvesting allowed	D
Kansas	No	No	Yes	Ballot harvesting allowed	D
Kentucky	Yes	No, but an excuse is required	Yes	Others can return votes for disabled voter, with restrictions	A
Louisiana	No	No, but an excuse is required, and coronavirus is not a valid excuse	ID is requested, but voters can sign an affidavit to avoid showing ID	Mail ballots require a witness signature and must be received before the close of polling	B
Maine	No	No	No	Ballot harvesting allowed, but limited to five at a time	F
Maryland	No	No	No	Ballot harvesting allowed	F
Massachusetts	No	No	No	Ballots may be delivered by a family member or from a healthcare facility	F
Michigan	No	No	ID is requested, but voters can sign an affidavit to avoid showing ID	Family member or certified election assistant can deliver ballots. Ballots must be received by 6 pm on Election Day	D
Minnesota	No	No	No	Designated agent can return up to three ballots	F
Mississippi	Yes	No, but an excuse is required	Yes	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed. Mail ballots require witnesses and must be received before the close of polling	B
Missouri	Yes	No	Yes, but non-photo is accepted	Ballots can be returned by a family member or a team of election authorities and require witness signatures	B
Montana	No	No	Yes, but non-photo is accepted	Law limited who could return ballots and only six per person, but a judge has held up the law	D
Nebraska	No	No	No	Others can return up to two ballots except for campaign workers	D
Nevada	No	No, and everyone receives a mailed ballot	No	Ballots may be returned by a family member	F
New Hampshire	Yes	No, but an excuse is required	If ID is not presented, the voter signs a challenged voter affidavit and votes a regular ballot. After the election a mailing is sent and the voter must sign and return it; if it is not returned, the voter will be investigated for voter fraud.	Family members, nursing home staff, and residential care staff can return up to four ballots which must be received before the close of polling	B
New Jersey	No	No, and everyone receives a mailed ballot	No	An authorized messenger can return up to three ballots	F
New Mexico	No	No	No	A caregiver or immediate family member can return ballots	F
New York	No	No, but an excuse is required	No	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	F
North Carolina	No	No	No, although a voter ID law was passed by voters, it was blocked by an Obama appointed judge.	Ballots require witness signature and may be returned by a near relative or legal guardian	F
North Dakota	No	No	Yes	Others can deliver up to four ballots, cannot be a candidate or be compensated	C
Ohio	No	No	Yes, but non-photo is accepted	Ballots can be returned by a family member	D
Oklahoma	No	No	Yes, but non-photo is accepted	Copy of ID, notarized ballot, or two witness signatures required	C
Oregon	No	No, all mail-in election	No	Ballot harvesting allowed	F
Pennsylvania	No	No	No	If voter becomes too sick to vote a representative, deputy sheriff or constable can deliver an emergency absentee ballot	F
Rhode Island	No	No	Yes	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	D
South Carolina	Yes	No, but an excuse is required, and coronavirus is not a valid excuse	Yes	Ballots may be returned by others except candidates or paid campaign workers and require witness signatures	A
South Dakota	No	No	ID is requested, but voters can sign an affidavit to avoid showing ID	Photo ID required for a mail ballot. An authorized messenger may deliver ballots, but if more than one they must notify the person in charge of the election	D
Tennessee	No	No, and a judge ordered them to allow no-excuse absentee voting	Yes	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	D
Texas	No	No, but an excuse is required	Photo ID requested. Voters who do not possess an acceptable form of photo ID and cannot obtain one, may present a supporting form of ID and execute a Reasonable Impediment Declaration	Photo ID required for a mail ballot. A household member, relative or person lawfully assisting a voter who is disabled or cannot read the ballot may return the mail ballot	C
Utah	No	No, all mail-in election	No	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	F
Vermont	No	No, and everyone receives a mailed ballot	No	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	F
Virginia	No	No	Yes, but non-photo accepted	Witness signature required for mail ballots. A designated representative can return ballot for a voter who is incapacitated or hospitalized	C
Washington	No	No, all mail-in election	No	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	F
West Virginia	No	No, but an excuse is required	Yes, or be identified by a poll worker	Anyone can return up to two ballots	B
Wisconsin	No	No	Yes	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed. Photo ID required for a mail ballot and witness signature required	C
Wyoming	No	No	No	Unspecified if ballot harvesting is allowed	F

Wait. Who is Divisive?

In my new book The God Bet, I talk a lot about recognizing false frames that the media sets up to trick and confuse people. There is even a bonus section at the end of the book with an index of false frames that the left and the media use to define issues in dishonest ways to attack Republicans. This week a friend posted a video that was going around social media that uses so many false frames in such a short video that it would be a great opportunity to help you filter them out and “unspin” issues that the left is trying to manipulate you with because they think you’re gullible. Let’s prove to them that we aren’t.

The video can be seen here and starts with a portion of the Republican Convention speech by Kimberly Guilfoyle on Monday night. The caption said that it was full of lies so I was interested to hear why she would lie when all the truth is already on our side. In it, they edit to show parts of the speech where she is being emphatic and raising her voice, as well as parts where she is legitimately criticizing what Democrats will do if they win in November. The lies were not in there.

Then the podcaster who made the video pops on the screen and I figured out where the lies begin. He starts with a supposed joke that her speech is in the style of North Korean propaganda and that her speechwriter was Mussolini. Then he gets to the false frames. He claims that “the modern GOP is predicated on divisiveness and hate and bigotry.” What does he use as his proof? He continues, “Trump’s campaign was launched on the promise of banning Muslims and banning Mexicans from this country.” A half-truth and a boldface lie. With regards to Muslims he never suggested ejecting law abiding Muslim citizens from the United States. He did propose a temporary travel ban on countries where a large percentage of the population supports terrorism or sharia law, not because of bigotry or hate, but for national defense purposes. With regards to our Mexican immigrants, he does not want to ban your neighbor who legally immigrated here. He does want to stop people who break our laws from crossing our borders. To say that that is a ban on Mexicans is like saying if Disneyland banned me from sneaking in without paying it was a ban on white people from the park.

Later in his diatribe he has some better jokes than late night comedians have told in years, but that isn’t hard. He says that “optimism does not compute for this party (Republicans),” and jokes that, “you’d have more luck going into Home Depot for lasagna than expecting uplift from the GOP.” He says that Republicans are fearmongering and “are only capable of governing by fear.” He wasn’t even intending to be funny, but honestly, how hilarious are his claims? Republicans are divisive, pessimistic, and govern by fear? Let’s compare and see which party is more divisive, pessimistic, and fearmongering?

Democrats

Poor people are victims of the evil rich. Gay people are the victims of intolerant Christians. Women are the victims of sexist men. Immigrants are victims of xenophobic white people. Black people are the victims of racist white people. The police are bigots who go to work each day trying to murder black people. You should vote for us to protect you from all these divisive, fearmongering monsters. Also, if you don’t vote for us you’re going to die from coronavirus if the world doesn’t end from global warming first.

Republicans

America is a land of opportunity! If you work hard you can succeed no matter where you started. We are one nation, under God, and everyone should be free to worship as they please and live by those values. America is a great melting pot and immigrants are welcomed as equals on the day they take the oath of citizenship. Skin color is irrelevant. Black people are just as capable as white people. The police are heroes who try to keep law abiding citizens safe. If you vote for us we want you to enjoy your freedom and not have to worry about the government getting in your way.

Which party seems more divisive? Which one wants to scare you into voting for them?

But wait. It got better. After making the Bizzaro World claim that Republicans are the divisive ones, he defends the Democrats by denying reality. He says:

“What was par for the course was the fearmongering about Democrats; the threats about open borders and closed schools and sending jobs back to China and installing socialism and the police sending your calls to voicemail and controlling what you do and say… the thing is, none of that is true.”

The real thing is, he’s lying. That stuff is true. He claims that, “Zero Democrats are running on open borders.” They may not call it open borders but they fought against funding the wall and against any kind of real enforcement. Many of them have even voiced support for sanctuary policies and for abolishing ICE. Most Democrats do want schools closed and he even admits it later in the video. Democrats do want to put in place socialist policies and some, like Bernie Sanders, even call themselves socialists. This guy apparently hasn’t heard all of the talk about defunding police. I promise you that’s not coming from Republicans. As for controlling what you do and say, how can he deny it? Don’t Democrats want to control what you do with more of your money by taking it for the government? Don’t Democrats want to control where you can eat or whether you can go to a concert, sporting event, movie or church? Don’t Democrats want to control who bakers have to bake wedding cakes for? We could go on and on.

He says Republicans should run on real policy but then if we point out what Democrats actually stand for he calls it lies, straw man arguments, and fearmongering. Besides that, President Trump is running on policy. The Republican Convention this week was full of his policy accomplishments, because they are many. On the other hand, the only policy talk from Joe Biden at last week’s convention was that he would make the next four years smile free and faceless by requiring masks. Apparently that doesn’t count as controlling what you do.

This video is a great example of how the media tries to deceive you and it is not unusual. I watched President Trump’s inspirational, accomplishment filled acceptance speech Thursday night and then flipped around the news channels to hear what they were saying. The entire mainstream media really is like the Bizzaro World, where everything is opposite of reality. They told me his optimistic speech about American greatness, faith in God, and freedom was really about anger and divisiveness. It was perplexing, but I expected it. I always understand that the mainstream media is trying to manipulate us. You should too.

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