We’ve all been exposed to the election stories about:
• Backdating ballots
• Harvesting ballots
• Burying ballots in ditches
• Programming voting machines to favor one candidate
• Prohibiting observers from doing their jobs
• Bringing in ballots to count after everyone “left”
• Hiding ballots in parked trucks to avoid counting them
• Counting more ballots than there are registered voters in an area
• Tallying more votes than there are people in an area
and on and on. How long has this been going on? I’m actually afraid to know the answer to that question. Of equal importance is why aren’t those officials directing others to cheat being prosecuted? The answer to that is simple: those with the power to do so are pathetic cowards.
Unfortunately, the result is that we are losing, or perhaps have already lost, the soul of our country, our democracy. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a
“democracy” is “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held FREE ELECTIONS,” not rigged elections. The emphasis is mine.
See that tall figure walking down the path some distance ahead? That’s our former democracy in search of a country deserving of it, a people who will cherish it. We certainly aren’t worthy of it any longer if we don’t have the guts to clean up our elections system.