More than a week has passed since our general election and because our privilege to vote is fundamental to our constitutional republic, it’s useful to reflect on what has transpired.
In Nebraska, all reports seem to indicate that the process went smoothly.
Many people, including myself, encouraged Nebraskans to vote; and they did.
We had a record number of voters and the unofficial turnout was approximately 75% statewide!
Thirty-four (of 93) counties had over 80% of the registered voters participate (including Clay, Kearney, Phelps, and Webster Counties in District 38).
It is vital to have the active, informed participation of voters and Nebraskans showed up. While there appears to be no allegations or evidence of significant counting issues or voter fraud in Nebraska, unfortunately that is not the case nationally.
For elections to be effective, the process and counting of ballots needs to be clear, fair and transparent.
Voters must have full confidence in the election process for a democracy to work and to be successful. Allegations have been made in several states of voter fraud, software glitches, improper influence and not counting or correctly counting all of the ballots.
It is important that any and all substantial allegations of voting or counting irregularities be investigated to ensure that the process is fair.
While this may not give us the immediate results that we want, the integrity of elections overrides a hasty result that may be suspect.
Certainly, it is the right of every candidate to challenge the results when evidence of these types of allegations exist.
An election should not be called until every legal vote is counted and every improper vote is discounted. We have processes in place, including recounts and judicial review to address many of these issues.
The goal, however, is to prevent these types of issues from happening in the first place.
Another area that should be examined is the recent push for massive mail-in ballots.
Traditionally, voting in person adds definite safeguards that are not always present with mailing in ballots.
Certainly, requesting absentee ballots and providing signatures that may be verified needs to continue.
But wholesale distribution of ballots indiscriminately (in some jurisdictions to people who have not even requested a ballot) opens the door to wrongfully completed or incomplete ballots, ballot harvesting, sending ballots to individuals that have moved or have passed away, and other types of fraud (ballots that are altered, stolen or forged).
Moreover, the entire mail delivery system has resulted in ballots that are not received, or not received in time to meet the deadline, or not postmarked correctly.
For all of these reasons, mail-in ballots have a much higher rejection rate, which further diminishes the integrity of the election for everyone.
By contrast, election officials may cure various issues a voter may have at the polling place.
Nationally, our recent experience with massive mail-in balloting has resulted in rejected ballots, unnecessary delays, challenges to the results and questions about the fairness of the process.
Every illegitimate vote affects and diminishes your legal vote.
I think that we can all agree that our great nation deserves elections that are safe, secure, transparent, honest, free and fair.