Wisconsin primary shows universal mail vote need

“If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let you do it.” — Mark Twain

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

It wasn’t that long ago that I excoriated both the Democratic and Republican parties for their roles in the Wisconsin primary election Tuesday. Today I hope both face severe criticism again for what I still believe to be a callous disregard of the public health, safety and welfare.

Our two-party system has deteriorated so badly that the GOP and Dems spend far too much time fighting each other and practicing one-upmanship and far too less time doing what’s right for America.

Because of the continuing threat of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), preparations should begin now for making the May 5 special election and the Aug. 4 primary election in Michigan entirely decided by absentee voting by mail. This process, if necessary, could include vetting before the election.

The time-honored tradition of physically going to the polls to cast votes has outlived its usefulness.

Michigan now has the system in place for voting by mail, thanks to the forward-looking decision made by more than two-thirds of the voters in this state in November 2018. So it can be done. All that’s needed is the will.

The State Legislature, though not known for heeding the advice and wants of the unwashed masses, should insist on absentee balloting, purely in the interest of public safety. We all have been told to avoid congregating in public places, so it makes sense to apply such rules to the places where we vote, even as late as Aug. 4.

And I submit it would be wise to make similar preparations for the Nov. 3 general election.

The Wisconsin experience provides us with a lesson on what should not be done and just how badly the red and the blue are willing to fight each other at the public’s expense.

To be sure, President Donald Trump said on national television he believes voting by mail is fraught with chances for fraud. The following data says otherwise:

• The President himself acknowledged he voted by mail in the 2016 election, because he could.
• Oregon has have vote by mail services statewide for sometimes. By all accounts the amount of fraud is extremely low and it has the highest voter turnout in the country.
• Political analysts consistently have maintained you are more likely to get struck by lightning than see any evidence of voter fraud.
• Aside from the persistent tall tales about dead people voting in Illinois 60 years ago, the most egregious recent example of voter fraud was perpetrated by a Republican operative in North Carolina.

This doesn’t do a lot for the GOP, which for a long time has had the albatross of voter suppression accusations around its neck, occasionally blurted out in public by its members.

But Democrats cannot be let off the hook in the political hypocrisy category. They sat on their hands and did nothing to postpone the Wisconsin primary, though they held then governor’s chair. It wasn’t until 24 hours before polls opened that Gov. Tony Evers finally issued an executive order.

Furthermore, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden in a video gave his blessing to Wisconsin having face-to-face voting April 7 in a video the weekend before the vote.

It wasn’t until the Republican-controlled State Legislature, the State Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court combined efforts to make voters show up at the polls after all that Dems let out howls of protests. Biden changed his tune as well.

The irony was that the U.S. Supreme Court justices voted to proceed with a face-to-face primary, using the miracle of the Internet. We can do it, but you can’t.

I cannot stress enough that our supposedly Democratic system has deteriorated so badly that we need to take a serious look at possible reforms on behalf of the people once this cursed virus is gone.

Though I’ve had a life-long admiration of Twain, I take issue with his comment at the beginning of this editorial. Voting these days is the only power we common everyday stiffs have. It’s just seems as though our lawmakers are working overtime to find ways to do end runs around our wishes.

We must rise up in righteous indignation and throw the rascals out.