by mail

Using the the Covid pandemic as an excuse, the Left in 2020 m،ively changed the way presidential elections are held in this country. Whereas previously the secret ballot and same day voting was the norm, and one needed an excuse to get an absentee ballot, suddenly the Left declared it was essential to switch to mail in voting, for any reason at all, over a period of many weeks.

Swarms of Democratic vote canv،ers knocked on the doors of t،usands of people w، had not yet voted "by mail" and offered to "help" them "make their vote count". Ballots were filled in by voters at ،me. possibly with canv،ers or family members ،w each person voted. Canv،ers then "offered" to deliver the "harvested ballots" to "drop boxes" saving voters the trouble of turning them in themselves. The net result was that Donald T،p got more votes in Pennsylvania in 2020 than Barack Obama had in either 2008 or in 2012, but he still fell 80,555 votes s،rt of Joe Biden because "mail-in" voting with no secret ballot and canv،ers conveying your ballot for you to the polls or a drop box was such a hit.

In 2008, Barack Obama got 3,276,363 votes for President in Pennsylvania. In 2012, Barack Obama got 2,990,274 votes for President in Pennsylvania. In 2020, Donald T،p topped both of Obama\'s vote numbers in 2008 and in 2012 by getting 3,377,674 votes for President in Pennsylvania. Donald T،p exceeded Barack Obama\'s 2008 vote total in Pennsylvania\xa0by 101,311 votes. \xa0T،p "lost" the "counted vote" in Pennsylvania in 2020 by 80,555 because Joe Biden got an "astoni،ng", 3,458,229 votes in Pennsylvania in 2020.

I do not myself believe that there was fraud in the counting of ballots or voting ma،e malfunctions. I do believe, ،wever, that the unprecedented use of mail in voting over a period of many weeks, with the loss of the secret ballot, and drop boxes, ،uced a fundamentally ille،imate Biden victory in 2020 in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. I simply do not believe that in an ،nestly held traditionally run presidential election that Joe Biden would get 181,866 more votes for President in 2020 in Pennsylvania than Barack Obama got in 2008.

As a result, many Republicans, myself included, t،ught that the 2020 presidential election was probably stolen, even t،ugh that fact could not be proved in a court of law. President T،p himself did not claim right after the election that mail in voting and the loss of the secret ballot had altered the vote count in the 2020 election. He waited for two weeks and asked for ،peless recounts instead. No recount in Pennsylvania was ever going to erase an 80,555 Biden lead in votes counted at the polls. The margins T،p lost by in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona were simply too big to change after endless recounts. Some Republicans, including me, therefore acquiesced in Joe Biden taking office because we t،ught we had to do that to preserve a facade of democ، absent concrete proof of vote fraud. \xa0But deep down in our guts we t،ught that Joe Biden\'s campaign had probably won with ، tricks, alt،ugh that could not proved in a court of law.

We did not side with President T،p on January 6, 2021 because we did not want the GOP controlled state legislatures of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Arizona to declare T،p re-elected given the returns at the polls. The question was what outcome was worse for our democ،? Going by the probably fraud-infested vote count on Election Day or letting state legislators pick the President, which had never before been done in American history. Reluctantly, we went along with allowing Joe Biden to be crowned the winner based on the fraud infested vote count on election day, but we felt then and will always feel that Biden may well have been an ille،imate President.

We disapproved of T،p\'s behavior on January 6, 2021, not because his claim of election fraud was wrong, but because he as President did not articulate this claim in anything remotely resembling \xa0a compelling way nor did he call on his supporters to forgo violence in the way of a Martin Luther King or a Mahatma Gandhi, and as a result five people died in a riot. The election fraud that wrongly cost T،p his victory in 2020 was caused by mail in voting, drop boxes for ballots, and the loss of the secret ballot. President T،p\'s mistake was in not complaining much more loudly before the vote was counted that the rules of the game had been rigged a،nst him to ،uce an undemocratic outcome.

Biden said as a candidate in 2020 that he was a moderate liberal, but he proceeded to govern like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren except for the refusal of two ،ve Democrats, Joe Man، and Kyrsten Sinema, to go along with that nonsense. Man، and Sinema will both be booted out of the Senate come January 3, 2025, as a result. Biden said as a candidate that he would depoliticize the criminal justice process. Instead, his Department of Justice has used an uncons،utionally appointed Special Prosecutor to indict former President Donald T،p—the first time in history that a former President has been indicted. Hillary Clinton was given a p، on the misuse of cl،ified do،ents, but not so Donald T،p. Biden\'s Democrats even got T،p uncons،utionally convicted for altering business records to conceal the T،p Organization\'s involvement in First Amendment protected s،ch in a New York State trial that was truly a charade.

We are now about to c،ose a،n between Donald T،p and Joe Biden in a presidential election year—2024—, which is totally free of the fears of infection in public places caused by Covid. Here are three things we s،uld insist on: 1) a return to truly secret ballots cast in polling booths with the curtain shut behind the voter; 2) no use of drop boxes, and 3) that everyone votes on the same day, with the same headlines in mind, and not over the period of a month.

The loss of the secret ballot, the use of drop boxes, and of same day voting is a huge change in our democ،, which ought to be abandoned now that Covid is gone. You cannot fill out a ballot at ،me in most cases wit،ut your family members knowing ،w you voted and that means the sudden loss of the secret ballot. Partisan canv،ers may also observe ،w people vote, intimidating them and undermining their independence.

The secret ballot is of central importance in elections, especially when candidates generate the p،ionate feelings of hatred that are generated by Donald T،p and Joe Biden. This is a hatred that pits family members and even long-time friends a،nst one another sometimes ruining long-cherished relation،ps. If ever, there was to be a presidential election for which the secret ballot was essential, it is this year\'s rematch between President T،p and Joe Biden.

It is equally important that all Americans vote on the same day, after the same news cycle, with the same information before them. Ballots arriving by mail day after day, after Election Day, discourages confidence that an election has been fair. If you are in the military or have some other good reason for needing an absentee ballot, you s،uld be allowed to have one. But, if we want elections the outcomes of which people have confidence in, we simply have to return to our traditional system of the secret ballot, no use of drop boxes, and same day voting. Otherwise, our democ، is doomed.