Fighting for Free and Fair Elections

Americans are not naïve. We know that too many politicians and government officials are focused on staying in power rather than in serving the public. That’s a serious problem, because in a healthy democracy it’s vital that government serve the citizens rather than the other way around.

Americans are not foolish. We know that too many media outlets are focused on delivering a particular political narrative rather than in reporting the actual news. That’s a serious problem because in a healthy democracy, it’s vital that the media help ensure information the public gets is reliable.

As vital as the behavior of those institutions – government and media – are to a healthy democracy, what is at stake in this election is even more elemental: It is the very existence of our democracy itself.

For years, there has been an assault on the integrity of our elections, with the eroding and evading of internal checks and balances among the various power centers who set the rules and, more directly, on citizens’ ability to actually cast votes in any meaningful manner.

That assault was kicked into high gear between the 2016 election and the 2020 election and was widespread across many states. Novel voting procedures were introduced. Arguments about increasing access were deployed to strip away ballot protection and safeguards as to who is voting. Around the country it’s become commonplace to demand that non-citizens be permitted to vote. Every one of these arguments – every one of these policies and practices – diminishes the security and integrity of Americans’ voting rights.

Perhaps the most damaging of all these measures has been the explosive expansion of the use of “mail-in” ballots. It has long been understood that mail-in ballots are an open invitation to chaos and fraud. For this reason, by law, mail-in ballots in most parts of the nation were only permitted in extremely narrow circumstances.

In 2020, however, the politicians and media who long pushed for decreasing ballot security using numerous other justifications – the same politicians and media who conspicuously supported massive street protests without social distancing or masking – argued that the existence of COVID-19 rendered in-person voting too perilous. As a result, for the first time in America’s history, mail-in voting became a widespread reality. How widespread? In 2020, more than 90 million mail-in ballots were put into circulation and almost 66 million of those were returned. It’s hardly groundless to doubt the integrity of an election where so much is at stake, especially when nearly half the ballots were not protected.

It’s not even necessary to prove a massive conspiracy to demonstrate that our most cherished political right – the right to free and fair elections – is being eroded to the point of nonexistence. In fact, “mail-in ballots” answers every big question now being asked by tens of millions of Americans – questions our government officials and media should be asking.

For example:

Why couldn’t we get the results on election night like we always do?
            Mail-in ballots.
Why did votes straggle in over days or weeks?
            Mail-in ballots.
How did former Vice President Biden’s reported vote tally overcome President Trump’s margins in several key swing states suddenly, late at night?
            Mail-in ballots.
Why did vote counting stop in the middle and then start again?
            Mail-in ballots.
Why are there so many reports of batches of ballots being transported under unlikely circumstances from place to place?
            Mail-in ballots.
Why do there appear to be far more suspicious statistical anomalies in 2020 than ever before in American history?
            Mail-in ballots.
And so on . . .

The fact that every one of these irregularities benefits the political interests of those pushing for decreased security and increased mail-in voting does not by itself prove illicit intent. The reality that tens of millions of ballots were mail-ins for which there is an insufficient chain of custody does not by itself prove fraud. But what is beyond any doubt is that decreased security, mail-in ballots, and the rule changes and the chaos that surrounded them invite, enable, and encourage widespread fraud.

These issues go even beyond the question of who won Election 2020. The principles at stake are vital. The precedent being set now goes beyond the health of America’s democracy to whether we will have a functioning democracy at all.

America’s free and fair elections are under attack. Millions of Americans are right to be skeptical and alarmed. Thanks to your support, the ACLJ will always be front and center in the fight to preserve the integrity and sanctity and of your vote and the Constitution.