What the hell are elections? Part 2
I should have taken the September 2020 Project Veritas video about the Ilhan Omar-connected ballot harvesting scheme in Minneapolis, where I lived, as a sign to pay closer attention to the upcoming election.
But even though I went to bed early on November 3rd, around 9:30 p.m., having read that the absentee ballots in "battleground states" (how is it known in advance where elections will be close?) would not need to be fully counted on election night, when I awoke on November 4th I was nevertheless unsettled by what I came to understand happened in the early morning hours. Reporters were saying counting had stopped. But had it?
I didn’t have much time to dig in as we were paying a visit to my wife’s childhood friend’s family in State College, Pennsylvania the next day.
As in 1984 the TV loomed ever-present in the background of our host's living room. The reports detailed, for instance, Biden’s remarkable comeback turning a midnight Pennsylvania deficit of 555,189 votes into a tighter race. It seemed the counting would go on as long as it would take.
On Saturday 7 November at 11:25 a.m. the Associated Press called the state for Biden—what gives any media outlet the authority to ‘call’ a race?—holding a 34,243 vote lead (by 15 December that was extended to a 81,660 vote margin).
This notification came through on our drive to the trailhead of the Thousand Steps on Jacks Mountain, enlivening the mood for others in the car. I hiked peacefully enough as it really was a beautiful and sunny autumn day, however even a dip in a cold lake that afternoon could not lower my temperature enough to prevent my pent up anger spilling out that evening in an argument about whether skin color mattered relative to so many other dimensions of a human. I did not back down but nor did I love my enemy that night.
That spat made for an awkward breakfast the next morning where it was suggested that I might have done better to model my approach to conversation after the people of Japan, who my host had concluded on his recent trip there, prioritized respect and politeness. The substance of the argument we had, though, has yet to be taken up. Moms and dads across the country have since made it clear in school board meetings that they understand critical race theory itself to be racist and therefore an inappropriate ideology to be peddled in publicly funded schools.
At this point in my anecdote, however, I bet you haven’t failed to notice what else wasn’t said. By me.
For some reason I wasn’t ready to speak up about the election.
Something wasn't right, but I didn't have have much information to touch, look at, and sort through for myself. The problem of reliable information became bigger and bigger in the coming years.
For options cities and towns have in the election process, visit https://projectminnesota.com/local