Our Constitutional Republic Survived a Significant Challenge in 2021 – Will It Survive 2022?
New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are typically reserved for looking back at the notable events of the old year that is ending. But it is also a time for looking forward to the new year, making resolutions for how to make the new year better than the last.
This time is also the one year anniversary of the insurrection and riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. As shocking an event as that was to watch, we are learning that this was not an isolated event. More alarming than that event itself is discovering in emails, texts, documents and meetings that there were many actions being coordinated by Trump loyalists both inside and outside the Administration and Congress to overturn the certified election results from the states. The individuals involved in these actions probably believe that their partisan actions are in the best interest of the country. But every member of each party believes their visions, ideologies and policies are in the best interests of the country. And loyalty to a party above the Constitution is the cancer that can destroy our Constitutional Republic.
As John Adams, one of our key Founding Fathers, our first Vice President and our second President, stated after the completion of the drafting of our Constitution:
“There is nothing which I dread as much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the largest political evil under our Constitution.”
JOHN ADAMS, letter to Jonathan Jackson, October 2, 1789
The common thread to all these plans that have been revealed recently was for certain elected officials to lie about the actual election counts in their states. There were 61 court cases to consider challenges to the election results in many states, fueled by challenges of voter fraud in the results. In none of these cases were the challenges presented found to satisfy the standards of credibility required for evidence to be considered in a court. In addition to the court hearings, there were multiple recounts prior to the formal certification of the election results at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. None of these examinations of the vote counts revealed any significant level of voter fraud at a level that would have had any impact on the total vote count. Even key Trump Administration officials, including Attorney General Barr, publicly stated that there was no credible evidence of any significant level of fraud in any state.
OK, that’s the past. We survived because our state level officials in the key swing states and the judges who presided in the courts followed the Constitution, and refused to succumb to the pressure they were under to support the unfounded claims of a stolen election. But since January 6, the focus has shifted in several states to targeting those officials who refused to overturn an election without either due process or factual evidence of significant fraud, and to replace them with partisan candidates in upcoming elections who have publicly stated their willingness to overturn election results without due process or factual evidence of fraud … but just based on unfounded claims by their party.
If we are to keep our Constitutional Republic through 2022, as Benjamin Franklin challenged us to do after the Constitution was approved by the Constitutional Convention in 1787, our elected leaders at all levels, along with our citizens, must reject the loyalty to party or candidate in the counting and certification of our elections. Loyalty to one party or candidate must NEVER supersede our loyalty to the Constitution, we will have lost our Constitutional Republic. Election results can be challenged – and the appropriate steps are a bi-partisan review, recount, and/or audit of the results. Challenges can also be presented to a Federal court when there is factual evidence of fraud or other inappropriate actions that may have impacted the results. But once these steps are concluded and results are certified by the state’s elected officials, party leaders, candidates and citizens must be willing to accept the results and acknowledge the validity of the election results.
When partisan state legislators begin to inject themselves into the election counting and certification processes, they are undermining one of the core elements of our Constitutional Republic. A one party government, where elected officials act without due process or factual evidence but on loyalty to a party or candidate, will never be consistent with the principles of our Constitution. In Ohio, all election processes involving ballots on election day are performed with both a Democrat and a Republican election official sharing responsibility for the outcome. When only one party can control election processes, the outcome cannot be considered a valid representation of the will of ALL the citizens.
What can be done to ensure that our Constitutional Republic will survive 2022?
For 2022, the protections against party loyalty superseding loyalty to the Constitution will need to be enshrined in Congressional legislation. But Congress should not DEFINE a limited set of actions that would be required in each state; they should focus on oversight of the OUTCOMES that state laws cause. That would be a partisan and divisive approach that will not contribute to confidence in the objective outcomes of our elections.
Here’s what Congress should do. They should enact legislation to establish a citizen-led Election Oversight Board with authority to review the OUTCOMES of state laws on registration and voting processes. The first standard to be followed would be EQUITABLE access to voting registration and voting by ALL citizens in the state. When any of a state’s laws are found to result in inequitable access to any group of citizens, the Election Oversight Board would have the authority to require a change in state laws. The states should be left to correct the problems and meet the standards.
The second standard to be met is non-interference in the counting and certification of election results by officials in only one party. The law would provide the Election Oversight Board with the authority to require a state to change any process related to registration, voting, counting, certification, recounts or audits that involved either direct control by a partisan legislature or single party control over one of the key steps in these processes.
The final standard to be met would be to require the states to utilize state-of-the-art technology to achieve the highest possible level of voter security. The Election Oversight Board would be required to look across the security measures in place in each state for each type of vote – voter identification, ballot security, secure vote counting, etc. – and require that states review and make plans to adopt the highest standards of security available in the country.
These steps are part of the recommended changes outlined in my new book, “American Turning Point: Repairing and Restoring Our Constitutional Republic”. The book includes 16 specific changes called “Citizen Rules” to supersede many of the rules for how Congress operates that have been made by incumbent members of Congress for their own career self-interest or for the interests of their party or major donors, instead of the interest of the country. Citizen Rule #10 proposes these steps as the best approach to ensuring our elections in 2022 and beyond would be equitable, fair and secure.
A summary of all 16 Citizen Rules and the road map to implement them by a citizen-led initiative is included on the book’s website at www.citizenrules.org. There’s a direct link to purchase the book on the home page, a Contact page to send comments to me directly, and an email address to connect with me directly. I look forward to hearing from you!