Fix Election Day Pain

by Dr. Glenn Mollette

2020 will be remembered for more than we what to remember including the painful November 3, election. Our country was already suffering from the Pandemic and all its spin-off problems. Unemployment, business closings, demise of the travel industry, struggling houses of worship, massive national depression to name a few of the problems. However, great news Pfizer has come up with a vaccine that has been 90% effective in preliminary trials. At this writing this is great news with the stock market on the verge of setting an all-time high. This vaccine has the potential to bring this country out of the house and back to work, school, church, and more.

We also need a vaccine to get us over this election. Most Americans would gladly take a shot in the butt to relieve this pain in the neck election we have just endured or, enduring?

Whoever heard of an election going on for days? Some of the states are still counting. The media has called the election for the states but some states have not verified the vote totals. This is insane.

Most of the states got it right on November 3. They counted the votes that made it to the post office on November 3.  No one knows when a letter will show up when mailed on November 3. The letter could show up November 4 or November 10 or later. Regardless of how you feel about the outcome of the election states like Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Arizona did our country a disservice. Even if you are happy about Joe Biden being elected, surely you aren’t happy about the long delay in counting the votes.

For many weeks we have been hearing about swing states that would be allowed more days in getting their mail ballots back to count.  But the changes did what everyone knew would happen and that was delay the reporting of election results with the possibility of court fights later.

In North Carolina, the State Board of Elections said ballots postmarked by Election Day would count as long as officials received them within nine days after the election. Nine days!

In Wisconsin, a federal judge similarly ruled that ballots postmarked by Election Day would count as long as officials had them in hand within six days after Nov. 3. A Michigan state judge ruled that absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 would be counted if they arrived up to two weeks after Election Day.

All this is crazy. Go to the courthouse to verify your voter registration. Receive your one ballot obtained only by showing your identification. Put your ballot in the mail in plenty of time to arrive by November 3. It only takes some planning. Better yet go early and vote and forget the mail if at all possible. Between now and the next election we have to come up with a federal election policy that requires counting the votes received by election day and not ten days or two weeks later.