When I first began in politics, I had the vague suspicion that there were inappropriate things going on in the Riverside County Registrar of Voters office. Democrats controlled the Board of Supervisors, and our side seemed to lose close elections all the time. Some of the outcomes made no sense. When I got elected, one of the first things I did was to use what little influence I had to fix that problem. It was all about who occupied the key positions at the County. I didn’t wish to engage in voter fraud, I just wanted the work done fairly. When I left office, I believe we had fixed most (but not all) of the problems I saw in the office.
Given my past experience, I understand why a lot of conservative want the election audits and a large number of people believe that, if there was no voter fraud, Donald Trump would have been re-elected. I am one of those who believe that. I can’t prove it, but there are just enough questions about what happened to persuade me that fraud occurred. In addition to that, there is just too much noise in the media, noise that, in my opinion, amounts to propaganda, attacking those who claim the fraud occurred. The language used by the “reporters” doing the attacking crosses the line from “reporting” to advocacy, and makes those “reporters” sound like shills for the Democrats. These same reporters bought the “Russians elected Donald Trump” line after 2016, and there was less evidence to support that claim than the fraud of 2020.
Voter fraud has always been with us. Whether it was Tammany Hall and “Boss Tweed” in New York, the Pendergast machine in the mid-west, Richard Daley in Chicago, or the Burton/Brown machine in San Francisco and the Berman/Waxman machine in Los Angeles, voter fraud has existed throughout the country in our history. It has been practiced for years, and still prevails in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Detroit, in the states which, by the way, delivered the White House to Joe Biden. Finding and rooting out the fraud is a worthy effort.
That being said, finding it, and proving it happened is not going to deliver the White House back to Donald Trump. There is no avenue in the law for such an effort. The time to have rooted out the fraud was before the 2020 election, not after. The fraud happened in 2016, but the Trump was ready for, and overcame, the fraud. I don’t know what happened in 2020. I just know it is too late to fix the problems in that election. All that is left is to stop it in future elections.
That is why I encourage my activist friends to focus on 2022 and beyond. Rooting out and eliminating fraud in elections is something with which we should all be concerned. However, it needs to be kept in perspective. We need to “focus on the future.” Use the knowledge we get from the effort to root out the fraud from the last election to prevent it in the next election. Be on the lookout for fraud, but know that the best way to overcome fraud is to work harder than the fraudsters, and turn out more legitimate voters by building the necessary Republican activist infrastructure to turn out that vote.
The activists have to work like the legislators. We are a year out from the next election. This is the time to grow the local volunteer units, to reach out to neighbors and friends, find the candidate that can win your area, and press forward with building the political operation.
The important part of developing the political infrastructure is finding the right people, and keeping them involved. The Murrieta/Temecula Republican Assembly stages regular political events with its members, emphasizing the issue of the moment. This gets people out of the house, thinking about politics, and getting them ready for the election. It also influences the community. People in the Murrieta/Temecula area know they have neighbors of a like mind. These political action initiatives need to happen throughout the state. It develops and engages those who will be necessary for the “Get Out the Vote” effort next year.
Victory may not come next year, but it is important to not give up hope. We will win if we stay in the fight. They will win if we do not. Activists are a key ingredient of this victory, and each of you activists need to engage now.