Thoughts on Voter Integrity
I attended a workshop this past weekend led by Jay DeLancy of the Voter Integrity Project. The biggest takeaway from his class was that we cannot fix the 2020 election. He is keeping a close eye on the AZ race, because that does matter for the future, but only if there are people held responsible if cheating is found.
He wants us working on finding and documenting possible registration fraud using State Board of Elections data, the Voter Registration Cleaner App, and canvassing neighborhoods to find errors. Document now, then see if they vote. If they vote, then we have the evidence. Currently, most voter fraud is not prosecuted because it’s after the fact with little or no evidence or documentation. With the canvass happening 10 days after the election, there is not enough time to prove cheating. By the time fraud is fully revealed, there is nothing that can be done, it’s fuzzy evidence. It might not have been a close enough race (to change the outcome), and DAs will not bring charges due to lack of evidence. The pattern can continue because they got away with it in the past. All citizens should want free and fair elections.
We have to have effective Election Day operations, explaining absentee ballots and early voting to poll workers, watchers, and observers, and have fortitude knowing the law every step of the way.
But what about in close races, like from November 2020? How about the race for State Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby? All aspects came together to defend the win. After Election Day and the extra days, the lead was only 39 votes for Newby going into the recount. The NCGOP had observers in every county to defend integrity in the process. We had lawyers to bring challenges in 37 counties. During the recount, the Republican Party worked hard to keep it honest. Our volunteers helped inform voters and cure ballots. Finally in early December, Newby had a 401-vote lead and Cheri Beasley conceded the race. That amounts to four votes per county across the state. Every Vote Does Count.
Whereas Jay DeLancy works on voter integrity from a registration point of view, Major Dave Goetz is different. He works on vote integrity in the count.
At this month’s Orange County GOP Executive Meeting on August 12th, Major Dave will be our guest speaker. He will join us by Zoom, sharing to our group from his home in Virginia. He looks for anomalies in the numbers. Some would say his perspective is flawed. I have watched his Facebook videos and am cautious. He is slowly gaining a following, even in Raleigh, but nothing has been proven outright. That’s why voter integrity is so hard to prove. It takes research and faces challenges, but has to be done to keep trust in the system.
Dead voters and felony voters are not where the payoff is. Do any of it wrong, and you can face lawsuits. The loser pays. It’s the interstate voters and ballot stuffing that have gotten recent attention. But how to prove it even happens? True voter integrity begins in knowing how it’s done, proving it happens, and having the right evidence to prove it so prosecutors have to take the case.
The last area is fighting the loopholes put in by lawmakers and bureaucrats, either intentionally or not.
Our goal is for free and fair elections. If we lose on a level playing field, we can rest assured that it was because we did not work hard enough to inform the voting public of our values and candidates. Are you involved in the process? It takes commitment. What say you?
In the Cause of the Right,
Rev. John B. Gaither
Chairman, Orange County Republican Party