By Rick Manning
The establishment media and others rush to declare Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election is a direct threat to representative government.
As a reminder, for those who have been so blinded in hate toward President Donald Trump, the idea of urging that there not be a rush to judgment in the presidential election dates all the way back to November 2, 2020, when media outlet after media outlet urged candidates to not declare victory prematurely lest their be violence.
Yet, here we are just one week out from that election with at least five states in active dispute with widespread fraud alleged. America has a process for working out these types of disputes both in the courts and through recounts which allow both sides to look at ballots cast with an eye toward determining if invalid ballots were counted or just as importantly, whether valid ballots not counted.
Elections are the essence of the principle so eloquently articulated in America’s Declaration of Independence where the second paragraph reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
For those who are averse to reading the document that laid the philosophical reason and intellectual justification for the American colonies to rebel against the monarchy in England, here it is in a nutshell: Our rights come from God. Government is created to secure those rights. The government derives its power from the consent of the governed.
That is why every legitimate vote must be counted in a transparent way. And it is why voter fraud threatens the very fabric of American society.
What many people don’t remember is that every fraudulent vote diminishes the value of every legitimate vote, and that does violence to the concept of government by the consent of the governed.
When those who conspire to engage in massive fraud that goes well beyond the petty cheating that occurs in virtually every election get away with it in plain view, and the media and establishment attempt to shutter every attempt to ensure an honest count, the essence of our government’s contract with American citizens is eviscerated.
And just to be clear, this process must be followed regardless of the final outcome in order to ensure a consensus that goes beyond media decided colors on a map of the United States.
States where the vote margins are close allow for either automatic recounts, as is the case in Wisconsin where the vote totals were separated by less than 1 percent, or the trailing campaign can request recounts to allow both sides to look at ballots to make certain they were fairly tallied. This includes both those votes which may have been allowed or disallowed by local election boards and those which are determined to have been a result of fraudulent activity.
Legal challenges flow from both the conduct of the election, as in Pennsylvania where the Governor arbitrarily changed the law to allow ballots that arrive after the Nov. 3 deadline to be counted in spite of this being directly counter to the written law in the Commonwealth, and from whether ballots that were rejected should be accepted.
For those who worry that the recounts could go on forever, the deadline for them to end is Dec. 8, when state electors to the Electoral College must be appointed, and then Dec. 14 when the electors vote.
Under the Constitution, which anticipated these exact problems way back more the 228 years ago, the state legislatures are empowered to appoint electors who the state’s Governor certifies should they determine that the results are faulty.
The electors actually meet at their respective state capitols on December 14 and cast their votes for the office of the President and Vice President.
Should no candidate receive a majority of votes cast the election is then thrown into the House of Representatives and a whole process delineated in the Constitution goes into motion.
However, the important point is that the media does not call the election, elected officials do and they do so based upon the vote tallies of the people who provide the “consent” to be governed. Absent that consent, the nation devolves into anarchy.
So it is particularly important in this time where the nation is divided about its direction for the vote counting process be allowed to play out without intimidation or manipulation by the media and others. America is the greatest country ever to grace the face of the earth at least partially because we have a peaceful transfer of power, but that consent only exists when the process is allowed to work fairly and without undue influence.
In 2020, it is as important as ever for our constitutional process to be followed, and if it is, then Americans can be assured that the President of the United States has been duly elected. And that is all anyone can ask for.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
