[Lula-chat] Witness to vote-flipping

[Christopher Smith]

Chuck Kerschner wrote:
Chuck didn't actually write this, but he quoted it:
> If this is going to happen with 1 issue, I am deeply concerned about the
> fall. I am tired of having to "get over it."
So, on one hand, anything which weakens the public's confidence in the
voting process is a very serious problem that needs to be addressed. On
the flip side, I should point out that most forms of election fraud can
be detected in the event that they significantly change the outcome. So,
I kind of take the view that we really have to do something to improve
the system, but I am not as deeply concerned about actual election results.

Aside from fixing the process, the two best preventative medicines
against vote fraud are:
a) strong voter turn out, which this country seriously needs to improve
upon, and
b) a wide margin between candidates, particularly the winner and their
nearest challenger

Now, the catch is that a) in particular is not entirely independent of
fixing the process, as voter turn out is tied to confidence in the
system. But the key thing is b), which is important to keep in mind.
Ultimately, even if fraud tips the balance to the victor, for them to do
it undetected, even the fraudulent winner has to have had something
close to winning support from the electorate. Indeed, with all the
concerns that have been raised with fraudulent elections in this country
over the last 6 years, I have yet to see an election where there was any
reason to believe that the declared winner really only deserved than 43%
(or less) of the vote, which was all Clinton had when won in 1992.

So, on one hand, I think these problems raise serious concerns about the
integrity of the voting process, which absolutely needs to be as good as
possible, the political (as opposed to ethical, legal, etc.)
consequences aren't so bad, presuming our usual degree of vigilance.
Even if fraud, or some degree of unfairness does get someone in to
office, they still had support from a huge chunk of the electorate that
showed up and voted, so they still are representative of it (just
perhaps not as good a representative as someone else). I think,
sometimes in all the hoopla about election fraud, we forget about that.
As my soccer coach used to say: "a bad ref [with the implied caveat that
the ref can't be so bad as to have their rulings thrown on appeal] can
only help a team that plays well enough to have a chance to win, if you
lose and you feel it's because of a bad call from the ref, just realize
that the other team must have played well enough to have a shot at winning".

--Chris
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