By Joel B. Pollak for RealClearPolitics
The 2020 presidential elections were neither free nor fair.
Much of the debate has centered on the question of “electoral fraud” – whether alleged rule violations in key states attracted enough votes to reject the result, or whether speculative theories about hacked voting machines and software should be taken seriously.
These claims remain unproven.
While the vote is the most important event in an election, it is not the only event but the culmination of a process.
There are common international standards about what makes an election “free and fair”.
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These criteria, summarized of the Inter-Parliamentary Union include: the “absolute” right to secret voting; the right to “express political opinions without interference; (t) seek, receive and share information and make an informed decision ”; the right of candidates to “equal opportunities in access to the media”; the "right of candidates to security"; Freedom of association and others.
Many of them were injured in 2020.
"Fraud" wasn't as important as what Democrats could legally achieve, for example by urging the country to vote massively via email.
The scientific basis for this has always been in doubt. South Korea and Israel both had national elections in March and April at the height of the pandemic, and both used personal voting almost entirely.
Neither of them could be accused of having a lax approach to COVID-19.
Never before had the country introduced a completely new electoral system at the urging of one party and at the object of the other.
Democrats also sued to reduce safeguards against postal voting fraud.
The attorney who directed many of these lawsuits, Marc Elias of Perkins Coie, was also the key figure in attitude Fusion GPS produces the fraudulent "Russia Dossier" to tarnish Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
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Democrats preferred postal voting because it could generate voters with little inclination.
Republicans preferred to vote personally – standard worldwide practice – partly because of traditional ties, but also because many Republican voters did not trust postal ballots to be kept secret or even to be delivered by postal workers whose union supports the Democrats had Joe Biden.
Republicans turned out to be voters; Democrats exposed envelopes.
Aside from this unfair advantage to the Democrats, there has been an obvious abuse of the principles that make voting free and fair.
Political violence was widespread and was practiced almost entirely by left-wing groups alongside protests against Black Lives Matter. Although most of the protests were peaceful, hundreds were not.
Forty-eight of the 50 largest US cities Experienced Riots, like many smaller towns.
Democrats minimized the violence and blamed the police or the president for the unrest.
With the riots came a national panic known as "Breaking Culture".
Conservatives feared speaking out so as not to lose their jobs, social media accounts, or their lives. ONE survey in July, 77% of Republicans showed they were afraid to share their political views.
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The extreme tendency of the mainstream media also suppressed conservative and pro-Trump views.
Media fact checkers cast Trump as a liar while ignoring Biden lying about Charlottesville and more.
There was also unprecedented censorship in the 2020 elections. Google manipulated his search algorithm to bury conservative news.
Facebook and Twitter suppressed the coronavirus debate.
In October when the New York Post released credible allegations about Hunter Biden's laptop and emails revealing Joe Biden's past, Twitter and Facebook censored the story.
Mainstream media applauded the censorship and demanded more.
Other factors also made the 2020 election unfree and unfair.
The Presidential Debate Commission was piled against Trump, and a moderator had conspired with a prominent Trump critic.
An election year impeachment based on allegations by a “whistleblower” whose name was voluntarily censored by the press ruled the president illegal.
Former military leaders like Admiral William McRaven (ret.), called for its removal: "The sooner the better."
Most of these abuses were legal. That is why the election results cannot simply be put aside.
When laws were broken, as in the nationwide riots, voters arguably passed their own judgment, punishing Democratic candidates for the violence and for waffling the party's "disappointing police".
However, we cannot pretend what happened in 2020 is acceptable. Many Republicans believe the system is "rigged" – even against a "red wave".
We urgently need to make changes.
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If voting cannot be reversed by email, it must be made more secure or replaced with a secure, 100% American and politically independent remote voting system.
Political parties must clearly condemn violence.
Big Tech must lose its immunity under Section 230, which it abused. The Presidential Debate Commission should be replaced.
Above all, "free and fair" must be the standard by which American elections are held.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
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