John Wooden once said, “The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching.”
C.S. Lewis put it this way, “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.”
Why is “no one watching” such a revealing condition for one’s character and integrity? Because people have a tendency to commit certain acts; illegal, unethical, immoral, when no one is watching, or to put a finer point on it, when they know they can get away with it. Accountability, others watching prevents people from committing wrong or illegal acts that they would be tempted to do if no one is watching.
Stores, ATMs, Banks all have security cameras; houses have RING systems, all designed to prevent people from stealing or breaking-in because someone is watching. Why are convenient stores robbed mainly after midnight and not in broad daylight? It’s easier to rob a store when no one else is in the store watching. When you remove layers of security from a system, it becomes exposed to fraud, corruption, theft. This is human nature. We all know this. Its common sense.
I was at the airport the other day and I saw a sign that read: “Beginning October 1, 2021, you will need a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license... to fly within the United States.” Not only were we required to show a picture ID to go through the TSA security, we needed to show a picture ID at the gate when we were boarding the plane. Why would they make us do that? Because flying is much safer when every passengers’ identity is verified because people will do bad things and commit illegal acts when they use a fake name.
So, why wouldn’t we use the exact same mechanism to ensure that no one was assuming a fake identity to vote or hand in a ballot under someone else’s name as we do to secure every other process in our society? No one has ever put forth a compelling argument for removing voter ID. The only argument advanced is voter ID is racist. If requiring picture ID is racist, then the TSA, the airlines, banks, the public library are all racist. Has there been one lawsuit by a minority claiming racism based on the picture ID requirements against any of these entities? No.
Voter ID ensures the integrity of the elections the best way we can. The people who oppose voter ID, want to open the door to fraud. We all know it’s true. Only certain people are pretending that it’s not true because their guy won. It is interesting that many of the same people who demand body cameras on police officers don’t want to have voter ID. Aren’t you suspicious of the police officer who does not want to use a body camera? And aren’t you equally suspicious of people who want to do away with voter ID and other security measures.
When you remove layers of security from the voting process as we did in the 2020 election, such as, voter ID, signature verification, post marks, verified absentee ballot application, when you allow mass ballot harvesting, you have removed all layers of security and accountability from the voting process, and created a system where no one is watching. It doesn’t matter that there were poll watchers during the counting of the vote when every security measure designed to verify and validate the ballots up until then had been removed.
The Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council claimed on November 12, 2020, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.” They made that statement 9 days after the election before all the ballots had been counted, before any audit of the election had been completed, before any one of the hundreds of sworn affidavits claiming fraud and irregularities had been presented. So, we know their statement was false, and we know the people overseeing the elections are not telling the truth.
This year, we had the least secure election in our history. We instituted mail-in ballots where ballots were sent out to people who never requested them, ID verification was not required, signatures on ballots did not have to match signatures on voter rolls. And it was all allowed to be done through the mail. What is the number one federal crime committed in the United States? Wait for it...... Mail fraud. So, the people who are telling us that this election was completely secure implemented a system by which the most prevalent federal crime is committed. Does anyone pay their bills with cash? Of course not. Does anyone send money through the mail? Of course not. Why? There’s a good chance the money would be stolen. We all know this. Why do we pretend that the mail is secure when we act in our daily lives that it is not?
I went to a college that had an honor system, an honor code, un-proctored exams. You know who loved the honor system? The people who were cheating. Removing layers of security during exams made cheating easier. You know who hated the honor code? The honest students. A system that allowed lesser students to cheat threw off the curve, and cause the honest students’ grades to go down.
We spent this entire summer debating the idea of defunding the police. You know who loves the idea of defunding the police, removing layers of security from society? The criminals. You know who hates the idea of defunding the police? The law-abiding citizens.
You know who loves the idea of removing voter ID and matching signatures, instituting mail-in ballot systems and ballot harvesting? The people who want to cheat. You know who hates those changes? The honest voters who believe secure elections are vital to our country’s survival.
We all know who the cheaters are in class, just as everyone in the clubhouse knows who cheats on their scorecard. You don’t get straight A’s by spending every night getting drunk at the frat house, just as you don’t shoot a 68 when you can’t drive the ball 100 yards off the tee. The behaviors don’t add-up to the results. And you don’t receive 10 million more votes than any presidential candidate in history by campaigning from your basement, shutting down your days at 10:45 AM, and not getting more than twenty cars to show up for your campaign rallies. It does not add-up.
It makes us all feel better to pretend that this was the most secure election in our country’s history. That means the country we love is safe and secure, that it is not facing an existential threat. And that is re-assuring. If we have integrity in our governmental systems, if corruption is limited, we are strong enough to survive and withstand even if a bad person is elected president. But if our systems have been compromised, if fraud and corruption becomes the modes operandi, then the foundation of our country will have been irreparably damaged even if the fraudulent system elected the best person for the job.
We can either play the short game or the long game. The short game is, my guy got elected, so I don’t care if it happened through corrupt or fraudulent ways. This compromises the future stability of the nation for the short-term result. Or we can play the long game, where we root out all the mechanism which are open to voter fraud; no voter ID, mail-in ballots, no signature requirement, unsecure drop boxes, and ballot harvesting. In 2022 and 2024, if these unsecure mechanisms are still in place, our elections will be a race to the bottom, who can cheat the most, and the most efficiently, will win.
It appears that Joe Biden will be our next president, and whether he ends up being a good president or a bad president, the next Abraham Lincoln or the next Millard Fillmore is irrelevant if we do not fix a voting system which is absolutely begging for people to commit voter fraud. The United States of America can survive a bad president; we can absorb all of his bad decisions, correct them and move on. The United States of America will not survive a corrupt and fraudulent voting system. That is what destroys nations.
Whether fraud was committed in this election, or not, or whether that fraud was enough to change the outcome, at this point is irrelevant. We have serious flaws in our voting system. We must have strong voter ID laws, so only legal eligible voters vote. We must do away with the mail-in ballot system that was in place this year, so certain parties or certain districts cannot stuff the ballot boxes. Every illegal voter disenfranchises a legal voter, every illegal vote cancels out a legal vote. This is the existential threat to our nation, more so than the coronavirus, more damaging than anything that China or Russia could even attempt.
We shouldn’t just have voter ID; we should implement facial recognition software to identify voters. Not only should we require matching signatures, we should require a matching thumb print. These are technologies that are on the latest three versions of iPhones to keep our phones safe and secure. Why not use this software to ensure the integrity of our elections? These are no-brainers. Anyone against these security measures, don’t want to have secure elections because they know their guy must rely on an unsecured election to win.
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Judd Garrett is a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He is a frequent contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.