For Love of Country

Our enemies have been working for decades to establish control of the fundamental processes by which we choose our leaders and determine the laws and policies that shape our lives and the course of our nation. By promoting the illusion that our elections are free, honest, and accurately reflect the will of the people, these enemies have abused the trust we have held in our institutions to secure our cooperation in the transformation of our once free nation into something that reflects their will, not ours.

This year, 2024, is pivotal in the life of our country, Perhaps at no other time since the American Revolution, even counting the Civil War, has our nation and our people faced such a choice.

One path leads to more centralized control, much like today's China where the people live under the illusion of freedom so long as they do not question the direction of the State and its agents. Any acts of significance require the permission of the State, including travel, employment, what can be said, and even having a family. This is the direction desired by those who would control our elections.

A second path is more difficult, but leads us to a nation where each individual has the freedom and the responsibility to choose his or her own path, largely free from State control. It is a path that rewards initiative, promotes prosperity and self determination—the very qualities our Founders sought to secure for us and which made us a beacon of hope and freedom for the world.

The words of an old hymn eloquently describe that choice: "Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, ..." The question now becomes how, considering the vulnerabilities of our systems for elections, can we make that choice known? How can we make it our choice, and not a choice our enemies make for us?

Making our choice ours and making that choice known is the purpose of the previous series of articles. We must ensure that the elections later this year are honest and accurate. Time is short so we must act effectively and without delay. I will outline many actions that can be taken now, but cannot provide a comprehensive list. The hope is that these suggestions will encourage others to produce their own ideas, many of which are likely to be superior to those I present.

That said, the actions needed to secure our elections operate on several levels, from individual actions to local, state, and even national. The battle to secure our elections will not be won in our courts or our legislatures, but rather in the hearts and minds of our citizens and in the court of public opinion. We must draw courage and encouragement from the moral superiority of our cause. Truth is morally superior to lies. Freedom is morally and spiritually superior to compulsion. This great experiment in self rule and a government of the people, while not without problems, is still better than anything tried before and anything else today. It is worthy of our support.

A few principles must be kept in mind. First, whatever we do, we must keep it legal. Given the stakes, there will be great temptation to employ some of the methods I've described in the service of our cause. Remember that the power of our opposition arises from lies, from fraud and dishonesty. Their tools are deception, manipulation, and even violence. Only by staying above those methods will we have the moral authority to win. It is that moral authority that gives the strength to persevere in the face of seeming overwhelming opposition.

Remember, though, that we have no moral advantage if we stoop to the level of our opposition. Furthermore, our opposition would not hesitate to investigate and prosecute any infraction on our part, and would use any issue discovered to discredit us and our cause. A case in point is that of a woman who registered her cat to vote in an attempt to show how vulnerable our voter registration systems are. She is now being prosecuted for the felony of providing a false registration, and the registration system remains as it was.

A second principle is that action is better than inaction. There is no perfect method to correct our flawed systems. Instead, there are many things that need correction and many and diverse actions needed to correct them. Even at the individual level, a fundamental action is simply that of voting. Many feel that their one vote is just a drop in the ocean and has no effect. They become discouraged and apathetic, feeling that one group of crooks is just as bad as the next, so why bother to cast a ballot. We must counter this attitude.

Every vote counts! Many elections have been won or lost by very small numbers, even at the national level. Especially in the face of fraud, it is essential that legitimate votes be generated in numbers sufficiently large that any fraudulent additions will be exposed simply by sheer numbers.

When the number of ballots cast exceeds the number of voters, that is a clear indication there is something wrong and the results cannot be trusted or certified. Even at the local level, if a local election cannot be certified, then county elections are affected. If county elections cannot be certified, then the state is compromised. Ultimately even the national level is affected. Exposure of incredible results is one of our best tools for exposing fraud.

A third principle is encapsulated in the motto of the Boy Scouts: "Be Prepared!" We cannot wait until the elections to take action. There are many laws and regulations pertaining to elections that support and even promote fraud. These must be corrected or nullified, or legally circumvented. Plans for monitoring the elections must be prepared and resources put in place. Legal teams will be needed to prepare legal challenges when fraud is exposed, and audit teams must be ready to investigate election processes and results to expose issues. 

A fourth principle is to think devious. We need to think like those who would commit fraud in order to understand how to detect and expose that fraud. If someone has difficulty in applying this principle, they should engage the services of a teenager or two. As many parents know, teenagers are often quite good at finding ways around rules and thinking how to circumvent detection.

The elements of modern election fraud I presented in previous articles form most of the approaches that the opposition can use to subvert elections. It is certain that they are looking at ways to combine them to our detriment. We must be clever in our own thinking in order to expose and nullify those approaches. Detectives, forensic accountants, and high school principals understand the process.

The final principle is to always remember what is important. Our goal is the restoration of our country. That means restoring the rule of law, fair and honest elections, a government that serves the people, a strong defense capability, the sanctity of the individual, policies that put our nation and its people first, and many other things that were, until recently, essential components of our national character.

It is easy to get distracted and to indulge in quibbling about the "best" approach or the "right" way to do things. We cannot afford such divisions. One advantage our opponents have had is an enforced unity of purpose. That monolithic approach is also a vulnerability we can exploit. Think small unit tactics and asymmetric warfare all serving a common goal in uncommon ways.

In terms of useful specifics, here is an outline of things that can be done:

Detecting fraud issues:

For these activities, you will want a team member with computer experience, especially spreadsheet use or programming/database skills

• Get copies of the voter rolls every few days to weeks apart.
  • compare copies to see what has changed. Look for registrations that have been added, ones that have been removed, and ones remaining. Look for churn.
  • look for registrations that have no voting history despite registering several years earlier
  • look for addresses, phone numbers, or emails shared by multiple registrations
  • look for common shared mailing addresses
• Get a copy of the non-residential tax rolls for your area
  • compare tax roll addresses with voter registration addresses to find improper registration addresses - vacant lots, stores, etc.
  • look for multiple registrations at improper addresses
• Get the Cast Vote Records (files of machine interpreted ballots) and look for unusual race results and time history—someone with a good statistical background can help
• Get voter roll analysis software and database info from OpenInk and start digging into nationwide voter rolls and historical data.
• Check out other organizations such as True The Vote for more ideas, tools, and networking.
• Network, learn, apply.

There is much more that can be done immediately, but this is a good start.

There is also much to do before November to fix what is broken. Here are things to do and to prepare.

In personal, individual efforts:

• Vote!
• Encourage others to vote!
• Find like-minded groups and join or support them. If you can't find one, start one.
• Participate in canvassing efforts, registration drives, and poll working
• Contact officials at all levels from local to national and let them know you want fair and honest elections and that you hold them accountable as your representative
• Speak up at school board meetings, city and county government meetings, and other places where you have opportunity
• Support people and groups that share your values.

In local efforts:

• Report illegal election activities to local law enforcement, including such things as ballot sale/purchasing, voter intimidation, illegal ballot harvesting, among others.
• Form watchdog groups to monitor and report questionable election activities
• Encourage public awareness of election issues and how people are personally affected. Local news sources must be encouraged to report news, not the opinion of those who would call themselves journalists.
• Attend town hall meetings with political representatives and make your views known

In counties:

• Form election advisory and monitoring commissions where concerns can be raised, investigated, citizen concerns expressed, and recommendations made for correction
• Eliminate ballot drop boxes
• In locales where widespread absentee voting is present, promote voting in person and discourage vote by mail and drop box use.
• Establish "canvass to cure" policies where defective vote by mail ballots are "cured" by actual visits to determine if the voter is a real person who actually sent the ballot in question.
• Where machine use is mandated for ballot processing, require a parallel hand count, such as the Missouri Method, as a check on machine honesty
• Eliminate centralized "polling places" in favor of local precincts where people are more likely to know one another
• Encourage sheriffs and other law enforcement officials to become familiar with election crime and relevant law. Have an election hotline where voters can report suspicious activities. Encourage formation of election crime offices within law enforcement organizations.
• Conduct surveys of citizens at multiple locations to identify and measure election concerns, attitudes to election integrity, and what citizens actually want

In states:

• Repeal any universal vote by mail laws
• Repeal required use of ballot drop boxes that duplicate post office services
• Enact voter picture ID laws
• Require absentee ballots to be specifically requested, and that they be witnessed and confirmed receipt
• Eliminate NGO and other access to voter roll databases
• Establish and enforce laws prohibiting network access to election databases and election systems, including poll pads, for the entire period from the start of an election to final certification. This includes internet, telecom networks, the Edison network, and anything except hard wired dedicated local area networks within an election office.
• Require positive response (applicant MUST affirm citizenship and right to vote) on state forms such as driver license applications. Eliminate default presumption of right to vote
• Allow citizen inspection of all election records, including paper ballots, tabulator outputs, and other records both during and after elections, subject only to preservation of confidentiality of voter identification.
• Allow counties to choose their desired ballot counting method(s), including hand counting
• Enact laws with serious criminal penalties for election fraud.
• Require all hardware and software used in elections and in voter roll maintenance to be available for public inspection on demand, and to be open source.

Nationally:

• Reform the NVRA and HAVA laws to require photo identification or other method equivalent to that required to obtain a passport as proof of voter eligibility
• Provide economic assistance to voters to obtain proper identification, provided such assistance does not compromise identification accuracy. Eliminate objections that claim voter ID is voter suppression.
• Reform the NVRA and HAVA laws to allow immediate removal of fictional voter registrations from voter rolls upon presentation of appropriate evidence
• Reform the NVRA and HAVA laws to require removal of voter registrations for voters who have no history of having voted in the two most recent general elections following registration.
• Review the Carter-Baker commission recommendations regarding corrections to election systems and provide a report on measures taken to implement them.
• Require that elections be conducted in a single day with results reported no later than the next day. Absentee ballots must be received by election day to be counted.
• Establish and maintain strict certification standards for accuracy and reliability of election systems, with criminal penalties for violation. Allow citizen inspection of certification records at all times.
• Conduct random audits by independent audit teams of state and federal level elections for accuracy and honesty. A minimum of 5% of elections should be audited each year, and the methods and results publicized.

These are just a small sample of improvements that can be made and actions that can be taken. All of them could be done before the November 2024 election, although some would be more difficult than others to accomplish. Trust in our elections, and even in our government institutions is dangerously low. Exhortations to "trust us - all is well" no longer carry any credibility.

Once lost, trust can only be regained slowly and with sincere effort. These measures only begin the process. Opposition to them only reinforces mistrust and confirms that those who currently wield power do not have our best interests in mind.

Matters have not yet progressed beyond recovery, even though the process of recovery will be difficult. Our choice is between a government that we can trust—that is worthy of our trust, or a government that would have us subservient and subject to the will of those in power—slaves, for all practical purposes.

Let us choose wisely.