We should be unfaithful to ourselves

“We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous and independent elections. If an election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice of a party for its own ends, not for the nation for the national good.” ---John Adams’ Inaugural address, March 4, 1797

Our legislature is deliberating several bills about this (SB 39, 47, 82, 83).

Vote buying and election rigging are human imperfection-driven vices of fluctuating severity since the dawn of all types of democratic activity. American versions are particularly inventive---following the Roman Republic’s vote-buying practice of “Corn & Games” and Stalin’s dictum that who votes does not matter as much as who counts the votes. The propaganda that America runs elections with un-impeachable quality is a dishonest cover-up of reality.

Government’s basic function of restraining human imperfection with legislation is driven realistically by the tolerance of the populace for corruption---born of such imperfection. Thomas Jefferson describes this operation of the limits of public tolerance perfectly in his Declaration of Independence. Successful functioning of government legislation is sabotaged by excuse-filled suspension of law in emergencies “that seemly never end”. This a consequence of “Rule of Men” sabotaging “Rule of Law”.

Completely setting-aside opinions of stolen elections, public tolerance for dishonest election conduct appears to be reaching its limit---arising from recent swarms of published sworn affidavits (mistreated by the courts) and from mathematical anomalies observed by high school-educated citizens. The credibility of government competence is now at stake.

Furthermore, there is a severe constitutional aspect to deliberations on these election integrity bills. It takes precedence over protestations of voting fraud vulnerability, of voter suppression or discrimination, or of unnecessary legislation.

The constitutional provisions that rule supreme over all lawmaking and the administration of public law are those that direct that all persons are equal, are entitled to equal rights, and are entitled to equal protection under the law. (References: AK Constitution Article 1 Section 1, & US Constitution Amendment 14 Section 1).

It’s easy to prove that there’s currently discriminatory/double standards treatment of persons under Alaskan anti-fraud laws. Please compare enforcement of laws restraining voting fraud with laws restraining monetary fraud (e.g. in PFD and Unemployment Insurance applications). PFD and Unemployment Insurance applications are each several pages long with required documentary proof. Types of excuses allowed in judging questioned votes are resoundingly rejected in judging PFD & UI applications. Inspect this for yourself!

I publicly recommend a choice of one of the following legislative paths:

In response to confirmed evidence of volume Alaskan concern over the extent of voting fraud, deliberate how to add reasonable disability accommodation provisions to these election integrity bills, and then pass them into law.

In the event the legislature doesn’t have facilities to validate a serious level of public concern (e.g. People’s Will) about voting fraud, pass a resolution to have these election integrity bills put forth jointly in the next election as a proposition. Meanwhile, extra funding for enforcing existing law shouldn’t be neglected ---to show government sincerity.

If there’s insufficient support for either of these paths, there’s another option. The Legislature could pass law that makes anti-fraud law provisions for PFD applications/Unemployment Insurance Claims more permissive---in order to be comparable to existing anti-voting fraud law provisions. The Legislature then can claim constitutional obedience to equal/just treatment of all citizens under affected Alaskan laws.

I invite all Alaskans to convey their will to the Legislature on this matter of election integrity. They need it to constitutionally act. (ref. AK constitution Article 1, Section 2---Source of Government)

Stuart Thompson is a resident of Wasilla.