Backroom Deals and the Laws That Make It Possible

Counting ballots or cutting deals?

I’m embarrassed to say that my county of residence —Nevada County, California- is one of those counties still counting ballots from the November 5, 2024 election. As of late November, we’ve got about 85 provisional and conditional voter registration ballots left to tally.

They should be done by the fall of 2027 at the rate they're going.

Seriously. Can they go any slower? What are they doing, passing a joint around between each counted ballot?

I mean, we do live in a cannabis country.

ELECTION INTEGRITY UP IN SMOKE?

Are California election laws being broken? No. But what little confidence I had has gone like a smoke ring.

California law allows counties to keep counting ballots until December 5th. So, yeah, it’s legal, but is it moral? Does it instill confidence in our electoral process? I’m not so sure. Just because we can stretch out the counting process doesn’t mean we should. It’s like saying you can eat dessert before dinner—just because you can doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

It’s not like we have had a good track record as of late.

The 2020 elections received an influx of 15 million fake votes and everybody's starting to notice....

In Nevada County, where an impressive 83.18% of registered voters turned out (kudos to us), one has to wonder how any county justifies taking this long to count votes. If we did our part, showing up and voting, why is it so hard for them to do their part? Count the ballots expeditiously.

THE WILD WILD NEVADA COUNTY WEST

There is a reason our county is in the shape of a revolver.

It’s pretty lawless here.

According to the latest updates from our beloved Nevada County Elections Office, as of November 22, 63,115 ballots out of 75,881 issued have been counted. With updates only twice a week, what wool could possibly be pulled over our eyes?

A SERIES OF STEPS TO ELECTION HELL

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane. In 2015, California decided to allow mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrived within three days.

In 2015, California implemented a law allowing mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrived within three days. The primary reason for this change was to address “the challenges posed by voters dropping off their mail ballots on Election Day, which often created bottlenecks in processing and counting votes.”

Sounds nice, throwing in a little carrot, “to address the challenges….”

Then came 2020, and suddenly, we could wait seven days for those ballots to trickle in—thanks, COVID! Now we’re sitting pretty with a full 30 days after the election to finalize counts (I wonder if there are still job openings for California ballot stuffers? I could use a little extra holiday cash.)

Supposedly, California wanted to “increase voter access” because the changes in the law in 20215 weren’t enough, and now our leaders really, really wanted to “ensure that all valid ballots are counted accurately.”

It is interesting how, time and time again, we have seen California pass legislation to ensure ballot access — yada yada yada — and yet our election integrity has gone to hell in a handbasket full of carrots.

PAPER, PLEASE

The problem is this: I don’t care about the election results. I will have absolutely no confidence in them at this point in time. One of the safeguards to counting our ballots was to do so in a timely fashion that did not open our elections to fraud and corruption. That door is now wide open with a welcome mat at its threshold.

I want our paper ballots back, timestamps, and a maximum of three days to tally the votes! I want a required ID to vote. I want term limits. I want some morality back in our elections. I want Diebold and the CCP's Dominion machines exiled from our elections. I want AIPAC (that’s a whole other story) and other Big Money out of our elections.

Is that too much to ask?

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