Secretary Jocelyn Benson says that her office “know adversaries to democracy right now are trying to create chaos and confusion and sow seeds of distrust around our very clear and legitimate and accurate and secure processes of running elections, not just in Michigan but around the country. So it’s incumbent upon all of us to look to trusted sources of information like your local election official and use data to evaluate questions, as opposed to people who are running social media companies with particular agendas and who have a history in amplifying conspiracy theories and false information. So in this moment, it will be my responsibility, and really everyone’s, to look and promote and amplify trusted information about our elections so that people can know both where to go with questions and also have faith in the results.” She told the host of Face the Nation that Michigan has set up a website that addresses every single question people have raised and “encourage citizens to go there, as opposed to social media for seeking trusted and accurate information about our elections.”
Who are the “adversaries of democracy”? The American people and that other party. How about this term “trusted source”? Remember Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, telling New Zealanders to not trust anybody or anything but her and the government of New Zealand? Same thing. “We are your single source of truth,” she said. She set up a website that New Zealanders were directed to use exclusively. Benson says it is our responsibility to “promote and amplify” so-called “trusted sources.” Different state. Same shit. This is the same “trust the science” and “listen to the experts” propaganda they used to lock you in your homes, make you wear a mask, and scare you into injecting into your bodies an mRNA gene therapy developed by the military-industrial complex (arguably the greatest medical scandal in history).
You can trust your government no more than you can trust the Catholic Church or any other power that stands over you. This is the bottom line for a rational being: its default is set to disbelief. You cannot trust your public health department and you cannot trust your local election official. If the latter were trustworthy, then they would demand voter ID and proof of citizenship. There would be no dropboxes, no postal voting, no other scheme to stack vans with votes. Just like the voting machine companies not letting the public see the guts of the devices that record its votes—the government has thrown people in prison who try—they want you gullible or scared. That they aggressively work against election integrity screams corruption.
When government is not transparent, you can safely assume the government is deceiving you. Governments aren’t citizens. Citizens have rights. Governments have powers, and in a free and open society, these powers are vested in them by the citizen. Citizens have a right to keep their thoughts and papers to themselves. They also have the right to see what the government is doing. The government has no right to keep anything from the people.
Until 2020, we almost always knew who won the election the same day we voted. France counts all the votes the day of the election, and France is bigger than every state in America. As of the most recent estimates, France’s population is around 68 million people. In comparison, the most populous US state, California, has a population of approximately 39 million. Why can’t a state the size of Michigan count all the votes by the evening of the day of voting?
There are moments in our history where we did not know the results right away, and the facts surrounding them are instructive.
In 1960, the race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon was extremely close, with the result hinging on a few key states. Although Kennedy was declared the winner the night of November 8, it took several days for recounts and challenges to be settled. It appears now that Nixon probably won that election. Democratic Party cheating was rampant in Illinois (Chicago) and Texas. Those around him urged him to contest the election, but he resisted.
Nixon was declared the winner in Hawaii by a narrow margin, but after a recount requested by the Democrats, Kennedy was awarded the state’s three electoral votes. The controversy over Hawaii’s electoral votes extended into December, with both slates of electors—a slate for Nixon and a slate for Kennedy—cast votes. When the results were certified in early January 6, 1961, Congress ultimately counted the electors for Kennedy.
The election did not hinge on Hawaii, but you might have noticed something interesting about the case. You read that right: two slates of electors. Was anybody prosecuted? No. Why not? Because that’s the way federal law worked until after the 2020 election, when Democrats and establishments Republicans quietly changed the law (see The Project to Entrench Establishment Power: “Clarifying” the Electoral Count Act).
In 2000, in the contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the result wasn’t known until more than a month after Election Day, due to the Florida recount and a Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore, which effectively decided the election on December 12. For the record, I said then and I will still say now that 2000 was a stolen election. Gore was right to context the results and wrong to give up when he did. It’s okay to say that elections are rigged and stolen because Democrats had no qualms about saying 2000 was stolen.
In 2004, in the contest between Bush and John Kerry, Democrats once more told us that election denialism was fine. And they were probably right that the election was stolen. While Bush was eventually declared the winner over John Kerry on the morning after Election Day, uncertainty about Ohio’s results lingered into the following day. Kerry didn’t concede until November 3 after it became clear that Ohio’s results wouldn’t change. I thought Kerry gave up too early. Ohio’s results stunk like a fish market.
In 2020, allegedly due to the high number of mail-in ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic, counting in key states like Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania continued for several days. The result wasn’t projected by major news outlets until November 7, when Joe Biden was declared the winner over Donald Trump. Can we say that election was rigged and stolen? No. Democrats have declared it treasonous to say that elections are rigged or stolen. They sicced the police state on conservatives who said so. Because they said so, submitting an alternative slate of electors in 2020 became a criminal offense.
I do have this feeling that after November 5, if Trump wins, election denialism will once more be okay.
freedom and reason 
Excellent.