The Constitutional Process Didn’t Stop Fraud; We Need to Do That

Voters line up for the first day of early voting outside of the High Museum polling station in Atlanta on Dec. 14, 2020. Jessica McGowan/Getty Images

Commentary

As soon as the Nov. 3, 2020, election started looking odd in the early morning hours of Nov. 4, my laser focus for this election was to ensure that we ran a completely constitutional process. It wasn’t about former President Donald Trump or President Joe Biden, it was about fully exercising the guidance on elections given in the 12th Amendment and Title 3 of the United States Code.

My journey with more fully understanding the election process began in late 2019, in the aftermath of the Virginia General Assembly election debacle. From this journey, I learned many things.

First and foremost, I learned about a stunning lack of knowledge, passion, and participation in the voting process by most non-progressives at the county and state level. I learned further that all elections are predominantly a local event, and federal law and guidance is actually very sparse on the voting process.

I’m finding that few really care to understand the election process and simply assume someone else is taking care of it. The answer is yes, someone else is taking care of the process. This “someone else” is people, methods, and processes that are questionable.

Finally, I learned that if anyone wants to be upset about the outcome of the Nov. 3, 2020, election, they need to focus their time, attention, and energy on the Republican apparatuses (the Party and the elected executive and legislative Republicans at the state levels) in the six contested states.

Fraud and the Constitutional Process

I read, analyzed, and re-read the 12th Amendment and U.S. Code Title 3 to prepare numerous point papers at the request of others. The stark reality is that we did follow the constitutional process for this election. At the same time, there was massive, corporate-level fraud in the process.

Bafflingly, these two components—the constitutional process and election fraud—aren’t mutually exclusive. This does not mean the constitutional process is broken or faulty. In retrospect, I like to observe that the constitutional process graciously allows for the imperfect nature of Man (and Woman) in an incredible calculus to arrive at the best possible decision in a democratic republic.

I was contacted daily by multiple groups and personalities seeking an exact, step-by-step, technical manual sequence for what would happen. Few liked my answer. The reality is that the 12th Amendment and U.S. Code Title 3 give some sequence, but mainly they provide parameters.

Could Vice President Mike Pence have sent the electors back to the states for clarification from the state legislatures? Yes, I believe he could have, and it still would have been within the spirit and intent of the letter he released. In the end, he didn’t; that wasn’t unlawful nor did it violate the Constitution.

There was massive evidence of fraud in the election process, arguably best summed up in the third Navarro report. Media, the courts, and the executive branch seemed patently uninterested in following up on any of the evidence.

It’s a crucial and possibly the key role of the judicial branch to compel the release of evidence primarily held back from public review by the county and state sworn election officials. They didn’t and the six key states adopted unstoppable inertia, despite noteworthy, heroic exceptions, as it appeared many on the Republican side wanted to push the contention over the final election outcome to someone else. Again, the “someone else” syndrome struck.

Totalitarianism in Disguise

With the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters came to be associated with violence.

Were members of BLM and other radical groups responsible for initiating the violence? Perhaps—and there have been arrests and charges made in Washington and at other riots around the country.

Was this a set up by Antifa? Possibly.

Did some Trump supporters try to calm and defuse the violence? Yes. Even if true that some Trump supporters were carried away by the psychology of the mob, there needs to be a complete investigation and responsibility assigned for the unlawful actions on Jan. 6 for all participants on all sides.

What has quickly been apparent is that the riot at the U.S. Capitol was the equivalent of the Reichstag Fire. The riot is being used as a pretext for harsh censorship and purges by social media–a modern “blacklisting.” Although respected personalities attempt to stand against the media led mob, many succumb to this false narrative that Trump caused the violence.

The consequent coordinated purge by social media of accounts is simply un-American and demands transparency and review.

Simultaneously, the House speaker led a second impeachment vote and the case has been handed to the Senate for a trial, which will happen after the president has left office, questionable in its standing.

This unreasoned, hateful pursuit of Trump does little to heal American society and is what Third World countries do after an election coup. This frenzy against free speech and Trump is totalitarianism disguised as moral outrage—very similar to what happened to former President Park Geun-hye in South Korea.

Involved in the Process

The “conspiracy” theories I was frankly swamped with over the past few months for the most part started with a kernel of truth. Many of the people sharing these were very-well-educated, well-informed, and well-meaning. They live outside the veil of classified knowledge of the departments and agencies of the U.S. government and other vestiges of the swamp.

They are well-meaning people trying to make sense out of what happened.

Instead of waiting for things such as martial law, fleets off the coast, military action to seize voting machines, and so on, I suggest we need to demand absolute transparency over every step of the voting process.

Every single ballot needs to be optically scanned to ascertain its validity. Every single ballot passed through needs to be observed by multiple bipartisan observers double-checking the voting tallies. The voting machines need to be as dumb as possible and only count votes, with none of the insane proportional allocation of votes. We need absolute transparency over the election machine companies and their ownership.

Americans voted reasonably well before the 2002 Helping America Vote Act, which created this train wreck. Let’s help ourselves and ensure every one of us gets involved in the local election process. Despite the constitutional process that appears to have allowed a victor with considerably fewer votes, if we get decisively involved, the best is yet to come for the United States.

Retired Col. John Mills is a national security professional with service in five eras: Cold War, Peace Dividend, War on Terror, World in Chaos, and now, Great Power Competition. He is the former director of cybersecurity policy, strategy, and international affairs at the Department of Defense. @ColonelRETJOHN

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.