A free and fair election is all we need

| 7:29 pm EDT October 18, 2024
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We reported yesterday that Judge Robert McBurney blocked the Trump-allied election board in Georgia from refusing to certify the results of the upcoming election, as it is in contrast with Georgia law. Well, he didn’t just stop there. Judge McBurney also overturned the election board’s mandate that ballots be counted by hand. Judge McBurney is no fool, and prior to taking the bench in Fulton County Superior Court, he was an assistant U.S. attorney. As such, he knows all about what happened after Trump lost the 2020 election and the chaos that ensued thereafter.

In his ruling, Judge McBurney called the rule change an “untested rule at the 11th-and-one-half hour” that would unnecessarily impact over 7,500 poll workers. He also felt that the new rule would create “administrative chaos.” McBurney also called the rule “entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our board of elections (and the State Election Board) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal and orderly.” When the rule was first introduced, the main thought on people’s minds was that this would turn out to be a mess. We’ve been voting electronically for years; why in the world would we need to ditch a system that works for an antiquated system that probably will not? Besides, Secretary of State Raffensperger had already objected to the rule, relating that his office would have very little time for training and guidelines before the election.

The three members of the Election Board knew these actions would delay the vote announcement and certification, but they did it anyway in blind loyalty to a man who is loyal to only himself. Just think, the first day of early voting brought out 415,700 people, shattering Georgia’s record according to Raffensperger. He was relieved by the ruling because he said the hand-count rule would create “breeding ground for conspiracy theories.” Raffensperger should know since he got caught up in Trump’s last conspiracies. It is as if Judge McBurney knew when he wrote: “This election season is fraught; memories of January 6 have not faded away. Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public.” That it would have done. Instead, we can go and cast our votes without worrying whether this hand-count system would be correct.

Raffensperger is understandably proud of the way things are going. After the record was broken, he took to X to post: “We shattered records today. Georgia’s voting system has proven secure, efficient, and accurate.” Just imagine what might have happened had Trump allies been allowed to oversee a hand count. They would have said whatever they wanted about the results. We can now rest easily, knowing that our votes will count. Election integrity is important to all voters, not just Trump voters. We want a free, fair election, where we will elect someone to office who cares about us as people of this country. All we want is a fair chance to elect her. While three Trump allies still run the Electoral Board, they have been stopped in their tracks by people who want the same thing—a free and fair election.