When I started wring these blogs/columns again several months ago, I vowed not to get in political discussions.

Well, I can’t help myself.

I am what you might call a conservative person, not a true republican or a true democrat at all. I believe you should look at the character and experience of the individual in politics as well as in real life before making any type of assumptions about him or her.

So, the questions I will ask from time to time are not meant to ‘poke’ anyone or provoke an argument but to get viewpoints that may be different than my own.

You may not agree with my position, but that is certainly ok with me. I’m just trying to see comments and thoughts from all sides of the issue.

In a free society, I think it is important to look at all sides and see what value on an issue may have been overlooked.

This week I would like to discuss voting in this country.

Now, for starters, here is my position. I cannot go to Germany or Mexico and vote in their elections since I am not a citizen of those countries, neither can you. If I was a citizen of either of those countries, I would have to provide proof of my citizenship through some form of issued identification. What is so difficult about this concept?

I know, I know, I’ve heard about poll tax and Jim Crow laws all of my life, but are those still a factor in elections in this day and time?

We have just finished the most contested federal election in my lifetime. Half of the country believes the election was fair and the other half believes it had massive amounts of fraud.

I personally think the problem of discovering the potential for fraud is so massive, it could not be achieved and thus we had to accept the results that were given to us. I do not think we had the time nor the resources to go back over the total votes cast to verify each and every one of them to see if the voter was actually eligible to cast a vote for the president of the United States.

I would really like to hear from someone who thinks the security of a mailed ballot to an address without any certification of who actually made their mark on the ballot and mailed it back to be counted is a secure and trustworthy system. This is how we should treat the election of the most important politician on this planet?

My question is simply this. Why is there such an objection from almost half of our society when it comes to verification of someone’s identity to see if they are a citizen and are allowed to actually vote?

Our personal right to a vote is a fundamental right of our status as an American citizen. So, if humans are not citizens of this country are allowed into the voting process, doesn’t their illegal votes actually disenfranchise my vote? Isn’t it actually illegal for a non-citizen to vote?

Why is there such a vast divide on this fundamental issue? A secure honest voting process is essential for the continuation of our country to prevent our being governed by a select few. Shouldn’t voting rules and requirements be standard across the country? Shouldn’t we as the most advanced country in the world not find a secure, honest method of verifying voters’ eligibility as well as accurately count the votes?

I mean it isn’t like this is something new is it?

Perhaps we are entirely too eager to know the outcomes of the elections we sacrifice integrity for speed.

Maybe we need to go back to paper ballots and hand counting over a longer period of time.

I think this is a serious problem and one that needs to be addressed by all parties, Democrats, Republicans and us.

What do you think?

See you next week…

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