Families, communities, and nations are stronger when responsible adults stay alert for possible problems and prepare to overcome them. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emphasizes the need for members to practice preparedness. Part of being self-reliant is to be prepared for emergencies and to avert catastrophes. The same should be true of communities and nations.
The United States of America is
currently going through a contentious election, but it did not have to be this
way. In 2005 a bipartisan commission prepared a report and submitted it to the
federal government. The co-chairmen of the Commission on Federal Election
Reform (known informally as the Carter-Baker Commission) were former Democratic
President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican who
served in the George H.W. Bush administration. The report submitted to the
George H. Bush administration had 87 recommendations for securing American
elections.
According to Fred Lucas at The
Daily Signal, the “commission was created to address voting and
election integrity raised by the tumultuous 36-day postelection battle of 2000,
which was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.” The decision awarded “Florida’s
25 electoral votes and the presidency to Republican George W. Bush over
Democrat Al Gore.” Lucas continued:
Had Congress and state governments adopted
many of the panel’s recommendations, the 2020 postelection mess between
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden might have been avoided,
said Carter-Baker Commission member Kay C. James, now the president of The
Heritage Foundation.
“So many of the problems we’re now hearing
about in the aftermath of the 2020 election could have been avoided had states
heeded the advice of the Commission on Federal Election Reform,” she said.
James continued: “Simple protections
against fraud, like voter ID and updated registration lists, make perfect sense
if we truly believe that every vote must count. Election officials should take
another look at the commission’s recommendations and make sure they’re doing
everything possible to protect the integrity of our elections.
“Several states adopted aspects of
the recommendations, particularly voter ID proposals.” It appears that Congress
did not like the report and did nothing about it. Now we are in a terrible fix
with 70% of Republicans believing that the 2020 election was not free or fair.
The 74,000,000 people who voted for Donald Trump are not happy about the
situation.
[The commission] called on states to
increase voter ID requirements; to be leery of mail-in voting; to halt ballot
harvesting; to maintain voter lists, in part to ensure dead people are promptly
removed from them; to allow election observers to monitor ballot counting; and
to make sure voting machines are working properly.
They also wanted the media to refrain from
calling elections too early and from touting exit polls.
Lucas continued by discussing further many
of the suggested items that could have averted the current electoral mess. The
alleged fraud in this election is costing millions of taxpayer dollars and
thousands of manhours. The effort and cost are necessary now to ensure election
integrity in the nation now and in the future – but the changes could have been
made at much lower costs fifteen years ago.
Many times, families or communities do the
same thing. They ignore advance warnings until it is too late. Instead of
replacing a few shingles or reshingling the entire roof, some homeowners wait
too long and are forced to replace much of the roof and supporting timbers. Instead
of taking the time and making the effort to read to preschool children, some
parents wait until a child brings home failing grades in school before they act.
Communities are just as bad in that
equipment breaks down completely before being replaced, or major work must be
done on schools instead of regular upkeep. The only way families, communities,
and nations can stay free from serious problems is to regularly take stock of
the situation and make necessary changes early to avert total disasters.
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