GOP: Undermining faith in election

We, the people, live in a Republic. We democratically elect our representatives who then (in theory) advance the common good and keep us truthfully updated.

For all the decades of my life, federal elections took place every two years with no material problems. The people vote and the people also oversee the election process. Citizens from many occupations, faiths and backgrounds become poll workers to ensure and assure an open process. This year was no different.

Declaring, without evidence, that these patriotic poll workers across the nation have taken actions to defraud us shows the Republicans’ darker side. With hardly any exception, all reports from every boots-on-the-ground poll worker across the nation reveal no flaws that will affect Biden’s victory.

Although Trump need not concede and can ask for recounts or challenge specific actions, he has no valid claim to victory or a mythical second term, as he has done. Most Republicans are supporting Trump’s verbal claims of foul or victory, ignoring the tangible evidence from poll workers that a full and fair election is happening.

But Trump does more than talk. He pulls others into his self-created world, and has taken steps to delay state certification. Some Republicans might try convincing state legislatures to choose Trump-aligned electors for the Electoral College, regardless of the people’s votes. (That would be constitutionally permitted.)

By word and deed, congressional Republicans have dishonestly undermined our faith in this presidential election, conducted and overseen by the American people.

DENNIS REUTER

Coeur d’Alene