The 2020 presidential election was a source of great controversy nationwide, and as such, individuals here at Kaiser have opinions as well. We asked two teachers with contrasting views for their take on the legitimacy of the election. Their responses below (left and right columns) will be kept anonymous for the sake of their privacy. The Cougar Connection does not endorse any of the views in these statements.
It doesn’t matter who you want to win or whether you are rooting for Biden or Trump.
The integrity and reliability of our voter system should be first and foremost to everyone. If people have doubts about the integrity of our voting system, they will be less inclined to participate in voting. Therefore, we need a reliable and transparent system where any accusation of voter fraud can be checked, double checked, triple checked, etc. by independent observers.
Currently, there is a media blackout on all the evidence piling up that suggests widespread Democrat electronic fraud; if Joe Biden is inaugurated president on January 20th, at least half of America will not accept it as legitimate.
Any suppression or blocking of an audit of voter ballots is a threat to our democracy!
Although the election was done for the most part non-traditionally (mostly mail-in), it was successful. I feel that Americans let their voices be heard in the safest way possible due the current pandemic in our society.
I was a bit skeptical at first because I normally vote in person, but mail-in was my only option for this election. I actually normally work at the State Capitol on election night, checking in the votes from the different precincts. It is a cool process. I am not sure if Americans will go back to voting in-person in most states, so it could be the beginning of something new. I watch the news and follow all the accusations of fraud and tampering but I still am unshaken by the stories. I listened to the explanation by the former director of U.S. cyber agency, Chris Krebs, and found that his information is believable. In all the states that were considered questionable, numbers and data matched up.
It is important to have faith and trust in the system, or we all lose hope. The right to vote is so important, and many people don’t vote because they don’t feel a single vote would make a difference. It does, and when people all “show up”, a single vote quickly adds up to a hundred votes, then a thousand votes and so forth. My hope is that if we keep this new system, it can be truly finished in a more timely manner, and that there are security measures that will not allow for the kind of nonsense Americans were put through—with the false claims of fraud—to ever happen again. I will continue to vote, and I encourage others to do the same. It is a right and a privilege people fought for in history, and I will cherish it, no matter if I have to go to the polls in person or mail my vote in.
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