THANKFUL FOR THE SECRET BALLOT & THE RULE OF LAW, NOT OF MAN
by Freedom Writer
Anchorage, Alaska
November 2000

During this extraordinary season, where the United States held a Presidential election whose outcome has remained in doubt for several days, where Americans honored their deceased & surviving war veterans who fought & died to KEEP US FREE, & where we will soon gather our family members & loved ones around us to GIVE THANKS for our many personal, community, & national BLESSINGS, let us not forget how we, as a FAMILY, as a community, as CITIZENS of our respective STATES, and as a NATION, got to this point in our HISTORY.

Our FOUNDING FATHERS (& many dedicated women also) either migrated from arbitrary rulers or were born in a new land & thereby established a new developing framework of covenants, charters, individual rights, & ultimately a CONSTITUTION for each new state & this new country. Those agreed upon LAWS have kept us, for the most part, full of freedom & liberty while maintaining INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY amidst the executors & adjudicators of those same LAWS. While not always perfect (like not being able to eliminate slavery right away), our ancestors were cognizant of the need to strive for PROGRESS in this new land: Economic progress while we moved into the West & Social progress while we eventually abolished slavery & reaffirmed our individual rights & community standards. All of this happened without tearing apart our NATION because we believed in the RULE OF LAW & because we were a part of making those laws by ELECTING representatives to reflect us: a government "of the people, by the people, & for the people".

As we finally decide upon our next 43rd President of these United States, we must not let mob rule govern the decision-making process. We must not let a disgruntled faction hijack an election. Regardless of some minor mistakes by some people who cannot read a ballot & wish to change their vote AFTER THEY LEFT THE VOTING BOOTH or by some election officials who think they have more power than the person who was elected to oversee the state election process according to STATE LAW, there is something more important & much larger at stake. The VOTERS & the ELECTORAL PROCESS, at both the state level & ultimately the national level via the Electoral College (& if necessary, the House of Representatives, per the Constitution) must decide this outcome, not partisan judges, nor deals between the candidates, nor subjective opinions of what determines a voter's intent. The PEOPLE must speak with their BALLOTS cast & then counted by a FAIR & STANDARD METHOD with precision in a TIMELY MANNER which does not give voters in one community a different process & timeframe compared to other voters in another nearby community within the same state. A different process & new deadline after the STATUTORY deadline would be unfair & a violation of not only state law but also the EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Just because one candidate does not like the apparent ultimate outcome,that is not sufficient reason to change the existing process before the process has been completed. In the absence of voter fraud or a complete breakdown of the machinery used in the counting process, there is no need for continual manual recounts just to overturn an election. One can always strive to change or improve the process for the next election, instead.