Is It Time to Call in the UN Elections Monitors?

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

14 October 20

Republicans have said vote-by-mail will be a problem—and in California, they seem determined to make it so.

sn't it time to call in the United Nations monitors?

The post, from Jordan Tygh, a regional field director for the California Republican Party, encouraged people to message him for “convenient locations” to drop their own ballots. The problem is the drop box in the photo is not official – and it could be against the law. The California Secretary of State has received reports in recent days about possible unauthorized ballot drop boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange counties, agency spokesman Sam Mahood said Sunday evening. Reports place such boxes at local political party offices, candidate headquarters and churches.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla said his office is coordinating with local elections officials to look into the reports. Only county elections officials can oversee ballot drop boxes, choosing the number, location, hours of operation and other details. County registrars are charged with making sure every box follows strict state guidelines for security, including making sure they can’t be tampered with and tracing the chain of custody of all ballots.

I'm serious. This is a job for those folks that Jimmy Carter ran with overseas, who knew kabuki democracy when it punched them in the nose. In yet another sentence I never thought I'd write: Tom Friedman is right. The call to ratfcking is right out in the open now, straight from the Truman balcony and streaming outward, like industrial runoff into a river, to all points of the compass.

But Friedman is too limited in his thinking. While the president* has brought it out into the open, rigging elections through manifestly discriminatory means has been a vital part of Republican electoral strategy since William Rehnquist was bullyragging Hispanic voters in Arizona back in the early 1960s. It has reached a positive frenzy ever since Chief Justice John Roberts declared the Day of Jubilee in Shelby County v. Holder. Now, all that's different is that nobody is pretending any more.

Reports came out Saturday night about a metal box in front of Freedom’s Way Baptist Church in Castaic that had a sign matching the one on the Orange County box. The church posted on social media that the box was “approved and brought by the GOP.” The post said church officials don’t have a key to the box and that GOP officials picks up the ballots. A pastor for the church didn’t respond to a request for comment. On its website, the Fresno County Republican Party also shared a list of “secure” ballot collection locations. None are official county drop box sites, with the local GOP instead listing its own headquarters, multiple gun shops and other local businesses.

And this is the ethical and moral context in which Judge Amy Coney Barrett is willing and able to take a lifetime position on the Supreme Court from this President of the United States. No person of character would do that.