San Mateo Daily Journal – August 22, 2023
In the last days leading up to the 2008 presidential election we had knocked on hundreds of doors in Nevada and now we were knocking one last time to check if folks had voted or needed a ride to the polls. One gentleman who answered his door was a brand new citizen ready to vote for the first time and yes, he could use a lift. We drove him to the polling place and I went inside with him. “No.” The woman behind the desk said. “You’re not in my book.” Crestfallen, he asked her to check again and she said “No.” I speed-dialed the number we’d been given and spoke to the lawyer at the other end. She looked up his name and address and quickly found his registration. “Go back inside and hand the poll worker the phone.” We did. The poll worker listened, turned pages, and there it was! Earlier she had transposed two letters and had looked at the wrong page. She apologized. He was able to vote. He cried on the way home. So did we.
The right to vote, and having your vote counted, are among the most sacred rights in our country. I remember when my husband and I voted for Congressman Dennis Kucinich in a presidential primary and watched the votes tallied on television. For hours Kucinich had zero, zero, zero, and then TWO! Kucinich lost bigly, but we still felt good that our votes counted.
One of the reasons most Americans find the charges that have been leveled against former President Trump very serious is that, had the alleged scheme succeeded, 81 million votes might have been ignored. “Fake” alternate slates of electors from just a few states might have been substituted for the real ones and that could have tipped the Electoral College in favor of Trump. There would have been legal and societal mayhem, with Democrats still stinging from the Florida chads debacle where the Supreme Court stopped the vote counting in Florida and put George W. Bush into office. Remember though, in that case as in 2020, the Vice President (Al Gore who therefore LOST the election to Bush), did the right thing. He ceremonially opened the legitimate Electoral College votes, handed them to the tellers, and announced who had officially won. In Vice President Pence’s case, he did so after Trump and co-conspirators had allegedly tried to get him to reject the votes, swap them for fake electors, or close or at least delay the Congressional official proceeding. Though not included in the charges Trump faces, let’s not forget that he may have helped spur on a riot that had disrupted the proceedings, with one rioter killed, 114 police injured, hundreds of people traumatized, and the halls of Congress desecrated. Three police officers died in the days after the attack. Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders were convicted of “seditious conspiracy” and nearly 1,000 other rioters have been convicted or are awaiting trial. 34 people have been indicted in Michigan and Georgia for their alleged roles in trying to overturn the election.
Despite all their machinations, 81 million people’s votes counted and democracy prevailed… so far. Congress, the Special Counsel, and the Michigan and Georgia DAs thoroughly investigated everything leading up to and beyond January 6th and Grand Juries have handed down indictments. Now former President Trump and his co-conspirators face trial for their alleged crimes. Another core and critical part of democracy, trial by jury, and the right to counsel, are on display for all Americans to watch. Unlike Alexie Navalny in Russia, they face these charges with the presumption that they are innocent. Prosecutors will have to convince 12 jurors, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendants committed the crimes with which they are charged, and, the American people will be privy to the entire process through news reporters and transcripts.
People like the man I helped vote come to America, in part, because of the freedoms we enjoy, because we, for the most part, uphold the rule of law. We don’t imprison people simply because they say things the powers that be don’t like. No one is on trial for exercising free speech, they face trials for allegedly conspiring to defraud the United States, racketeering, obstructing an official proceeding, tampering with voting machines, making false statements to public officials, intimidating witnesses, forgery, and conspiring to deny Americans our voting rights. I strongly encourage everyone to read all the indictments. In my opinion, the details are damning. But again, the only opinions that will matter will be those of each jury.
I will admit that there is one right that I wish Donald Trump would exercise much more than he does, the right to remain silent. His lawyers may be wishing that too. Onward.