Thank citizen poll workers for their service

It is always especially welcome when strangers come up to me and my fellow veterans who are wearing caps honoring their branches of the U. S. military services and say, “Thank you for your service.”

My thought as a contentious presidential election comes to a close and the thousands of poll workers across the country deserve the same level of respect.

“Thank you for your service, poll workers.”

We all know a lot of them. They are our neighbors. We know they could not be corrupted if they were offered a kabillion dollars to falsify a single vote. They are local patriots who make next to nothing for their labors.

Hence, despite unending blowhard accusations to the contrary, our voting processes in this country are mostly squeaky clean. Of course, it’s a human process, so a few inadvertent mistakes are bound to happen. They are miniscule.

That was proven out in the last election when countless suits by highly partisan losers were struck down by the courts. Those objectors bought the B.S. peddled by Donald Trump and his lackeys that he didn’t really lose the 2022 elections, that it was “rigged” against him. Isn’t it amazing that a guy born on third base, who inherited multi-millions of dollars, is always the victim of undefined forces against him?

The Trump followers have already made it known that they will attempt to discredit the Nov. 5 election if their MAGA leader loses to Kamala Harris. But, because it is impossible to corrupt an election when thousands of American citizens are running the process on a decentralized basis across 50 states and thousands of counties, all the trumped-up allegations against the 2024 results will again be struck down by recounts, audits, and court cases, even if Trump-appointed judges are in charge.

It is necessary to point out that two prominent election deniers in Wisconsin, Tim Ramthun from Campbellsport, who ran for governor on his allegations of election fraud, and former Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls, never came up with a single bad ballot. They were both crushed in subsequent elections, because most sensible voters knew they were peddling hot air just to get in front of the cameras and make headlines. They were Don Quixotes tipping their defective lances at fantasized windmills.

Election leaders have educated their poll workers to be on the lookout for election disruptors, and they are ready to call 911 if troublemakers raise hell at local polling stations.

There is every reason to believe that the 2024 elections will be clean and as American as apple pie. Record numbers of voters, millions of them, have already cast their votes in advance. They would not be doing so if they didn’t have deep faith in the voting system. By the way, the automated systems have far less chance of human error than hand-counting. To say otherwise is another form of conspiratorial B.S.

So I say again to the citizen poll workers, “Thank you in advance for your service.”