by Wayne Adair, Hamilton
Anyone blessed with the ability to read and comprehend a newspaper or has the intellectual capacity to understand a news broadcast knows the 2020 presidential election was fair and decisive. More than 60 failed lawsuits filed on behalf of the former president challenging the results of that contest as well as repeated recounts and ballot audits, some conducted by Republican groups, prove Joe Biden is the legitimate president of the United States.
Enter Sen. Theresa Manzella, R-SD44, and the Ravalli County Central Committee. They ignore all the evidence cited here and want to institute a legally questionable hand-count of votes in our county. They have drafted a ballot initiative to that end and want to get the measure before voters in time for the June primary election. Trouble is, there is not enough time for legally required procedures to make a tight mid-March deadline for printing the ballots.
Hoping to streamline the process, they met Jan. 25 with the Ravalli County Commissioners. Turns out, commissioners have no authority to take such action, but the three-person board politely heard them out for two hours. The comments came from Manzella and several other self-identified Republicans.
Regina Plettenberg, the county’s highest ranking elections officer, known for her expertise and honesty by Republicans and Democrats alike, summarized her opposition to the effort to require hand counts: inaccurate results.
She described earlier elections that were hand counted and the outcomes were deeply flawed. These manual counts are slow, demanding and boring. Volunteer counters get tired, distracted and accuracy of their tallies suffer. Machine counts remove that human element.
The experience of elections officials in other states support Plettenberg’s position.
Early in her comments, Manzella described a recent trial hand-count in Mariposa County, Ariz., that she said proved the feasibility of hand counts. She cited no source to back up her information.
I decided to check her claim. I could find no mention of this experimental test in Maricopa County, not even on “alternative media” sites Manzella loves so much. I did find news articles about an effort in Mohave County, Ariz., that reported, “Arizona Republicans wanted to hand-count ballots. Then they saw the price tag – and the errors. Elections workers spent three days counting 850 ballots in Mohave County. They made errors in 46 races.” The article further reports that the all-Republican Board of Supervisors there voted 3-2 to abandon hand counting. Source: NBC News, Aug. 2, 2023, reported by Jane C. Timm.
Please consider these facts when volunteers approach you to sign the petition. If passed, the initiative will further burden Ravalli County taxpayers, add to the already excessive workload of election workers and is a deeply flawed solution in search of a nonexistent problem.
If you doubt the account offered here, listen to the archived streaming on the county’s website, Jan. 25 session. Here is the link:
Gomez says
Mike. No, I do not think that hand counting ballots is more accurate.
Again, do you believe that hand counting ballots is more accurate?
Mike Miller says
Since you want to do more “whataboutisms”, Al Gore back in 2000, and Hillary Clinton in 2016 were screaming in favor of hand votes, and finding every little thing to help them, such as “hanging chads” and official SCOTUS protests.
Seems to be thing for election losers to, with democrats in the lead since 2000.
But again, nothing in this LTE said anything about Trump and the 2020 election, the pillow guy, or other “wahtaboutisms” you’ve thrown out here.
Gomez says
Mike, again, do you believe that hand counting ballots is more accurate?
Mike Miller says
Al Gore and Hillary Clinton certainly do.
My personal view will come into play should a Bill/Law come forth for voting. I’ll scrutinize it carefully; history shows (Gore, Clinton, Trump) show it’s a very politically driven tool, and subject to be not in the best interest of We The People but a political party power play.
Until people realize they’re being played/controlled by political parties that care more their personal/party interests and not the Constitution, this mess will grow. I believe we now have laws that actually counter laws, and certainly counter the Constitution. What a mess.
I’ll leave you with this: I find it very unsettling a State Lawmaker (regardless of party affiliation) is using her political position and pressuring a county voting entity to break state law. She should’ve been arrested right there.
Gomez says
Mike. Thank you for your reply. I better understand your position now.
Gomez says
And since we’re on the subject and those stuck in a right wing news bubble probably wouldn’t see it normally;
2/21/2024 “My Pillow owner and right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell will have to pay $5 million because of a contest he initiated at one of his “cyber symposium” events after the 2020 election, a federal judge confirmed Wednesday.
Robert Zeidman, a software developer, took Lindell up on a so-called “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge at an event the election-denier hosted. Participants in the challenge could win $5 million if they proved data Lindell provided about the 2020 election wasn’t real election data, according to rules the participants agreed to. The contest allowed participants to arbitrate if needed.”
Mike Miller says
Gotta mention those “whataboutisms” every chance you get, even though they had nothing to do with this LTE.
Gomez says
The reason that they want to hand count is because they believe the election was stolen. The reason they believe the election was stolen was because Trump & Lindell lied to them.
Mike Miller says
Not one word of this LTE mentioned anything about a stolen election. Stop trying to justify your “whataboutisms”.
Gomez says
Do you believe that hand counting ballots is more accurate?
Mike Miller says
Do you?
Gomez says
And the real kicker is that even if each and every vote in the country was counted by hand, that Trump would still cry “It was stolen!” if he lost, because he’d say that half of those counting were dems and half of the republicans counting were deep state rhinos, so the results couldn’t be trusted. This is a man baby, a child like adult who would rather tip over the board game and run out of the room screaming that the game was unfair than he would admit that he lost.
He is, and will always be, a loser.
hsabin says
Gomez…look at all the ballots that have been found, the questions etc. on the 2020 election. but…come the next one, there must be controls in all states so Americans have faith in their voting system, There has to be a way to check if the 11 million entering illegally are voting. – and as far as I can see there isn’t. America is no longer the land of the free ….but of corruption from the highest office in the land.
Gomez says
Helen. Anyone that believes anything that the pathological orange liar says is not to be taken seriously. He lost, and when he hired people to find fraud, all they were able to find where a few extra votes for Biden that didn’t get counted properly the first time.
You have been conned by a master manipulator and con man.
Wayne M Adair says
Hsabin,
Your backhanded question/suggestion defies logic. Non-citizen immigrants are not allowed – by federal law – to vote.. The idea that a person would risk deportation and other penalties to cast a vote that could not possibly affect the outcome of a national election ignores really and borders on the absurd. So thanks for that.
Wayne Adair
Wayne M Adair says
Of course, the word I intended was reality. Autocorrect bit me hard. Really.
Gomez says
Not only was the 2020 election fair, when Trump & his allies paid to have investigations and recounts, in almost all cases Biden gained even more votes tan he had before. Of course, the right wing media and Trump himself buried these findings.