Many people I know and like believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged, stolen; I am less certain. Because of untested changes in voting procedures, mostly imposed in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, their fears are hard to disprove.
Such beliefs are destructive of our electoral process, and ultimately of governmental legitimacy. Glenn Reynolds concludes for RealClearPolitics that our voting needs greater transparency and believability.
Reforming our political culture, which I regard as deeply dysfunctional, may be asking too much. All the more reason to support paper ballots, voter ID, and open counting on-site. Adopting these methods would do much to promote political trust, and political legitimacy, in a nation sorely in need of both.
Reynolds makes really good arguments for these reforms. Particularly worth reading is his critique of computerized “black box” voting systems.
