I believe there are two cornerstones for fair, democratic elections. 

The first is that an elected Congress should be an equal representation of all the people. The second is that everyone should have equal access to vote if our government is to fairly represent everyone.  

There is a lot of maneuvering going on in our country with respect to these two cornerstones, and most of it is troubling.

A case in point is our neighboring state. As I write this, the Missouri legislature is embroiled in a fight over redefining the districts that elect representatives to the House. 

A bipartisan committee designed a district map that would likely elect six Republican and two Democratic representatives.  Some hard core Missouri conservative senators are blocking this map, advocating a 7-1 map because they want to “limit votes for Pelosi.”

What about an objective to revise district maps to fairly represent all Missourians? About 40 percent voted Democratic in the 2020 election, which would mathematically translate to three Democrats and five Republicans in the 2022 election.

This is called gerrymandering, and it is getting worse. Alabama is working through a court challenge to a map that will result in six White Republicans and one Black Democrat being sent to the House. Almost 30 percent of the citizens of Alabama are Black. 

Both political parties do this, putting party power ahead of fair representation. It is an ongoing corruption we all should find unacceptable.

The second corruption of our democratic elections is the increasing and unlimited spending of very wealthy people through “Political Action Committees” or PACs.

The Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in effect overturned election spending restrictions dating back 100 years. Now, wealthy people and corporations can spend unlimited money for their voice to be heard over yours. Even worse, you don’t get to see specifically which rich people are spending the money.  

When I know who is voicing an opinion, I can judge whether they are serving their own interests or our nation’s interests.  This will be impossible to judge for the tidal wave of election commercials we will soon be hearing.

The 2020 election had the highest number of citizens voting in our history.  From a participation point of view, this was one of the fairest representations of the collective people. The reason for this is that anyone could mail in their vote vs. having to go to a polling place. 

Now, several states are introducing new restrictions to mail voting and creating new voter identification requirements. Let’s look at what impact this will have.

Consider a working poor person in any city. They have a minimum wage job that doesn’t pay them if they don’t work. They don’t have a car, and they take a bus to and from their job – sometimes waiting at a bus stop for over an hour.  

Many of these people never voted until 2020. They can’t afford to take an hour off to go vote. Their nearest voting place is two bus transfers away.  

Yet several states are now working to restrict mail voting and to require a photo ID. Why? We can sit securely in our home, pay our bills and manage our investments remotely but we can’t vote remotely? When did one poor person’s vote become a greater security risk than you transferring thousands of dollars out of one of your accounts?  

Most states have been using signature verification to confirm voter ID.  This is why you had to sign mail-in ballots. Imagine how you would create an identical counterfeit signature to steal some poor person’s vote. Despite the impossibility of this, several states will require a photo ID in 2022 – meaning their poor will have to take off their hourly job, take a bus to a registration office, and get a photo ID for no other purpose.

Meanwhile, you won’t have to do this because you have a car and a driver’s license. How can such needless restrictions result in fair representation of all the people?

Perhaps the most insidious election corruption of all isn’t controlled by any political party. Every time you use the Internet, very large companies are gathering data about every single thing you are looking at or talking about.  This is called “artificial intelligence” or AI. The goal of these companies is to keep you engaged, because this provides them with greater advertising revenue.  

So, they use their data collection to “know you” and bombard you with information they think you will be interested in. Actually, their computers do this, uncontrolled by anyone. The computers are apolitical, but also don’t separate fact from fiction.  Any propaganda nonsense will be forwarded to you just because you might be interested. And you will forward it to any of your friends who share your views.  

It’s hard to see how this helps an informed people elect good leaders.

I have the common sense to know that it would be criminal to violently invade our Capitol to confront my representatives. But if I were ever to do so, it would be for the ongoing election corruptions I’ve described in this column.