Patriotic fervor is on full display this month, with Fourth of July fireworks extravaganzas up and down the coast — including in Lantana, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton — and even a reading of the Declaration of Independence as part of Delray Beach’s festivities.
It is quite a feat that America is still standing 250 years after that declaration was first read throughout the 13 colonies.
Let’s keep that exuberance going as we head into the fall and the upcoming election season.
Nothing is more foundational to the ideal that is America than the right to vote, giving each citizen a say in the direction our country takes.
It’ll be up to people like Wendy Sartory Link, Palm Beach County’s elections supervisor, to make sure the rules are followed and the elections go off without a hitch. That’s no easy task when you realize that in Palm Beach County alone, there are close to 870,000 registered voters.
I attended an Elections Experience Tour in June that Link offered to teach “about the election process, voting equipment, ballot security, and the steps taken to ensure accurate and transparent elections.”
Link’s tour was impressive, detailing and demonstrating the steps taken during each part of the process to ensure the integrity of our elections.
The system’s machines can move ballots at incredible speeds — yet still have time to weigh every ballot being mailed out as an added precaution — with built-in redundancies to verify an accurate count.
While the mailed-in votes zip through many parts of the system, the voter signatures on them are all checked manually by trained staff. When it comes to counting the vote, the results are tabulated by two separate systems, providing an automatic audit of every precinct’s results.
When irregularities or issues pop up, the county’s canvassing board — made up of Link, a county commissioner and a county judge — steps in to make a final determination.
But there will be plenty of places for confusion to pop up.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that states that allow mailed-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted can continue to count them.
Just remember, Florida isn’t one of those states. Florida elections supervisors can only count ballots from regular voters that arrive in their offices by Election Day.
There are also battles taking place that could impact the vote here, such as over what exactly is a free and fair election.
It has to be that everyone eligible to vote — and only those eligible to vote — are allowed to vote. However, some people place the emphasis on making it as easy as possible for all eligible voters to be able to cast a ballot, while others stress the need for additional safeguards to find and stop any ineligible voters from doing so.
In the end, it’ll be up to the courts to determine what steps are OK and which go too far — and just how easy or difficult it should be for citizens to take part in the election process.
The founders didn’t create a perfect system. Each generation has struggled to keep the promise of America going. Two steps forward, one step back; that’s the history of our country.
We just need people willing to stand up for the rights and values that got us this far, especially the right to vote, to provide hope as America sets its sights on that next looming milestone — our tricentennial — 50 years from now.
— Larry Barszewski,
Editor
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