(Editors Note: This was posted on the Oklahoma GOP Facebook page ran by Bob Dani. It is anonymous but Dani wouldn't have posted it unless he knew the author and he states that he respects the author and thereby must know them. We are reposting to introduce our next article that goes over why Republican delegates to the GOP State Convention must rise up and defeat this effort to eliminate the power of the County GOP organizations. You can find a copy of the GOP official email in question at this link.)
(Edit: the author of the article has came forward, Steve Byas, the Oklahoma Constitution editor, a decades long Republican Party member and activist. Last week we had written about the problems with the electronic voting and the abuses of Chairman David McLain.)
Millions of Americans are not convinced that the 2020 presidential election was conducted freely and fairly in every state. As such, Republicans in several states are tightening up their election procedures. Yet, despite these meritorious moves by Republican legislators in other states, the Oklahoma Republican Party leadership is proposing changes to our state convention voting procedures that are fundamentally flawed in multiple ways.
According to an email I received from the Oklahoma Republican Party, “there are certain things that HAVE to change.”
Anytime someone tells you that some things just HAVE to change is attempting to convince you that resistance is futile. The great English philosopher G.K. Chesteron said that before one takes a fence down, one must find out why the fence was put up. Certainly, change is sometimes good, but sometimes it is not.
The burden of proof is on the person who wants to make the change. There must be something more substantive than “certain things that HAVE to change.”
So, what is the change that simply has to be implemented at this year’s state convention?
Electronic voting.
This is yet another effort at a top-down edict. It may be good or it may be bad, but this is a decision, even if it was a good change, should have been made at a previous state convention --- a real one, not a zoom one --- to be implemented at the next state convention.
There is nothing in the rules that allows the state chairman to change the voting procedure by fiat. The state chairman is not a dictator. If that is the direction that the Oklahoma Republican Party wants to go, count me out. If the state chairman can make this change, without the approval of the state convention, then why even have a state convention?
We are justifiably proud that our state’s optical scan voting machines are not connected to the Internet. This prevents the chicanery that happened in other states, like Georgia and Pennsylvania, from happening in Oklahoma. Republicans are nearly unanimous that voting should not be done via the Internet, because it would create the potential for instant voter fraud, with no paper trail to verify the results.
Why would Oklahoma Republicans want to go to Internet voting for our convention when we rightly denounce it in other states for the election of public officials?
The state chairman also cannot, on his own, add qualifications to the grass-roots to serve as delegates. Yet, delegates are now being told that to participate in this year’s convention as a voting delegate, one must have a phone that is connected to the Internet. And, one is expected to attend a “training session” so the delegate will know how to use their phone (or laptop or tablet) in order to vote.
We have historically been a party that respects rules. In Georgia, the secretary of state simply altered state election laws so as to please Democrat Stacy Abrams! Similarly, election laws and even the state Constitution were ignored by election officials in Pennsylvania.
I have been involved in the Republican Party for a long time. Over that time, I have seen the grass-roots lose more and more power and authority. At one time, we met in private homes for our precinct meetings. The precinct is no longer important in the Republican Party structure, as practically all counties have “joint precinct meetings.” Presently, we cast our votes at the state convention in our county delegations. This usurpation of the process that is being proposed --- ordered? --- now will make our county parties irrelevant.
The email that I received said, “In order to accomplish staying relevant, there are certain things that HAVE to change.” The email explained that the Party needs to “be relevant and encourage younger ones (under 50 crowd) to join in on the process.”
So, if we vote by the Internet, “younger ones” will suddenly think the Republican Party is relevant? Really? Taxes and spending, limited government, individual liberty, the free enterprise system, respect for life, a strong national defense --- the “younger ones” are not motivated by any of that, yet if they can bring their phone and vote on it, that will motivate them to get involved in the Republican Party?
Surely, no one is that naïve.
As Republicans, we cannot tell the general public that we must guard the integrity of the election process, yet we are going to use a phone to vote? That sounds quite hypocritical, to put it mildly.
“This administration is all about transparency and free and fair elections,” the email states. In other words, you must trust us. “Trust, but verify,” former President Ronald Reagan famously said.
With no paper trail, how can we be sure that all of these votes transmitted by phone, tablet, or laptop, are accurate?
At the end of the day, this is just a bad idea whose time should never come.
--- A Concerned Delegate
