すみませんが、いまはこの記事が日本語で不可能選択です。
Until recently I was the local Precinct Committee Person (PCP) for my political party. I just lost my re-election to a bought candidate. Now I'll tell you how I almost beat the corruption and why I ultimately lost.
But first let me explain what a PCP is, as many people don't know. This is the lowest rung of the political ladder. It is a position that has no governing power over the people, but can influence and shape party policy and have an effect on the party's selection of candidates, e.g. by selecting delegates to send to convetions. It is an unpaid position, wholly a voluntary effort.
The PCP is the voting precinct's most direct connection to a political party, and each party can of course have its own PCPs, as they are separate committees.
Duties of the PCP to local residents include, among other things, encouraging them to register with the party, vote in upcoming elections, and participate in political rallies.
That may not sound important, but it really is. One person in my precinct drove 20 minutes through a blizzard to cast his vote at a caucus, and he said it was only because I twice made the effort to try and drive up his steep, icy driveway to invite him to participate. (The first time my car couldn't make it up the hill, so I parked and tried to go on foot. I still couldn't climb the hill, so I fetched a collapsible hiking stick from my trunk and was about to make another attempt when he came down in his four-wheel-drive truck to see what I wanted.)
On another occasion my committee foiled the wicked machinations of corrupt politicians just by appearing in person at a town council meeting. Our council is made up of one true conservative, one pretend conservative, and one milquetoast fence-sitter who's easily swayed by pretend conservatives. Our prosecuting attorney at the time was also a fake conservative who was actually just a power-hungry egotist.
To give some important background on the situation of this occasion, my county is quite rural; the primary industries are agriculture. Two of the districts, mine included, have a very low population density, spread out over a very broad area. The populations of each of these two precincts are so low that residents are automatically enrolled in mail-in ballots when they register their driver's license.
Now, I'm ordinary hard against mail-in ballots, with only the strictest exceptions, as they are too easily abused through ballot harvesting and dead people somehow voting en mass. In these two districts however mail-in ballots actually make sense. Our population density is too low and spread out to make ballot harvesting worthwhile, and a great deal of our populace consists of elderly people who can't easily make the long drive to a polling station. In case I haven't made it clear, these two precints' territories are huge.
On top of that, without mail-in ballots there's a good chance people from our area would have to drive all the way to the courthouse which is on the other side of a mountain. In November that can be quite a dangerous drive because of the weather.
Back to the council meeting, the attorney had sneaked into the council agenda a proposition to combine these two low-population precincts, which the public caught wind of only a day or two before. Combining the precincts would have two ramifications: 1) There would be one less PCP on the party committee, and therefore one less true conservative for the closet-Marxists to fight, and 2) The combined population of the two precincts would exceed the threshold for mail-in ballots, thus discontinuing our mail-in ballots and effectively eliminating the votes of several elderly conservative voters who would never make it to the polling stations on election day.
The attorney pushed combining the precincts really hard, claiming there was no good reason for having two such sparsely populated precints standing on their own, and that combining them would simplify administration. This was of course nonsenes, as another county in our state has a precient with a total population of two people as geography deems that situation practical.
We saw through the facade of this proposition for what it really was: An attempt to diminish the voice of true conservatives in our county. The intentions of the false conservatives were clear in the sheepish looks of their faces when we appeared to oppose the proposition. It would have been sneakily voted on and passed with a 2-to-1 vote, without any feedback from the residents of the affected precincts, but because one member of our committee voiced our objection while the rest of us silently stood by in support, the pretend-conservative councilman hemmed and hawed, then instead of calling for a vote which would have failed 1-to-2 (with the milquetoast councilman being swayed to our side) he said, “We don't really need to vote on this, do we?” and dismissed the proposition.
To give more background on the poltical climate of my state, it is generally a conservative state overall. Regardless of that, years ago my county used to have a relatively even balance of conservative and non-conservative party members. Today however there are barely over 200 registered non-conservative party-members. So where did the rest of them go? Quite simply, they registered with the conservative party, but without changing their values. Like wolves in sheeps' clothing, they have infiltrated their enemies' camp with the intent to tear it down from the inside. And supposedly conservertative people vote for these wolves despite their blatant anti-conservative performances because of ignorance and apathy, simply because many candidates are related to families that have been in the area for generations, making it near-impossible for an “outsider” to win an election, and also because many of these wolves have served in leadership positions in the Church, with their supporters shouting, “Vote for him because he once presided over a congregation!” (In my church, all positions are unpaid and voluntary, appointed by calling, and every member has the potential to be unexpectedly called to any position, servering for any number of years before being released.)
My first official foray into politics was a year and a half ago when the current PCP moved out of town, and my neighbor asked me to step up to fill the vacancy. Having lived in this valley for only eleven years and not being related to anybody here, I was an “outsider,” and I had never held a position in the bishopric, but I still managed to beat the odds. Being an off-election-cycle event, the voting body consisted only of the then-current committee. My only opponent was a multi-generation resident and former Bishop who was well known throughout the county, but only two voting members of the committee chose him over me. I think one thing that helped me get elected was that when asked during my interview if I was the type of person to just “go with the flow,” I said, “I will not be intimidated to vote a certain way.”
My appointment angered the pretend conservatives who are trying to take control of my state.
So about a year and half later, last month, our state held primary elections, which opened my re-election to being voted on by all precinct residents registered with the party. The two months leading up to it were a battle you wounldn't expect in some On-The-Edge-of-Nowhere county. The craziest part was the level of outside interference.
One of the biggest fake conservatives in the state selected 100 PCPs throughout the state and gave each of them $1,000 for their campaigns. He and his group of so-called “conservatives” handpicked a replacement candidate for every PCP of my county (except for one person he mistook for a weak-willed pushover). No county in my state has 100 precincts, so this man was clearly trying to interfer with counties in which he did not reside. Keep in mind, this wasn't a case of “supporting The Party against other parties,” it was pitting the party against itself.
That kind of money is difficult to compete against; I received less than $400 in contributions. I say this not as a lamentation about my funding, but to point out that my contributions came from local sacrifices, from residents who are already struggling to make ends meet. A man who has no right to influence our county elections with his money is tantamount to foreign interference. My opponent accepting this foreign funding would be on nearly the same level as accepting a campaign contribution from China.
Nonetheless, I fought the good fight. I posted on social media, encouraging people to vote. I spoke about preserving our Constitutional rights at meetings. I even spent an entire day driving around my large precinct knocking on nearly every door—three times during my tenure. I can't imagine my opponent doing that.
When election day came and votes were tallied, I got 27 votes, and my opponent got 31. It was a close loss. I almost beat the bought candidate. Now I'll tell why I really lost.
As I mentioned, my precinct is fully mail-in ballots. Residents receive their ballots with plenty of time to leisurely turn them in with pre-paid postage, so nobody has an excuse not to vote.
Two people who promised to vote for me, and even had my campaign sign in their front yard, waited until the very last moment to physically hand in their ballots at the courthouse. They were too late and were turned away. That would have been 29 votes for me.
Three more people who promised to vote for me were repeatedly reminded by a relative of theirs to get their ballots turned in. They procrastinated and eventually missed the deadline. That would have been 32 votes, putting me 1 ahead of my opponent's 31.
That's not counting how many suspiciously “disqualified” ballots there may have been. In one confirmed case, one neighbor's mail-in ballot was disqualified because his signature supposedly didn't match. Phonecalls we're made, but he was out of town and unable to physically come in to deal with the matter, so that was one more vote I lost.
In any case, the point is that every vote matters. Too many people have the apathetic attitude that one vote among many won't make a difference, but some of these elections are won or lost by narrower margins than most people realize. Too many complain about their elected representatives, but then don't bother to vote.
On the national level, it is my hope that every living American stands up and participates this November in what will be one of the most important presidential elections in the history of this nation. Don't just assume that enough other people you agree with will carry enough votes to beat the opposition for you; let every citizen of this great nation have his or her voice heard in a landslide of votes, declaring to our tyrants that we are tired of and done with feeling a boot constantly stamping on our faces!