Most – if not all – Americans must have awakened the morning of Nov. 6 with a vast feeling of relief that there was no violence at voting precincts, as was warily predicted by some.
There was also a sense of relief when presidential contender Kamala Harris graciously conceded the election and then called President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his win.
Election 2024 was so refreshingly unlike that of 2020 after which outgoing President Donald Trump refused to attend the inaugural for President Joe Biden after having provoked a brutal virtual insurrection attempt at the nation’s Capitol. That riot and subsequent schemes to smear that election as “stolen” were shameful assaults on our Representative Democracy. There were serious worries if Trump lost Nov. 5, he would again claim “Stolen Election.” The fact he won by a big margin fair and square this time around calmed him down, took the wind out of his sails.
Hopefully, President Trump in his second term becomes more rational, reasonable and willing to listen to and compromise with political opponents. That just might lead to a give-and-take willingness that could bring about wise policies and decent laws for all Americans. Well, we can only hope so.
It is now time to try to restore and to promote faith in our Democracy and its foundation – free and fair elections coast to coast, border to border.
We can all remember the vicious verbal assaults and death threats aimed at many election judges during and after the 2020 election. Just one egregious example involved a mother (Ruby Freeman) and her daughter (Wandrea “Shay” Moss), who served as two election judges in Georgia. New York attorney and Trump legal aide Rudy Giuliani loudly, publicly, falsely accused those two of unloading boxes of fake ballots at their precinct. As a result, they were verbally harassed and threatened with death by many who stubbornly believed Giuliani’s defamatory accusations. Much later – too much later! – he was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay those two women millions of dollars.
Thank goodness, post-election this month, so far at least, we have heard and seen none of those accusations, threats or violence against polling-place judges or other election volunteers. That could be a good omen that a divided America may be on the mend, its people eager and ready to be healed, to move into the future by working together for common goals that benefit one and all.
Well, again, we can only hope so!
In the meantime, we would like to thank all election judges, county auditors/treasurers and all other election officials who worked so incredibly hard to make General Election Nov. 5, 2024 free, fair, accurate and – last but not least – democratic and safe.
