If there is indeed any "rigging" or nefarious meddling in our electoral system, it is not in the ballot, but rather by the amount of outside money being dumped into these races, both national and local. The scourge of money being spent to indirectly promote, or disparage, a candidate through social welfare groups or Super PACS is the worriment here. The economy must be doing great when one considers how much outside money is being dumped into this election.
This should be a bipartisan concern. It threatens our democracy and the credibility of our voting process. Many of these outside dollars are coming undisclosed sources via some "social welfare" nonprofit groups. Forget Russia trying to hack its influence in the election. All it has to do is donate money to some of these social welfare groups to meddle. Same for George Soros and the Koch Brothers.
Those who can pay the most to spread their agenda undeniably control the message via airwaves, social media, fake websites disguised as news, flyers, etc. Integrity, accuracy, and accountability are being dismantled one anonymous, deep pocketed interest at a time.
We as voters should be asking why some person, group, or other interest out of district or even out of country is spending millions to influence an election in a race, be it the presidency, U.S. Congress or State Legislature. We should be equally concerned as to who these agents are. Who is bankrolling/controlling the "information?" Who would actually want to run for office knowing these outside interests will spend millions to smear them?
Want to keep the voting process from being "rigged?" Want to entice more honest people to run for office? Pressure lawmakers to end this system that allows for unlimited, often undisclosed, dollars to control the message.
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Dan Moddes
Baxter
