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Michael Cianchette is a Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan. He is in-house counsel to a number of businesses in southern Maine and was a chief counsel to former Gov. Paul LePage.
I like pithy quips.
“The solution to pollution is dilution” is always fun to say. It is an oversimplified and not-quite-true approach to wastewater management. “There is security in obscurity” is another gem that doesn’t quite get it right. “Loose lips sink ships” generally hits the spot.
Those quips can be applied to Maine’s election system.
On Tuesday, Mainers will go to the polls. A recent Colby College report suggests about one-third of us lack confidence that presidential votes will be counted fairly. The two major parties are hiring legions of lawyers and preparing to resolve the election through the courts, if necessary.
Whatever other states do, Mainers can have confidence in our elections.
Our chief elections official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, gave skeptics ammunition when she tried to remove Donald Trump from the ballot, after receiving petitions to do so. The fact that she was rebuffed by courts didn’t quell the concerns.
Fortunately, the perils of overly centralized government don’t apply here. Our solution is dilution or, known by another name, home rule.
Elections occur in cities and towns from Fort Kent to Kittery. Augusta maintains a central voter database, but ballots only wind up there after they have been counted by clerks and poll workers. Outlets like the Bangor Daily News get fresh, election-night tallies and share them widely.
Put simply, it would need to be a pretty major operation to monkey around with Mainers’ votes in the hundreds of different polling places.
That leads to the second quip. If there is security in obscurity, the inverse is also true. Maine’s communities are pretty small and tightly knit. There isn’t much “obscurity” to be had. No shadowy cabal could effectively infiltrate all polling locations without being seen as outsiders.
In recent weeks, the right-leaning Maine Wire broke a story from a whistleblower who alleged that state records showed non-citizens registered to vote. Even if that’s true, poll watchers are able to post up throughout the state. Anyone can be challenged if they are reasonably suspected of not being a valid voter, such as a non-citizen.
It creates a bit of work for those worried about election security, but the security exists.
Lastly, imagine that instead of a shadowy conspiracy some statewide group of long-term Mainers hatched a plan to nab the election through nefarious means. Loose lips still sink ships.
One thing political activists love to do is talk. Social media has only amplified that instinct. And in order to orchestrate something on the scale that can really impact an outcome, you would need a pretty large group. As a group’s size increases, so too does the likelihood that someone spills the beans.
Given all of that, Mainers should have confidence in the casting and counting of votes next week. However the chips fall, it is likely to reflect the will of the voters, for better or worse.
None of that means we have a perfect electoral system. The Maine Wire’s story should lead to an investigation. Enacting Voter ID — which is already required when you register to vote — is just another layer of protection.
Even reconsidering ranked-choice voting in favor of a traditional top-two run-off has merit. Relying on computer algorithms to run the “instant runoffs” is a less-than-transparent process. As former Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap recently noted, there is no perfect system.
But the lack of “perfect” does not mean we are short of “good.” Mainers should have great confidence as they go to the polls.
Whether your preferred quip is “Make America Great Again” or “Let’s Win This,” get out and vote. It is a privilege we are lucky to have, and we have it good in Maine.
