Ross: Fair elections need ‘heroic underlings’

Many of you seem to be in despair that elections will be stolen left and right.

Which elections, and how they might be stolen, depends, of course, on your party preference.

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For Republicans, it’s the fear that even now, counterfeit mail-in ballots are being secretly printed and will be smuggled into ballot boxes on election night.

For Democrats, it’s the fear that Trump is installing local elections officials and judges who will throw out all those ballots.

I don’t know who’s right, and I’m tired of arguing about it.

But I do know how to stop it from happening.

Raise your children to be heroes.

No one can steal an election alone. If there are people printing phony ballots, they’ll need a pretty sophisticated organization. And if there are elections officials secretly planning to throw out ballots, they can’t personally run from drop box to dropbox setting them on fire – the bad guys will need compliant underlings to help them.

So it is our duty as parents to raise our children to be heroic underlings.

Underlings who, when they get an illegal order, will disobey. Underlings who, when they see something wrong, or corrupt, or dishonest – instead of going “la la la,” will go to someone they trust.

Underlings who will know when to be loyal and when to betray a boss who deserves it. Underlings who are controlled only by their conscience.

Any of the conspiracies involving elections would require the collaboration and silence of hundreds of underlings. So the only cure is to flood the zone with millions of people who may look like underlings but are in fact conscience-driven whistleblowers who know how to collect real evidence, who don’t make things up to get clicks, and who are courageous enough to come forward with what they know.

And all of that, my fellow parents, is in your hands.

Of course what I’m really hoping is that most of you saw the need for this years ago, and have already planted these heroes among us.

We’ll find out soon enough.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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