I write this editorial on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 3, in a window of our production cycle the morning of Election Day — while you won’t be reading it until late Tuesday night if you’re a subscriber or early Wednesday morning if you didn’t stay up late or bought the newspaper at a newsstand or a rack instead.
Thus, as I write this, we do not know the election results in the newsroom, but you likely will by the time you read it.
That said, we have full faith and confidence the 2020 election went down as they nearly all have: Peacefully and as efficiently as any major election system can when run by 51 independent election boards, that being the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
European election observers who have been at American polls in every race since the 1940s universally agree that the American election process is the most complicated on Earth because the rules differ so widely from state to state.
On the upside, the messy process to choose our leaders is nothing if not exciting. Nail-biting and anxiety-inducing, too, but certainly exciting; the kind of election process Michael Bay would design if asked to.
By the time you read this, we hope that state election results nationwide have definitively chosen our next president. Recorders in 3,143 counties and county-equivalents, election lawyers and most voters sincerely hope the election results are so definitive that we can be assured the vote was been decided at the polls and not days or weeks from now in a courthouse or state houses or in a tie-breaking vote in the House of Representatives.
No matter how the election turns out, we also have full faith and confidence that Americans and Arizona in particular will remember they know no matter who walks the halls of power, we are one nation and one family, albeit a dysfunctional one where we avoid talking politics at Thanksgiving, but if you’ve found a non-dysfunctional American family, it’s only because you’ve wandered onto the set of a sitcom.
Most families disagree over politics and bite their tongues on holidays to keep the peace no matter how we voted or will vote.
No matter who wins the White House, the state house or Congress, remember that those elected do not serve their voters — they serve all their constituents including, and most especially, those who voted against them for the seat. We can disagree about policy, not procedure. We can argue about funding, but not fundamentals.
We must also remember that all the ballot measures that pass or fail and propositions that reshape our governments or our taxing structures can all be changed if we a majority decide they do not work or need some tweaking. The promise of every American election is that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the ends of protecting life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness, it is the people’s right to alter or to abolish it, laying a new foundation on such principles and organizing government powers to seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
We are encouraged at the high voter turnout, even if a small portion of that is driven by fear or anger.
Ideally, we should have high voter turnout at every election. It still seems ridiculous given our nation’s history that voter turnout is not nearly 100%. We are after all the nation founded on the belief that we should not be taxed for government services if we have no say in how our leaders are selected.
Thus, we hope the high voter turnout in this election results in the same in 2022, 2024 and 2026, and all the small local elections in between.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
