Let's play a little game of "supposin"
Supposin, during a mail-ballot election, the company in charge gave the current board members or the senior leadership team a little "sneak preview" of the ballots that were returned by mail or dropped off at the ballot box a week before the official election date. Nothing wrong with this, the early ballots come in and have to be processed, right?
Now, supposin the current board saw a trend emerging from these early results, such as: One of the incumbents, maybe two of the incumbents, were not going to have any trouble getting re-elected, but the third incumbent was running neck and neck with a non-incumbent candidate who was acceptable to the board, with the remaining candidates, unacceptable to the current board, further back.
Supposin one of the incumbents who had access to this information contacted a close friend, say the current mayor, and asked that individual for a favor, supposin something along the lines of, "Hey, you are the current mayor, and it would really help if you would encourage people to get out and vote, but, more importantly, if you could endorse the following candidates..."
Supposin the current mayor did as instructed, omitting one of the incumbents from the endorsement list, surprising because that incumbent was a close friend, so as not to appear biased, and, because, well, early results indicated that incumbent's re-election was assured anyway. Supposin the current mayor endorsed a candidate she hadn't even met, had his educational background completely wrong, proving that she didn't really know the individual she was endorsing, just, you know, returning a favor.
Supposin all of this supposin was true. All it would take to prove is an independent newspaper and a few people willing to admit the truth, or hook themselves to a polygraph and answer a few simple questions.
Oh, wait, this is Estes Park. So none of that will ever happen. Supposin, though, we lived in any other town in America. Would smelly stuff like this happen every single election? Because the people in charge of the election couldn't keep their filthy paws off the democratic process, but had to tip the scales to force the outcome they so pathetically needed to justify their existence?
Supposin one of the incumbents who had access to this information contacted a close friend, say the current mayor, and asked that individual for a favor, supposin something along the lines of, "Hey, you are the current mayor, and it would really help if you would encourage people to get out and vote, but, more importantly, if you could endorse the following candidates..."
Supposin the current mayor did as instructed, omitting one of the incumbents from the endorsement list, surprising because that incumbent was a close friend, so as not to appear biased, and, because, well, early results indicated that incumbent's re-election was assured anyway. Supposin the current mayor endorsed a candidate she hadn't even met, had his educational background completely wrong, proving that she didn't really know the individual she was endorsing, just, you know, returning a favor.
Supposin all of this supposin was true. All it would take to prove is an independent newspaper and a few people willing to admit the truth, or hook themselves to a polygraph and answer a few simple questions.
Oh, wait, this is Estes Park. So none of that will ever happen. Supposin, though, we lived in any other town in America. Would smelly stuff like this happen every single election? Because the people in charge of the election couldn't keep their filthy paws off the democratic process, but had to tip the scales to force the outcome they so pathetically needed to justify their existence?
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