We have entered the Three-Ring Circus phase of the midterm elections.

There’s that Sheriff in California who confiscated 650,000 ballots in an (illegal) snit, after a special election gave Californians permission to change their maps to counteract Trump’s Big Ugly Gerrymandering Scheme. (As of this morning, the Sheriff has to give them back.)

There are the states who have blatantly gerrymandered districts, without citizens’ approval, and the plethora of unsigned/signed court decisions at all levels that have rendered the new districts OK/Not OK/Unconstitutional/Racist.

There is the whole mail-in ballot ball of confusion— plus the Supreme Court’s decision, yesterday, to let election officials use the crummy, error-ridden SAVE data base to decide who gets to vote:

‘The potential impact of the Supreme Court’s decision for the upcoming midterm elections is likely to be limited, as federal law bars states from systematically removing ineligible voters from their voter registration lists within 90 days of an election. The Nov. 3 general election is less than 40 days away.’

And there is whatever the hell is going on in Missouri, where voting has actually started.

Chaos. But that’s the point, no? And guess who is not paying attention to what federal law says, as you might expect the leader of the free world to do?

When I moved to northern Michigan in 2010, I took a photo of myself voting—in another midterm—on Election Day. (I went looking for that photo, but that was four phones ago, alas.) I was absolutely charmed by the idea of voting in our little whitewashed Township Hall, meeting my fellow citizens, thanking the workers who were diligently following all the rules that governed free and fair elections.

Or so I—naively—thought.

Maybe it’s because Baby Boomers were taught that America was the greatest nation, and our elections were the envy of the world—but my faith in elections, no matter which party is running them locally, has seriously eroded since that day in 2010.

Part of this is because more than half of Americans now get their political news and information from social media, and a lot of that is crapola. The only site I trust, for election information, is the Secretary of State’s. And that’s only in my state.

If you’re going to say that you’re suspicious about the validity of election results, you have to have real, concrete reasons (speaking of crapola on social media), not just passed-along accusations or rage-bait. So—here are mine:

In 2024, after election results were announced and printed in the paper, my Republican County Clerk discovered that more than 3100 votes had, somehow, not been tabulated. That may not sound like much, but this is a county with just under 22,000 registered voters.

In 2024, there were 17,840 voters, an 89% turnout (another rather amazing figure), so 3156 missing votes is about six percent of the results—a not-inconsequential segment. And the newly discovered votes flipped a half-dozen local seats from Democrats to Republicans, although we’ve been an increasingly Blue county for the past decade.

You know how whatever media you consume has been urging you to mail early (before October 20), or—better yet—drop your absentee ballot into a drop box, or personally bring it to the Township Clerk’s office?

You can’t do that here, in my jurisdiction.

My Township Clerk works out of her home and does not keep hours. If you want to drop a ballot off at her house, you have to call for an appointment. There’s a photo of her home, below, with its Sacred Heart of Jesus sign (which people in my largely Polish-Catholic community use to indicate their opposition to abortion, which is legally protected—again, by voters—in Michigan). There is an American flag on the porch, but this does not feel like a public space, one that welcomes all citizens.

In 2018, Michigan passed a major voting reorganization initiative, including mail-in ballots for everyone, days for early, in-person voting, and providing each voting jurisdiction with a free drop box. Although we have that whitewashed Township Hall, with a large, lighted parking lot, the Township Clerk opted not to install it. Instead, she put a mailbox on her enclosed front porch. That’s the drop box. There’s a photo of that, too.

Would you feel comfortable entering an enclosed front porch to drop your ballot (and, apparently, any other important documents) in the box below? By the way, dropping your ballot in another jurisdiction’s drop box invalidates it.

In case you’re wondering, I have been trained and worked as poll challenger and absentee voter tabulation observer, putting time and money where my mouth is. I vote in every election. I’m still grateful for people who work at the polls.

But I have been disabused of the notion that our elections procedures are better, that our people are fairly represented, and that everyone in America gets a say.