The USA Presidential Election From A British Perspective

by Neil Bamforth

So, the USA will elect either an oddly orange looking type of chap who has been quite divisive in his first term, to put it mildly, or a seemingly very old and doddery chap, who also seems to forget people’s names, (calling Trump ‘George’ on one amusing occasion), and requires assistance to climb onto a podium.

It is looking very much like the doddery old chap, Joe Biden, who, in some quarters, appears to be known as ‘Sleepy Joe’, is almost on the victory podium.

Well, he will be assuming somebody can help him onto it.

Speaking to lots of friends in Blighty, personally or via social media, it has to be said, we seem to be finding the Presidential election, or at least the part of it stated above, rather amusing really.

An orange looking buffoon or an escapee from old peoples home. It almost makes our choice of Boris ‘BoJo’ Johnson for Prime Minister an entirely sane one. Almost.

There does appear to be the potential for some rather serious ‘issues’ with this election though.

I for one, genuinely hope that there has been very little ‘voter fraud’ related to postal voting. Frankly, if there has been, and on the massive scale required to ‘swing’ the outcome, it would all but finish American democracy which would be a terrible thing for many outside of the USA, let alone those within.

It is extremely unlikely, to say the least, that such a thing was even remotely possible, despite Trump’s insistence to the contrary.

I say ‘very little’ as there will have been some somewhere. You can all but guarantee it. Postal voting and voter fraud do go hand in hand – hence most European countries either avoiding it like the plague or, at least, minimizing it as much as possible.

France banned postal voting in 1975 after a massive fraud in Corsica, where postal ballots were stolen or bought and voters cast multiple votes. Mail-in ballots were used to vote for dead people.

Here in the UK, which allows postal voting, in 2004, six Labour Party councilors in Birmingham won office in what a judge later described as “A massive, systematic and organized postal fraud campaign”. Even more alarmingly, it was carried out with the consent of the local Labour Party. At least 40,000 fraudulent votes were cast in this incident.

In 1991, Mexico insisted on voter IDs in order to vote. The former ruling party – The Institutional Revolutionary Party – had long used fraud and even intimidation to win elections.

So. The USA. The accusations of voter fraud.

That is all they are at the moment, and let us hope they remain accusations.

Of course, there will have been some, shall we say, anomalies. Postal voting is far too wide open for there not to be.

However, a few hundred, or even a few thousand extra votes, here or there shouldn’t have been remotely sufficient to ‘fix’ the result in Biden’s favor.

That being the most hopeful outcome, the dust will settle and the USA can move on with its new, if slightly alarmingly doddery, President.

Besides, who can forget ‘old’ Ronnie Reagan calling Princess Diana ‘David’? He carried on being a President much respected around most of the world. Who is to say ‘Sleepy Joe’ might not become just as well respected?

Of course, it isn’t over until ‘the fat lady sings’ and, as I type, albeit she may be warming up her vocal cords, the line still has to be formerly crossed.

I would say, above all else, most Brits are hoping very much that all this ‘postal voter fraud’ business proves as unfounded as, frankly, we all expect it to.

I’m unsure even God, or the deity of your choice could help the USA in the highly unlikely eventuality such a thing does come and bite ‘Sleepy Joe’ in the backside.

Here’s hoping Trump’s insistence it is true is no more than fake news. Now that would be a form of karma would it not?

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