TLDR: It sucks that poll workers are being harassed and threatened but questioning elections and results shouldn't be politically incorrect. Poll workers are just people, and people are corruptible and make mistakes. Fraud is likely when the stakes feel so high to many people. Blockchains can fix many problems with elections.
Disclaimer: I don't endorse either Harris or Trump or democracy in general. I don't believe we should vote to force the minority into doing what the majority wants. Voting doesn't make the extortion, theft, and violence the Government does on a daily basis okay. I believe there is some valid arguments for voting as an act of self defense but also valid arguments that we shouldn't legitimize this system by voting at all. That is a topic for another day though.
Questioning the integrity of elections is now officially politically incorrect and taboo! That is concerning to me, we should always question everything the Government does, from the federal level all the way down to your local government. At least some Democrats or Republicans have questioned election results for almost every election this century, but now suddenly it's no longer acceptable to do so without being labeled a conspiracy theorist. Is anybody really naive enough, deep down, to think there won't be at least some attempts at fraud on both sides this time around? For people who either worship Trump or think he is Hitler, the stakes feel high, it feels to them like the fate of the entire country is at stake. That alone can make people do crazy shit and feel justified in doing so.
Now before you rip my head off, keep reading and consider my other points please.
Yes, it is obviously horrible that there are crazy people in the world harassing poll workers, but let's please not forget that these workers are just people like any other people. If they are just people and they are underpaid as I have seen many posts claim, then that would make them even more susceptible to corruption (greed is universal, almost everyone has a price). Yes, people are sometimes corrupt, people make mistakes, and some election workers may even let their fear of a Trump or Harris win override their common sense. That's just like how the people who are harassing poll workers are also letting their fear override their common sense. It's all just PEOPLE running this election, from the electoral college all the way down! People are bad sometimes, and sometimes they are good, but they are always just human beings. You don't magically acquire the morals and self control of a saint the minute you accept a job as a poll worker! Yet we are supposed to pretend that there is not even a possibility that people could act like people? Here's an idea, stop leaving it up to fallible people to count votes in the first place! In this kind of political environment don't you think it's a bit of a big ask to expect people to just trust elections outright?
Some people will do crazy shit when they feel that special kind of righteous anger, that anger which sends morals and rules out the window because it becomes more important to win and "protect America". If you still have faith in democracy (you shouldn't), then we have the technology to ensure fair verifiable elections with no need for poll workers counting votes. If you eliminate all the human points of failure then no sane person can claim an election was stolen. You can't argue with verifiable math on a blockchain. It either is or isn't, there is no room for any corruption if the code is solid. If we want fair elections then why not have open source voting machines and blockchain based voter registration? Are they just worried some corporations will lose some money? What's the real reason? Hopefully it's just Government's typical inefficiency leading to slow adoption of new technology and not anything nefarious.
Now if someone within the vast apparatus that runs the US elections does see some evidence of fraud, we are in the kind of deeply divisive political environment in which they may very well stay silent out of fear of being ostracized and labeled a Trumper, right wing extremist, conspiracy theorist, or worse. It could just as likely happen the other way around, as in a poll worker with a Republican family or circle of friends might not report fraud that benefits Trump. That kind of scenario is not that implausible, and if you think it is you're lying to yourself. If we want to continue having a stable democracy, this needs to be the last election that's not done on a blockchain.
Okay I'm done ranting now, If you are interested in learning more about the security of our elections, here's a good podcast on the subject by Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons. According to the guest, there are concerning vulnerabilities in our voting systems, although no evidence has been found that they have been exploited in the wild.
Episode webpage: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2023/12/11/restoring-trust-in-elections/
Becoming a poll worker doesn't automatically make you a saint.
