Watching the gears on Nov. 3
A presidential election is a big deal. On the one hand, it is a massive, national event.
On the other hand, it is an intensely local event. The tiny gears of the election machinery turn in town and city halls around America where battalions of municipal clerks, registrars and temporary poll workers set to checking names and IDs against their big paper voter rolls, scratching them off, providing ballots and, at the end of the day, counting them.
And as the results from the states come in, the larger gears start turning in state capitols and Washington and we have a winner.
It’s a November ritual in America, as reliable as the frost in Connecticut. And so will it be even in this time of COVID.
A main difference this year, of course, in Connecticut and around the county, will be the torrent of absentee ballots that had to be distributed and will have to be counted.
As preposterous as President Donald Trump’s claim that “millions” of people voted illegally in 2016 — hence costing him the popular vote — is his claim this year that mail- in and drop- off balloting will result in massive fraud.
Do people cheat? Sure, a few here and there.
The election process is a daunting one, but it’s not rocket science. In cities, burgs, towns, backwaters, metropolises, you name it, people register to vote. Their names go on a list. When their vote comes in, their name is scratched off. “Millions” of fraudulent votes? A hallucination.
Hence the fruit- fly lifespan of Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. For a whole seven months it looked for a shred of evidence and then disbanded.
Which brings us to the utter absurdity of the email appeal from Connecticut Republican chairman for Trump supporters to enlist in something called the EDO Army for Trump.
“Our goal is to cover every polling place in our state with smart and trusted volunteers like you! JOIN the EDO ( Election Day Operation) for Trump NOW to get started and one of our team members will contact you with more information.”
What exactly the EDO enlistees think they are going to do at the polls is unclear.
Maximino Medina Jr. — Max to his friends and acquaintances — is a well- respected Bridgeport lawyer who has been around the block a few times in local politics. Secretary of the State Denise Merrill has appointed him to be the absentee ballot monitor for Bridgeport and to serve on a team of election experts in the Fourth Congressional District.
In 2017, Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis appointed Medina to oversee a Bridgeport General Assembly primary that had been stained by absentee ballot irregularities.
Medina, 62, is the managing partner of the Bridgeport- based law firm Zeldes, Needle and Cooper. He joined the firm in 1984. He is a graduate of Harvard and the New York University School of Law.
“I don’t come to this with like a teaspoon of cynicism,” he said. “I come with a wheelbarrow full.”
“There are signs when something fishy is going on. I’m not a cop, but I know some of the tricks the bad guys use. So far, though, I haven’t heard any reports of dirty tricks,” he said.
As to the EDO Army, Medina’s a bit mystified, too.
“It’s not like any Tom, Dick or Harry can just walk into a poll. Outside the 75- foot line people are free to stand. But they can’t interfere with the process or try to intimidate people,” he said.
“There will be security,” he said.
The Trump goal, he said, is clear. “Create confusion and chaos, take the decision away from the voters and give it to the court.”
“I’m a lawyer,” he continued, “so I know some matters should be handled in the courts.
“But elections,” he went on, “should be decided at the polls.”
He is confident that, as he put it, “the score will be tallied.”
“I have been so impressed with the sincerity shown by the people who work in these election offices year in and year out. They consider voting sacred,” he said.
“If people around the country are working as hard as the people I see, it’s going to be OK,” he said.