In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson sent an obscure Army captain and family friend, Meriwether Lewis, on a journey through the newly purchased Louisiana Territory, and then into the Oregon Country. The mission called for finding a navigable water route to the Pacific Ocean, and for documenting vegetation, topography, wildlife, bodies of water, rivers, and Native peoples along the way. In short, Jefferson commissioned an intelligence operation. The Lewis and Clark Expedition is documented in great detail in Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage.
Jefferson simply did not know things he needed to know to make decisions concerning the expansion and prosperity of the growing American nation. He needed intelligence gatherers to bring the information back, and he was willing to wait years for the expedition to end and for the exploratory party to make it home, which was far from a safe bet. We find ourselves in a similar predicament today regarding the restoration of transparency to our broken system of elections.
Sure, we hear about Maricopa County. We know a little bit about Fulton and Wayne Counties. A few mid-sized or small counties have some enthusiastic activists, but do we really have a fully developed intelligence picture? After all, our elections are manipulated at the county level, and those counties contribute to district or state totals that ultimately seat the wrong people in government. There are 3,143 county equivalents (counties, boroughs, parishes, and independent cities) that contribute votes in our national elections. It is beyond time that we have election integrity voices in every county.
This idea has been percolating in my head for some time and has accelerated since the heavily corrupted midterm elections. A month before midterms, I did an election integrity event in Bastrop County, Texas, with David Clements. Bastrop County is a middle-of-the-road county, Republican, but not enormously so. We were asked to attend the county commissioner meeting the next morning and seeking to walk the walk that comes with the talk, agreed to go. David presented some basic issues and the commissioners indicated they had never once heard of any issues with elections. After all, it’s only Austin, right? Not us?
We lack the visibility we need. We lack the local knowledge we need. John Keegan’s masterpiece, Intelligence in War, details Stonewall Jackson’s campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, and how he was able to outrun and outsmart a much stronger Union force because of local knowledge of the terrain, waterways, populations, and other factors. We must now build our intelligence apparatus in every single county equivalent.
“Four for the Election Integrity Core” will begin the process of pursuing my Ten Points to True Election Integrityat the county level. Of the ten points, I have identified four that are actionable at the county level, and potentially fully in the hands of county commissioners and county election officials. They center on Point 1: Voter Registration, Point 2: Machines, Point 7: Harvesting and Drop Boxes, and Point 9: Transparency. The other points require state legislation and depending on which state a volunteer is pursuing the Core Four in, there may be legal buzzsaws. For instance, someone in Georgia will struggle with the machines discussion because the Secretary of State has authority over that.
I am calling you to action. Many of you reading this are saying “now what?” and rightfully so. Most candidates in 2022 were content to run while attempting to outrun any potential fraud (surely they wouldn’t do it again, right?). We will no longer be naïve and hope for the best.
I need an army of volunteers to cover every county in this country. This will not cost you money, and you will not need to travel unless you choose to support other counties. You will need to gather the intelligence for the four key points, which is Phase 1. Phase 2’s actions depend on the information gained in each county during Phase 1.
Any volunteer will be tasked with attending county commissioner and election board meetings in your county or any other county you choose to represent. You will simply gather and report information back to my headquarters element for purposes of allocating resources to act on actionable items. Your mission will be to gain approval to remove fraudulent voter registrations, assess attitudes for removing machines and/or hand counting paper ballots, removing drop boxes (if applicable), and implementing transparency reforms.
If you volunteer, you will be given specific training, documents, and instruction to maximize your effectiveness. I need your skills and devotion to the cause. If this is for you, and you are still in the game, email fourcore@proton.me to reserve your county equivalent and begin the process of restoring confidence in our most sacred institution.
I've enlisted. Let's get on with it!
thank you Mr. Keshel. you're just the person to launch these local endeavors !!