I’ve been writing, recently, about how mail-in ballots are the safest way to vote. I haven’t gone into the why, so this morning, I thought I’d offer a view of one aspect. For the purposes of this piece, let’s say I’m a politician facing a backlash for my policies and positions. People hate me because I’m clearly incompetent and clearly robbing the nation blind. The masses want me gone. If I don’t retain control of the Senate, I’ll likely be impeached, then face a criminal probe.

So the upcoming election is very important to me. I need to win. I don’t just want to win – everybody wants to win. I NEED to win. So much so, I’m perfectly willing to cheat. I’ll start immediately by inoculating the charges of cheating by constantly accusing my opponent of cheating. For this example, we’re looking at holding the Senate. There’s a Senate race taking place and I need MY guy to win. I’ll be using California. Simple enough premise, right?

One of the things I think people don’t think about it this: election officials don’t just prepare one ballot and send it out to everyone. They have to capture races and issues that may affect one area but not another. Here in Sonoma County, we don’t get to vote on local issues in other counties. Remember, this is an extremely simplified example.

We know we have the Senate race. That race will be on every ballot in the state. But Sonoma County might have an issue that only affects Sonoma County. That issue will be on ballots for Sonoma County voters but not other counties. Makes sense, right? Now, there are two congressional districts that touch Santa Rosa, the fourth and the second. Let’s say the fourth has an issue that affects only the fourth. That issue won’t show up on everybody’s ballot – only the ballots of affected voters. That’s three different ballots that need to be sorted, printed, and delivered to the affected voter in Sonoma County alone, but we’re not done, yet.

Santa Rosa might have it’s own issue that needs deciding as well. That means yet another, separate ballot for Santa Rosans. Santa Rosa, itself, is broken into council districts. We could easily have an issue that affects the seventh district but not the others. Yet another ballot. We’re up to five different ballots for the same election. In reality, there are far more. Each town in Sonoma County could have their own issue requiring their own ballots, but for our purposes, I’m stopping at five.

Five ballots for Sonoma County. California has 58 counties. That means, in our simplified scenario, California has to print 290 different ballots and I say again, that number is low. So that’s our situation. Now it’s time for me to cheat. If I can get everybody to vote on machines, my work is comparatively simple.

You see, I’m only interested in the Senate race. I don’t care about any other issues on any other ballots. EVERY ballot has the Senate race. I need only create a few dongles that flip votes in the Senate race and get them to the areas I need to affect. (Dongles are the plug-in devices pollsters use to summarize the votes, perhaps alter the results, and transmit the data.)

But if there are no machines? If we all use mail-in ballots? How do I cheat? My first task is to re-create the ballot for a specific area. It’s got to be perfect and I have to do that for many areas, getting them all exactly right. Even if I mark the Senate race for my guy and leave the rest blank, the rest of the ballot has to be there. Now I’ve got to get my forged ballots into the counting arena. Do I just bring them in and drop them off? Registrars know how many ballots they sent out and to where. What happens when they send out 1,000 ballots and get back 1,500? I’m pretty sure that’s going to trigger an audit.

So now I have to add my 500 forged ballots and remove 500 legitimate ballots, so the total is correct. You can have fewer ballots, but you can’t have more. You can already see how much harder it is to manipulate a mail-in ballot voting system. You can’t just invisibly flip one race with corrupt dongles. There’s a reason I keep railing against mail-in voting – while voting by mail myself.

This, by the way, is WHY Biden won in 2020 AND why Donny is so absolutely certain HE won. HE allegedly paid the money and had the machines rigged and ready to go, but Covid-19 forced everyone to use mail-in ballots and it’s just too complex to cheat with those things. If we, the people, are to get rid of one type of voting or the other, I’d say let’s dump the cheating machines and stick with mail-in ballots. But then, I support fair elections. Not everybody does…

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I don’t want to get too far out ahead of my skis, here, but it looks more and more like 47’s influence is waning. Not gone, not by a long-shot. But more and more people seem to be seeking ways to distance themselves from the deeper MAGA movement. To that end, a guy named Rich Logis founded a support group called ‘Leaving MAGA.’ Logis was once MAGA himself. He understands how hard it can be to break the bonds of MAGA. It’s not just the political ideology. There’s a sense of community, of belonging, that one loses, as well. That can be scary.

About ‘Leaving MAGA,’ the Guardian wrote, “Launched in 2024, the movement turned non-profit is built on the premise that abandoning the MAGA identity – and the community surrounding it – functions less like changing one’s mind and more like leaving a high-control religious group, fighting a disease or breaking an addiction. It requires not just rejecting a set of beliefs but rebuilding an entire structure of belonging and identity.”

According to the article, many people leaving MAGA feel badly, afterwards, about the harm they helped to inflict while they were deeply in the movement. Often, the scales fall from eyes as some of that harm comes back to bite them. In Logis’ case, he was shocked out of the movement after the Uvalde shooting, when the MAGA response was exactly what he expected. Whatever the motive, breaking the spell of the movement isn’t easy. Leaving MAGA makes the point that support is important for those around the person trying to break said addiction.

It’s like belonging to certain churches. Step even slightly outside the accepted thinking, and this same group that once provided such warmth and loving, “unconditional” support, such community, will turn on you like a pack of rabid hyenas, ready to tear you to shreds. That sudden, unexpected venom actually helps the person realize they’ve been on the wrong path, but it’s still scary to find oneself suddenly cut loose from community and friendship and support.

Leaving MAGA steps in to help. Not only does it help the person trying to leave the movement, it helps those of us around them to understand what the MAGA person might be going through. It preaches support, not surrender. People who avoided being sucked in should, properly, provide a safe space for rank-and-file members to flee to.

If you know a MAGA who seems to be wavering, tell them about ‘Leaving MAGA.’ Don’t expect miracles. Don’t expect overnight change. Just offer your MAGA a place to turn so they don’t feel so cut off, so alone. It might be just the lifeline they need…