Charita Goshay: Repeat after me: No widespread voter fraud in Ohio in 2020

Back in the 1930s, some diabolical genius came up with the “Rule of Seven,” a marketing strategy which determined that it takes at least seven times before a message is conveyed to a consumer.

There’s something to it, though. Among the ads for Medicare benefits, cellular phones, prescriptions and car insurance, it’s a wonder we aren’t all crazy.

But effective ad campaigns eventually make their way into the culture. Depending on our age, every one of us can recite a jingle or slogan.

“Snap, crackle, pop.”

“Tastes great. Less filling.”

“Winston tastes good like a (clap, clap) cigarette should.”

“Only pay for what you need.”

Speaking of repetition, a new report on Ohio’s 2020 election underscores what has been known and repeatedly said for two years, though some people still don’t accept it.

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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office found possible voter fraud in 0.0005% of the 5.9 million ballots cast in 2020.

That calculates to 62 cases, including 31 instances where non-citizens registered to vote but didn’t participate in the election.

The rest included 14 ballots cast on behalf of someone who was dead, eight ballots cast by non-citizens, and nine cases of people voting twice.

In other words, despite all of the rhetoric and accusations of a rigged contest, you probably had a better chance of hitting the lottery in 2020 than uncovering some nefarious, organized plot to upend the election.

There is a deeply troubling mindset taking hold that presumes that any election which turns out the opposite of what we wanted is the result of cheating and subterfuge. It threatens to poison and kill the entire process. The last time the results of a presidential election were rejected by a wide swath of the electorate, a civil war broke out.

Both parties bear some responsibility. Democrats yowled when Hillary Clinton and Al Gore lost, pointing out that Russia tried to interfere in 2016, but forgetting that Clinton’s own campaign gave the Midwest short shrift, and that Gore lost his own home state.

The best remedy is to keep the process transparent and make voting as easy as possible because it isn’t a privilege, it’s our constitutional right. That access should include more drop boxes, not fewer, and automatic registration when citizens turn 18.

The hair-on-fire conspiracy election theories of 2020 require that you ignore that former President Donald Trump won Ohio. It makes mockery of, and refutes, yet again, Trump’s lie that the election was rigged.

For the bazillionth time, sometimes, you just get your butt kicked.

Hello, Ottawa?

Last week, an Akron-area resident who called in a bomb threat in response to the mask-mandate protests in Canada reminds us of what can happen when you take leave of your common sense.

Police say that when the suspect called 911 to make a threat against Canada’s capital city, he accidentally called the emergency dispatch which serves Ottawa, Ohio, near Toledo.

What happened, were the dispatchers in Cairo, Vienna, Nashville, and Lima, Ohio, too busy?

We all have opinions about current events, but that doesn’t give us permission to cosplay as some kind of mom’s basement “freedom fighter” and big-foot all over other people’s affairs. 

Smart dispatchers kept the suspect on the line long enough to figure out he was threatening Ottawa, Canada, and long enough for authorities to track down the call.

But once the suspect was informed of his mistake, he later called the Ottawa, Ohio, dispatch again, falsely claiming that he had been shot, thus proving that feeding on a steady diet of demagoguery, anger, and extremism can short-circuit the thought process.

The suspect will likely face felony charges. Meanwhile, unlike their American cousins, the Canadians ended the protests as only they can: In good and decent order.

Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and a member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

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