A friend sent this cynical quote from Josef Stalin, the late dictator of the once powerful Soviet Union: “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”

We once thought such cynical systems could only work in places like Cuba, Russia and Venezuela. Wrong. It could be happening here in America.

For example, about 11,500 people confirmed or believed dead returned mail-in ballots in Michigan this month, according to an analysis of election data. About 9,500 voters confirmed

About 9,500 voters confirmed dead through the Social Security Death Index returned ballots.

Another nearly 2,000 are 100 years old or more and are not listed as still living, according to an analysis by Richard Baris, director of Big Data Poll.

In Georgia, David Shafer, chairman of the state Republican Party, learned that GOP poll watchers were told to go home on Election Day because they were closing up but continued to count ballots in secret. A Fulton County official said he advised some workers to continue to count through the night.

More than 20,000 absentee ballots in Pennsylvania have impossible return dates and more than 80,000 have return dates that raise questions.

51,000 ballots were marked as returned a day after they were sent out, an extraordinary speed, given Postal Service delivery times. Nearly 35,000 were returned the same day they were mailed. Another more than 23,000 have a return date earlier than the sent date. More than 9,000 have no sent date.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “25,000 Pennsylvania nursing home residents requested mail-in ballots at the exact same time,” he said. “What are the odds that 25,000 people in different locations of the same age group requested at the same time a ballot?”

What do you think? Could 3 million votes have been hijacked to give Joe Biden the White House?

.Please write us at JerryBellune@yahoo.com

What do you think?

There must be better ways to assure elections and ballot counts can’t be rigged.