I am writing this two days before election day. Not one vote has been counted yet, but thousands and thousands of votes have been cast in the Omaha metro and millions have been cast nationwide. While the local media has focused primarily on the Douglas County election office, voters have lined up in Sarpy, Pottawattamie, and almost every county in the country to have their voices heard.

As someone who has already voted, I wanted to send a shout-out to all the election officials, poll workers, and volunteers who are working tirelessly to make sure that every vote is not only cast but counted to guarantee a free and fair election.

There is a certain segment of the American electorate that only believes the election will be fair if their candidate wins. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Common sense would tell you that the scope of a national election is too massive to allow any widespread fraud. Common sense would also tell you that the coordination of all the precincts, counties, and states to pull this off would be impossible. The fact that some people believe Republicans and Democrats who oversee the elections in every county and every state would have to work together to overthrow the will of the people. To even coordinate something like that in one or two swing states would be laughable if some people didn’t take it so seriously.

A certain segment of our population does take it seriously. So seriously that threats have been made against various poll workers across the country. Police forces and in some states the National Guard are on call in case there is any trouble. Some places have protected their workers with bulletproof glass.

Is this really the America we want?

If you haven’t voted yet, please take a moment when you are at your polling place to thank those who are working tirelessly to guarantee your rights. Many working without pay to see that this great experiment in democracy continues to thrive.

For some reason, it seems that human nature is more likely to believe negative things than the positive. But the reality is that most people are good people. Most people want to be fair. Most people may have strong opinions, but they respect the opinions of others.

But we don’t focus on those people. Too often we focus on believing the worst in people.

Most people are good, decent, fair folks, regardless of their political beliefs.

But you’d never believe it by some of the disinformation put out online by foreign countries, and people like Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, and others. The rhetoric is designed to promote distrust in our form of government. The rhetoric is dangerous and untrue.

While every state has different laws on how votes should be counted, every state also has computers that are not connected to the internet and therefore unable to be hacked. Every State has Republicans and Democrats overseeing the vote to make sure things run smoothly and problems are resolved quickly.

No matter how many times those on the far right want people to believe that you can’t trust the outcome of the election unless their candidate wins, investigation after investigation has found that there is no widespread fraud and that the votes are counted fairly.

By the time you read this, the votes may have already been counted and a winner declared. But regardless of who wins or loses it’s important to realize all the hard work, in some cases with the threat of bodily harm, the workers and volunteers have done to guarantee the continuation of this great experiment our Founding Fathers put in motion 248 years ago.

Thank you to all who have worked long hours to protect our freedoms.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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