Responding to Gudmundson

By Roy Cerling

This note is in response to Col. Gudmundson’s January 9 Fillmoare County Journal commentary on retaining the electoral college.

I take exception to some of the arguments used. In fact I believe the editor Mr. Sethre should sometimes reject commentaries due to their utter lack of journalistic standards.

I complain because, while Col. Gudmunson is entitled to his opinion, he is not entitled to his own facts. There must be some common basis for discussion. Repeating these fictions as if they were fact only aggravates the partisan divides that so sorely bedevil our nation.

For example, in paragraph four the colonel claims that President Obama has encouraged illegal immigrants to vote. This is utter nonsense. It is true however, that the Fox Business Network used a deceptively edited clip of President Obama to make it appear that he had done so. I advise the colonel to read the transcript of the entire interview.

In paragraph five, the colonel claims that Illinois union members were bussed to Iowa in order to vote twice. I have not been able to find any convincing evidence that this happened. It sounds just a little too delicious to be true.

I caution the colonel to think twice before believing any of these stories that are just a bit too juicy to be true. Recall the old adage: If it’s too good to be true… it’s probably a fraud. There were a great number of fake news stories spread via social media during the last election cycle. Please don’t repeat them for this audience.

In paragraph three, the colonel implies voter fraud in Detroit. The headlines scream “Too many votes in 37% of Detroit Precincts.” The headlines fail to note there were too few votes in 24% of Detroit precincts. While this does point to some very serious vote count problems in Detroit, the issues appear more likely caused by human error or voting machine malfunctions than outright fraud. Further investigation is certainly warranted – but claiming fraud does not help when the problem may be as mundane as outdated election equipment.

Colonel Gudmunson — There are many folks in Fillmore County who read your commentaries. Since you help to shape opinions, I believe you owe it to your readers to pay closer attention to the accuracy of the claims you use to justify those opinions.