I went to a meeting about ballot integrity this week, and I found out a startling fact. The information from the November 2020 election only needs to be held for twenty-two months. That means that all the records that are necessary for any remediation of or any prosecution for any crimes that were committed during the last presidential election can be disposed of the first week of September this year. That’s about 100 days from now.

Keeping these records safe seems like a daunting task to those who want the truth to come out. In this context, the main speaker at the event mentioned Proverbs 21:31, which reads “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But deliverance is of the Lord.” He said that while we have to do everything we can to engage in this battle, it is only God Almighty who can win the battle that is upon us.

I think I may have written about this before, but a number of years ago a prayer that was given before the Kansas State Senate by Minister Joe Wright of Central Christian Church in Kansas. Several legislators walked out because they were so offended by it. But it is a prayer that all of us who love America should pray for our legislators, for our country, and for ourselves. It goes as follows:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance

We know Your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism;

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism;

We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle;

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery;

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare;

We have killed our unborn and called it choice;

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable;

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem;

We have abused power and called it politics;

We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition;

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression;

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will.

We ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

There are any number of quotes about patriots standing up for their country and for their freedom. For example, Elmer Davis, Director of the US Office of War Information during World War II, said, “This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”

Former President John Kennedy, whom I am convinced would no longer be welcome in the current Democratic Party, said, “Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.”

Stand-up-and-be-counted quotes can be found in endless number and context. People who will stand up and cheer and insist that “you can count on me” are growing in number and fervency.

But I go back to the wisdom of Proverbs 21:31. Will those willing to stand up on behalf of America also be willing to kneel before God on behalf of America?

We are in a battle that we may not be able to win apart from the divine intervention of God. If you knew that the only way to save America was to pray for it, would you? Well, it is the only way America will be saved, so why don’t you?

Don’t look for a concluding remark in my article. Just answer the questions I asked.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.

Over the years, several people have told me that the reason they didn’t vote was because they didn’t like the candidates from whom they had to choose in the General Election. I think that is a lousy excuse. Any voter who really cares about getting quality candidates on the ballot in November will not trust these important decisions to others. Voters who care will get involved in the nomination process.

People excuse themselves by saying that they don’t know how to get involved in the process. That dog don’t hunt… as we used to say back home. There is plenty of information available on party websites. Those websites have contact information. And if they don’t, call your local Registrar. They have the numbers of your local party chairs. Any voter who wants to get involved in the process can find someone to contact about how to do so.

The process of selecting nominees for the General Election can take several forms. One form is a state-run primary. Sixth Congressional District Republicans will select their nominee for Congress in a primary on June 21^st. Anyone can vote in a state-run Republican primary – even Democrats. (That is one of several reasons I am not a fan of primaries.)

Proponents of primaries say they allow more people to vote because a lot of people don’t have time to attend a convention or mass meeting. Apparently, those people don’t have time to attend a primary either, because only about eight percent (on average) of registered voters turn out to vote on primary day. (This is an additional example of why those who don’t take part in the process should not complain about the results.)

Another nomination method is a “party canvass” also known as a “firehouse primary.” That is basically a party-run primary. These are generally held by local units because they can be a royal headache to conduct on a large scale.

District and state parties can hold conventions to which local units send delegates to select nominees for District and State offices. Fifth Congressional District Republicans will stage a convention on May 21^st. However, the deadline for filing to be a delegate is long past. The process takes several months so voters need to get engaged in the process as early as January or February of the year in which the General Election will be held.

Another method of nominating candidates for office is a Mass Meeting. A lot of people do not fully understand the concept of a mass meeting.

Republicans in any given county or city in Virginia are normally represented by a committee of Republicans who take care of Republican business for that entity. Every two years a call goes out inviting every Republican in a given city or county to attend a meeting of Republicans (a mass meeting) to elect members of a committee whose task is to oversee Republican activities and legal responsibilities for the Republicans of that unit. They also elect a chairman for the local unit, and if there is a convention to which the unit is authorized to send delegates, they elect delegates.

That same process can be used to nominate candidates. For example, because of the deadlines for selecting delegates to the Fifth District Convention, the Lynchburg Republican Committee had to hold a mass meeting in March to elect delegates. However, state law does not allow political parties to select their nominees for public office prior to May 5^th, so the Lynchburg Republican Committee has to hold a second mass meeting to select candidates for City Council. This meeting will be on May 14^th.

Mass meetings for the purpose of nominating candidates can also get complicated. For example, Lynchburg voters will elect three city council members this year. Lynchburg Republicans plan to select three nominees from a field of seven candidates. They want their three nominees to each receive a majority vote so that a fringe candidate cannot win a nomination with a mere plurality. The Lynchburg Committee is also doing interviews and background checks so that there are no unpleasant surprises during the campaign.

Some people will say the nomination process is too complicated, but I write them off as complainers. The best way to understand the process is to be involved in it. Sitting and complaining doesn’t change the nation. Voter involvement does.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.

Several interesting stories came to light during my three-month sabbatical earlier this year. One report hit the non-mainstream press, at least, like a ton of bricks. It should have had major, nationwide coverage, but the mainstream media apparently was more intent on keeping the COVID menace alive in the minds of Americans than in reporting important news.

Antrim County has a population of 23,431 and is located at the north end of the Michigan “mitten” right on Lake Michigan. The Dominion Voting Systems (DVS) ballot counting machines were audited after someone discovered that “due to an error” 6,000 votes for Donald Trump were counted for Joe Biden – a 12,000 vote swing. In late January of this year, Michigan’s 13^th Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer made public the results of the audit despite the objections of DVS’s principals.

After reading the report prepared by Allied Security Operations Group, one can easily see why. The report states: “We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results…. The system intentionally generates an enormously high number of ballot errors.”

The report further states, “The intentional errors lead to bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, and no audit trail. Based on our study, we conclude that The Dominion Voting System should not be used in Michigan.” And “We further conclude that the results of Antrim County should not have been certified.”

Not surprisingly Michigan’s Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson declares that the “flip” of the 6,000 votes was due to “human error” and not to any inherent problems with the DVS system. Pity the election officers who work in Democratic strongholds. They must get tired of being “thrown under the bus.”

During the 2020 election cycle, DVS was one of four authorized vendors of election equipment in Virginia. Biden scored 452,000 more votes than Trump. In Antrim County, 6000 votes were flipped out of a total population of 23,431. That is the entire population, never mind registered votes, which is generally about 60 percent of the population. For the sake of argument, if a proportionate number of votes were flipped in a quarter of the cities and counties of Virginia, that could have changed the outcome of the election in Virginia (never mind any absentee ballot fraud that may have occurred).

Hopefully, DVS will not be included when Virginia’s State Board of Elections recertifies their authorized election equipment vendors. I don’t think DVS could comply with the state mandated requirements.

For example, Virginia’s Voting System Certification Standard (to make sure all systems comply with the Virginia Code) requires, among other things, that “All voting systems must provide a voter-verifiable audit trail, a permanent paper record of each vote.” Based on the Antrim County report, DVS does not appear able to do that.

Here’s another common-sense standard: “The voting system presents the voter only with candidates and contests that they are lawfully permitted to vote for.”

Then there is “All component and system-level reports generated by the voting system provide accurate results that can be verified against known results.” One can also find, “The tabulation component of the voting system must have a public counter. Upon opening of the polls, the tabulator must print a zero-proof report and the voting system must provide a means by which the report and the counter can be reconciled.” There is a whole list of similar standards that voting equipment must meet or surpass in order to be certified.

Virginia’s election system has the capacity to hold honest elections. They also, based on the Antrim County report, have the capacity to hold dishonest elections. Unfortunately, the perception of ballot integrity does not keep up with the potential. Virginia voters must be vigilant if we ever want to have honest elections. Wake up. Watch out. Keep elections honest.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.

The conflict didn’t begin in 2018, but that was the year it became very evident. And it was nasty.

Anger, disgust, chaos, and vile comments were endemic among Sixth Congressional District Republicans. The issues are so well known that they don’t need to be restated.  One side held offices on the committee, but the other side held the majority of the committee votes. There was no cooperation between the sides because there was no trust. Turmoil and uncertainty were the order of the day among Sixth District Republicans. The Democrats loved it.

Then John Massoud won the election for Sixth District Chair in 2020, and things changed for the much better. Prior to his election, John had served as Vice Chair of the Committee and knew the issues behind the turmoil first-hand. After John became chairman, the committee was able to settle down and get to work. Certainly, during the first few months of John’s tenure, supporters of one side made comments and frequently tried to continue the feud. But John did not “get even” with them. Instead, he talked with them. He listened to them. Most times, they even listened to him. And slowly, gradually, people began to calm down and started working together again in their efforts to elect Republicans to every public office in the Sixth District.

Under John’s leadership Republicans hold a greater percentage of local offices than they have in a long time, and the winning percentages have continued to grow. Things have gone so well that not only was John not challenged in his bid for re-election in 2022, but a consensus was reached as to who would hold the other three Party officers who needed to be elected. Since only one individual was running for each office, the District committee was able to cancel the 2022 convention. It was not a “back-room deal” type of arrangement. Active Republicans in the Sixth District had started working so well together that once they found out who was interested in serving, they saw no reason not to support them. That was a result of John helping everyone understand that they were all on the same side of the bigger battle.

This is the culture that John Massoud has brought to Republicans of the Sixth Congressional District. I was a member of the Committee before, during, and after the “hard times,” and the eighteen months (until redistricting) that I spent on the committee under John’s leadership were wonderful in comparison to the atmosphere prior to that.

A perfect example of John’s abilities comes from his role as a member of the Strasburg Town Council. The town council has eight members. Two of them are Tea Party Republicans, two are moderate Republicans, two are moderate to liberal Democrats, and two are Socialist Democrats. Yet when John wrote a Second Amendment Sanctity resolution and introduced it to the town council, he managed, through his amazing people skills and deft negotiating touch to have his resolution passed unanimously. He also advanced the successful efforts in Strasburg to reduce the town’s budget at the same time they increased funding for public safety.

He has brought peace to the Republican Party in the Shenandoah Valley and the Sixth Congressional District.

Now John has an opportunity to use his skills for good in Richmond. A large number of public officials and private individuals both inside and outside the Sixth District have persuaded John to run for the State Senate in the newly formed (by redistricting) First Senate District, which includes Clark, Frederick, Shenandoah, and Warren Counties and the City of Winchester.

John is currently the front runner for the office. He has worked hard to prove himself as capable, energetic, and effective. Little wonder that he has so much support.

Should he win the election, which is currently scheduled for 2023, John will continue to be a worker, a warrior, a conciliator, a counsellor, an advocate, and a friend to and on behalf of every hard working, America-loving, God-fearing patriot not only within the First Senate District but in the entire Commonwealth.

I am proud to call John Massoud my friend, and I hope that the people of the First Senate District will learn to see him as a friend as well and will elect John next year to serve them in the General Assembly.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.

The old saw claims that a vacation is “2 weeks that are 2 short after which you are 2 tired 2 go home and 2 broke not 2.” My “vacation” lasted just a few days more than three months.

For nearly six years I represented the Sixth Congressional District to the State Central Committee (SCC) of the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV). SCC members must live in the district they represent. So, when the Virginia Supreme Court handed down their December decision about redistricting, I, along with Lynchburg, Amherst, and the Forest part of Bedford County found ourselves in the Fifth District – not the Sixth. Thus, my vacation began.

I supported my friend and colleague on SCC Susan Lascolette, who was moved from the Seventh District into the Fifth, in her bid to fill the SCC seat that our friend Ed Yensho lost due to redistricting. She won easily.

Then Nancy Rodland, a long-time resident of the Fifth, resigned her SCC seat due to family issues. On April 2^nd, the Fifth District Committee elected me by acclamation to take over that seat. Thus, my vacation is over.

Not that I really stopped working during that time. I have been helping the Lynchburg committee interview and vette potential city council candidates, and I helped elect a dynamic new chairman for the Lynchburg Committee, Veronica Bratton. She is a “woman on a mission” to flip City Council red for the first time in over twenty years. She is a born leader, and she has the drive to make it happen.

But an issue came up at the April 2^nd meeting that reveals a misunderstanding of how the RPV’s Party Plan (bylaws) views the biannual mass meetings each unit holds in even-numbered years. Not only does the mass meeting elect a new chairman, the attendees at the mass meeting also elect a new local committee. The old committee ceases to exist when the mass meeting is called to order, and a new committee is elected and comes into being when the mass meeting is adjourned. Therefore, it doesn’t matter when you joined your local committee prior to the mass meeting; if you were not elected at the mass meeting you are no longer a member of your local committee.

What happens is this: the local Republican committee that was put in place two year prior has the duty to call a mass meeting to which every Republican in the city or county is invited. That “mass” of Republicans then elects (or reelects) a chairman and also elects individuals to serve on a committee that is tasked with handling all Republican affairs in that city or county – on behalf of all Republicans in that jurisdiction – for the following two years. If you are not elected to that committee in that manner, you are no longer a member.

Others can join the new committee if the members of the new committee choose to add to their numbers, but unless they do so, individuals who were members of the previous committee but who were not reelected at the mass meeting are not members of the NEW committee.

If you find yourself in that situation, the fix is simple. Get elected to the new committee by the new committee under whatever process your local bylaws prescribe.

If you think about it, all of us are on a temporary “vacation” from our local committees for the three hours or so that our biannual mass meetings are in session. But when the meeting is over, vacation is over.

In the same way, many among us have been taking a well-earned vacation from the tremendous efforts we made to elect all three of our state-wide candidates last November. But vacation is over. We have elections coming up this year for many local offices and for every one of our Congressional representatives. Vacation is over.

We must engage volunteers, organize them, train them, and make things start happening NOW for November. The Democrats never took a vacation. Because of that, we are behind. Local committees are not designed so that people can sit around and squabble over policy. Local committees are designed to get the job done themselves and with other Republicans who want and need to be involved, to be given direction, to know what to do for their Commonwealth and their country.

Vacation is over – for all of us.

Cordially,
Steve “Doc” Troxel, Ph.D.