I detest covering an election campaign like it is just some kind of horserace. Why? Well, all a horserace comes down to is which horse and rider make the fastest combination. An election, however, is about issues that matter. Those issues include economic decisions, public safety concerns, moral dilemmas, and so much more.

In an election, there is no audience. We are all participants. We don’t merely cheer for a horse and rider. We can campaign for our candidates and our issues. We pick the winner.

So, what is this post about? We are going to talk a little bit about how we can tell which horse won. Why? That’s because we cannot trust the news media. You and I are not the only people who can help candidates win an election. The news media can take sides and boost their preferred candidates too…

You see that picture above. That’s what voting at the Republican Party of Virginia unassembled convention looked like (see 2021 Nomination – Republican Party of Virginia). There were are couple of wrinkles, however.

• Since the convention was unassembled, and the party only expected people to come vote once, the party decided to use ranked choice voting (2021 State Convention Voting Instructions (virginia.gop)). So, the ballot looked a little unusual.
• In Prince William County, voters could do both drive thru and in-person voting. However, before they could do either, they had to register as a delegate to vote, and before they got a ballot, they had to show a photo ID. Unlike the Republican Party of Virginia, the Virginia Commonwealth no longer requires a photo ID.

That said, the Republican Party of Virginia still made allowances for folks with difficult circumstances. The party still made arrangements for military…