The world has truly become such a small place. Last week, Austrians voted between an extreme conservative candidate and an extreme liberal candidate in the landlocked euro-zone nation's presidential election. Austrians vote for President in the same manner as the French. Anyone who wishes to contest the election and can afford the small entry fees, is welcome to run for president. If one candidate earns fifty percent or more of the vote, then that person is declared the president. If no one reaches the fifty percent mark, then the two candidates with the highest number of votes, run against each other in the second round, with the winner being declared president. Although the Freedom Party candidate had a substantial lead in votes, his total fell beneath fifty percent, which necessitated a second round of voting, between the Freedom Party candidate and the left-wing Green Party representative. The conservative Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer embarrassed the sitting government and mainstream politicians, by coming in first by such a large margin. Unfortunately for both Hofer and those of us who support free and fair elections, the result of the second round were far from open and fair. Aftee the day's voting was complete, conservative Freedom Party candidate Hofer was ahead of his opponent, Green Party candidate Alexander van der Billen, by less than one percent. Hofer had won every province in Austria but two; unfortunately for Hofer, one of the provinces he lost included the capital city of Vienna, which has a huge majority of Green party voters amongst its residents. Before Hofer could celebrate his razor-thin victory, 700,000 postal votes still had to becounted. Postal votes in Austria are similar to absentee votes in the United States; thry are mailed in early by folks who either will be out of country on election day, or just prefer to avoid the crowds. Another difference between postal voting in Austria and Absentee Voting in the United States is the ease in which fraud can impact on the postal vote's final tally. You see, postal votes are collected and processed by the current administration, which placed third in the election and was strongly supporting the Green Party candidate. Almost immediately discrepencies were observed with the postal vote count. In four separate polling locations, evidence was discovered which pointed to apparent fraud. The problem was so obvious that Hofer supporters were incensed and damanded an investigation. Why? Because the Green Party candidate managed to outpoll Hofer in postal votes by just enough margin to declare victory, which he quickly did.
Why should we care what happens in Austria? Because the conservative Freedom Party wasopenly calling for a refugee policy that was in contrast to the declared position of Germany and France. In fact, Hofer represents what the majority of Austrians, and probably the majority of French and Germans believe. Hofer points out the frightening reality that the current policy espoused by Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, which has no limitations, qualifications or boundaries, will no doubt greatly increase the number of refugees trying to find a home in Europe. Back in the day, when a nation fell under the authority of a despot, the people eventually rose up and returned Democracy to their lives. The American Revolutionary War is a good starting point. The colonists had no place of retreat to escape the tyranny of England and George II, so they showed tremendous courage and fought against their oppressor. Many young men died in the conflict, but the sacrifice was not in vain. Romania provides a good example from a more recent period. After four decades of eastern-European style Socialism, the people of Romania rose up against the security police, and dictator Nicoli Ceaucescu and his harridan wife were executed by a people's court. Democracy has returned to Romania. What we are experiencing in 2016 is quite different, at least in Africa and the Middle East. It's true that some groups rose up against Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad; but now those who are dissatisfied or have lost their homes, give their life savings to despicable smugglers, in the hope of being granted residency in what they believe are exceedingly wealthy, generous societies in Europe. The same situation flourishes in the poorest counties in the world, all mostly located in sub-Saharan Africa. Instead of encouraging people to leave the land of their birth, we should assist them in improving life at home. Sometimes this assistance comes in the form of military support, which is acceptable. Tyranny roots itself in deep by creating police states. Live by the sword, die by the sword, as the old saying goes.
The day after the postal votes in Austria were counted, it was obvious that the Green candidate, van der Billen, who along with the current Austrian government, supports the open policy on refugees that has been established by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was somehow going to overcome Hofer's lead. It was also apparent that information coming from at least four voting precincts was very questionable. In one instance, van der Billen received more postal votes than the total number of postal votes that were actually submitted before the election. In fact, one federal employee admitted to fraud regarding the number of postal votes for the Green candidate. Sadly, the international press, including CNN, Reuters, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and NPR were quick to point out the liberal Green Party victory in Austria, because it demonstrated that the good Austrian people were not opposed to more refugees. Breitbart was the only news service in the U.S. who mentioned the irregularities. This decision by the international press to ignore voter fraud was instrumental in the current government in Vienna's decision to certify the vote and declare van der Billen as President. I believe this is the first time that the Green Party has won such a high elected position anywhere in the world. I was very disappointed that the Austrian Freedom Party didn't raise more hell. Norbert Hofer publicly thanked the voters, and promised that in the next election, these type of shenanigans would not occur, and the Freedom Party would win outright. I hope the Freedom Party has the opportunity to contest another election.
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