On Election Day, Make Americans Good Sports Again

Not so long ago, Americans prided themselves on the motto, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.’ They feared the label of ‘sore loser.’

AP/David Goldman
Voters outside a polling site at Warwick, Rhode Island, November 7, 2022, the last day of early voting before the midterm election. AP/David Goldman

It’s Election Day, but some campaigns are just beginning. The new paradigm of American democracy promises that many candidates — like sports fans who refuse to accept an unfavorable call — will throw red challenge flags, trying to win in court what they fail to capture at the ballot box.

Not so long ago, Americans prided themselves on the motto, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” They feared the label of “sore loser.” Shenanigans — such as President Jackson felt he’d suffered in 1824 when the House of Representatives delivered the White House to President John Quincy Adams over him — just fueled a hunger to try again.

In a speech last week, President Biden railed against candidates who “will not commit to accepting the results of the election that they’re running in,” aiming at President Trump’s favored candidates, several backed by Democrats in a cynical primary ploy that may backfire.

The president ignored that his party also plays what sports fans call “lawyer ball.” The Washington Post, for example, reported that a $10 million Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee program has “hundreds of people on the ground inside voting locations and a large-scale program to ‘cure’ rejected ballots.”

Mr. Trump had a similar complaint about Pennsylvania on Truth Social, saying, “Here we go again” and “Rigged election.” Of course, there were also his objections to the 2020 results, where allies such as lawyer Sidney Powell promised a “fire hose” of evidence on vote rigging that yielded only droplets.

Party lawyers are now stationed across America to challenge “ballots,” which only become votes when they’ve met the legal criteria such as signatures, postmarks, and residency requirements — problems introduced by mail-in voting when we stopped pulling levers in person on a single day.

The Democratic candidates for president in 2000, 2004, and 2016 all pursued post-election strategies. Vice President Gore litigated hanging chads, Senator Kerry claimed hacked voting machines, and Secretary Clinton’s allies targeted Electoral College delegates.

Fairness is fundamental to the notion of counting snouts in a democracy, and nobody wishes to have a candidate sworn into an office he hasn’t earned. The current system offers so many opportunities for challenges that faith in elections has eroded to a dangerous point.

The world of sports has also attempted to remove bad calls, promising an unattainable standard of perfection. The NFL introduced instant replay in a 1976 “Monday Night Football” game, and it became a permanent feature years later.

Video was a tool to backstop referees, but in 1999, coaches were given the opportunity to challenge calls by throwing a red flag. Other leagues followed suit. In the NHL, every goal must now be judged at the War Room in Toronto, causing delays and stoking denial among fans.

These innovations failed to eliminate mistakes and fueled the idea that human error should never be accepted in any endeavor. Gone are the days of the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals when a Montreal Canadiens player shot a puck in and out of the net so fast that goal judge Ken Elwardt missed it and the game continued.

The Canadiens won the Cup, meaning the missed goal didn’t decide the championship, and fans accepted the bungle. They booed the officials, sure, and the New York Times reported that players “screamed at Elwardt and one of them almost broke the glass with his stick,” but it was just part of the game.

Podcaster Adam Carolla once recounted meeting a neighbor and his son on a walk in the woods. When the boy began complaining about officiating in a recent gridiron loss, the father admonished him to give a more honest assessment. An inability to stop the run among other shortcomings were to blame, the son said upon reflection, not any bias.

Election results are of far more importance than sporting events, but planning to challenge outcomes before the puck drops or a single vote is cast leaves everyone embittered, removing the stigma of being a sore loser who refuses to accept the flaws inherent in life. It’s a sure way to ruin a sport or to undermine a republic.


The New York Sun

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