There are growing concerns about possible violence if Trump wins the election. What will happen the day after Election Day? I don't know for sure, but I can tell you from personal experience what can happen when a deep-rooted tyranny refuses to concede after a healthy defeat.
In May 1989, I helped sponsor the only privately funded election observation team for Panama's presidential elections. Dictator's Manual Noriega was running for re-election. My team was there to monitor and report voter fraud. In other words, voting should be as honest as possible.
Noriega did everything in his power to control people coming into the country to observe the election, allowing only one embassy in Florida to apply for visas. One woman was given the task of approving who could get entry permits under strict orders. Even the White House could not obtain the document. But I did.
I sent one of my team to that Florida embassy. As he entered, there was a large crowd of media outlets and others requesting visas to cover the election. The woman in charge was trying to explain the restrictions because they are systematically refusing to do so. My team members stood quietly and waited. Finally she turned to him and he said in Spanish, “It sounds like you're having a really bad day,” and he smiled sympathetically. Those were the first kind words she had heard in weeks. She replied that she didn't feel well but had work to do. She then asked him why he was there and he replied, “I need a visa.” Unexpectedly, she invited him to the conference room. They talked for a few minutes and she said, “I'll grant you the visa.” Shocked, we were on our way. One day I got a call from the White House asking how I did it.
Now we were in Panama. This is a country that suffered under one of the worst dictators in Latin America. Soldiers were stationed on almost every street corner. Everything from the actions of local residents to communications with U.S. military bases was under intense scrutiny. I know this because one of my team members was a staffer for a U.S. senator. On our first night in the country, we were invited to a reception at the home of the president of the Panama City Chamber of Commerce. While there, Senate staff wanted to know if their boss had arrived. He had entered the country via a US military base. So he called from our host's house phone. Suddenly, the host asks who he called and is shocked to learn that it was the base. “Hang up! Hang up!” he begged. A week after we left, soldiers arrived and arrested the president of the Chamber of Commerce. That's what happens when you live under oppression.
Now, on to the election. First, the rules. All voters were restricted from traveling outside their precincts on election day and had to remain in their area until the polls closed. Second, every candidate for each office on the ballot had their own ballot. Once at the polling station, they selected the ballot of the candidate they supported, placed it in an envelope, and dropped it into the ballot box.
Now, with everything in place, my team was provided with a local driver to take us around the city and inspect the voting area to see if there were any abnormalities. It didn't take long to find them. First, it should be noted that most of Panama's polling places were outdoors. That's normal in the warm tropics. Most voting locations were located inside schools and some outside classrooms.
The first thing we noticed was the large number of people gathered around the voting venue. I quickly understood why. Noriega quickly understood how to control the vote. That means not delivering the opposition party's ballot. Second, residents cannot leave their precincts on election day, so authorities can simply put residents' names on the voter list of another precinct on the other side of town, and residents cannot go there to vote. I can't.
These are the problems we started encountering when traveling through Panama City. Citizens noticed our election observer badges and started posing such problems to us.
As I moved from constituency to constituency, I came into contact with opposition candidates. Among them were Morilena party presidential candidate Guillermo Endara and vice presidential candidate Guillermo Ford. They rushed frantically to all the polling stations, appealing to people to line up and not leave. It was an incredible sight to witness the arrival of the Endara candidates. He simply raised his hands in the air, and immediately a large crowd of several hundred cheered and rushed towards him. He would yell to the crowd, “We're working to get your ballots to you.” Now let's move on. At one stop, I was standing right in front of him, almost swamped by the enthusiastic crowd. Our eyes met as he just shook his head.
As I took a few breaks in the hotel lobby, I ran into a team from CBS News covering the event. We talked with them and at the end we asked our news team: Why isn't this reported on the news? ” His irritated answer was, “New York news editor.” Yes, that explained everything. Meanwhile, as I passed the public television in the hotel lobby, nearly every set was tuned to CNN, with former president and self-proclaimed “election expert” Jimmy Carter reporting that all was well. It was shown that he was doing so.
I stood on stage at one of the town's main polling stations, which happened to be the home base of Mr. Noriega and the opposition candidate, Mr. Endara, and watched the familiar sight of frustrated voters waiting in line for their ballots. Meanwhile, buses carrying what Noriega called his “dignity battalion” began arriving. They began to surround the residents. Then, as if someone had fired a pistol, they immediately began chanting and attacking voters. Still, the people held their ground and refused to leave.
Just before the voting deadline, a report of fraudulent voting was received from a polling station outside the city. We saw Jimmy Carter rush into a limousine and head there. Later, when I spoke at a CPAC conference about this whole experience, I was asked how bad the election fraud was. My answer was, “It was so bad that eventually even Jimmy Carter could see it.”
But even after the voting ended, dictator Noriega was not finished. The Morilena party planned a press conference at its headquarters. As we drove up to the building to attend, we saw several people standing outside with annoyed looks on their faces. They told us all power was cut off at that end of town. So the press conference was to be held at a hotel on the other side of town.
Upon arriving at the hotel, we learned that the event would be held in an open rooftop event space above the hotel. It was a little scary that you could only go up and down the very narrow stairs or elevator that could only accommodate 2 or 3 people. As we entered the gathering space, we found opposition candidates, media outlets, election observers, and other people Noriega wanted to rid the country of. During what seemed like the longest press conference in memory, I kept thinking, all he had to do was send in a helicopter with a machine gun and solve all his problems. That is to say. He didn't act that night, but the next day was a different story.
As I was preparing to return to Washington, DC, a few members of my team decided to stay one more day. A demonstration was scheduled to be held by the Morilena Party and other parties protesting election fraud. Thousands of people gathered for the march. The locals saw my team and insisted they come in from off the road right now. And they understood why. Noriega's Dignity Battalion of thugs has arrived.
Opposition vice presidential candidate Guillermo Ford has been personally attacked. His bodyguard was killed and Ford, along with hundreds of others, was stabbed and beaten by the Dignity Battalion.
Meanwhile, I was at the airport and saw the latest addendum in a government newspaper with the headline: “Noriega wins by 55%.” Vote counting was halted as Endara and Ford held a 3-1 lead.
Will history repeat itself on November 5th? Is Harris Dignity Battalion preparing to maintain the status quo? Like Panamanians, we must stand strong and refuse to leave, even if our voting places are threatened. Poll watchers are required to oversee all aspects of the vote counting process. And if necessary, they must stay at the polling place overnight to ensure that surprise boxes containing ballots do not suddenly appear without verification. Tyrants hate bright spotlights. Freedom shines brightly!
Tom DeWeese is one of the nation's leading advocates for individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education, and American sovereignty and independence. He is founder and president of the American Policy Center and editor of the DeWeese Report.
