States that allow "same day registration and voting" include "swing states" Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin. You might never have voted in your life but in these states and many others, today you can start. You can register and vote today if you are a citizen of the United States. 

Other states that are "near" "swing state" status that allow "same day registration and voting" include New Hampshire, New Mexico and Virginia. Helene-ravaged North Carolina also allows a voter with no previous registration or voting history to show up today, produce ID and register and then vote. 

"Proof of residency is a key requirement in all states that offer same-day registration," according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a half-century old non-partisan organization that serves the elected legislatures of the states. The group's website is a fine resource for journalists who want to check what the rules are in our patchwork system of voting laws.

It is a good thing that ours is a decentralized system but it is not a good thing that suspicion exists around whether voting is subject to cheating. It always has been true that some cheating exists and I wrote a book about the facts of election cheating 20 years ago because the history of election fraud in the United States is rich, interesting —and shameful: "If It’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat." To my surprise it became a New York Times best-seller in the aftermath of the 2000 "hanging chad" election.

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Cheating in American elections in the 19th and early 20th century was primarily driven by the need for big city machines to keep the power to distribute patronage. Jobs with machines like Tammany Hall in New York City, the Pendergast Machine in Kansas City, Missouri and the legendary Daley Machine in Chicago were not options for the families who depended on those jobs that provided for their families unless they were part of the machine, and the old machines could even be understood in some circumstances as guarantors of a social safety net. 

Some election controversies, like the debacle in Florida in 2000, came from a combination of outdated technology being overwhelmed or poorly designed—the butterfly ballot—and of ideologically-driven courts like Florida’s then Supreme Court. When the United States Supreme Court rendered Bush v. Gore, the first and most important part of that decision was on the need for "due process" to apply, and it was a 7-2 decision with two liberals joining five conservatives in stopping the circus and reversing the Florida Supreme Court’s then reckless and lawless majority of four justices of seven. 

8 STATES WILL VOTE ON MEASURES THAT WOULD EXPLICITLY BAN NONCITIZENS FROM VOTING

Our highest national court stopped Florida’s highest court from ignoring long-standing principles of due process in vote counting. Five U.S Supreme Court justices also called for the stop of recounting because of their concern with the electoral calendar and its deadlines in federal law. Almost every non-partisan assessment of the vote conducted in Florida in 2000 agree that President George W Bush won that state and the 2000 election. The practice of "election denialism" began in the aftermath of that election and has been a plague on our system since. Courts will eventually sort out controversial cases involving voting. The Constitution is very strong. Trust the Constitution. 

Do not, however, trust legacy media or the polls. The latter have to get an election right again before we believe in them generally, and the former simply have no interest in faithfully reporting half of America’s opinions and often not even the facts. Have you seen the story that Bucks County, Pennsylvania election officials were rebuked by a court there for sending voters standing in line home last week? It happened. It is of this cycle that the Republican National Committee is not going to play "catch up" instead of being on alert early on election controversies. In Bucks County the GOP sued over the maladministration of the election —and won! Seen that reported anywhere?

Finally, never forget that legacy media threw us into this cycle of suspicion by calling wrongly Florida for Gore in 2000 before voting had even concluded in the panhandle. How many voters left when they heard that, or stayed home out west, is a "known unknown." I believe —opinion alert— that Bush’s victory would have been sweeping but for the electric jolt of energy to Democrats and crushing blow to GOP hopes given by national "news networks" early on election night.

What isn’t an opinion was that the "newsroom" at KCET-TV, the then-PBS affiliate in Los Angeles where I was co-anchoring election night coverage in 2000, broke into a cheer when that very wrong "decision desk call" of Florida was announced. I was shocked then and still am. Legacy media then pretended to be fair but today is an arm of the Democratic National Committee and much of the posing is gone. Do not believe anyone tonight until a consensus forms. Everyone makes mistakes but facts are indeed stubborn things and eventually they will out. 

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My vote for Donald Trump and Senator Vance was cast weeks ago in Virginia because the lead story on Thursday might not be our new president-elect but another strike by Iran on Israel and what Israel can be expected, with justification, to reply with: a "third strike and you are out" massive punishment of Iran’s nuclear program and vanguard troops—the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

Because our national security and that of our allies depends so much on the leadership of our president and the strength of their national security team, please do vote, even if you have never voted before if your state allows registration and same-day voting. Then watch and wait. We will all know soon enough. 

Hugh Hewitt is host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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