Adrian Fontes

in the United States of America when it pertains to voting and administering elections.

Throughout all of our 250 years of history, we've seen the expansion of the franchise.

We've seen the inclusion of more people into the decision-making process.

And it didn't just

go from being only landowners and those folks who were paying property taxes, because that's kind of the origination of who was allowed to vote.

But it expanded all the way beyond that into folks because they were citizens had the right to that self-determination, the consent of the governed type of a thing.

That American tradition has been squashed, right?

And it's been squashed by folks who wanna control outcomes

they don't want to hear voices.

And I think that the principle of our body politic has been lost, and it's been lost by some people, right?

Like a guy like me, I've won elections, I've lost elections, whatever, it happens.

You know, when I was playing basketball in high school, we won a ton of games my senior year, and then we lost the state quarterfinals in 1988 to Cactus High School.

Boy, I feel bad about that.

But unlike some people, I'm not gonna try to go re-litigate and use the power of my office to try to kind of get at the referees.

That's insane and that's what's happening right now because we've forgotten the number one principle and that is that the American ethos, the American tradition is to expand the franchise into as many people as possible because only with the biggest number of voices talking through the ballot do we find the true voice of America.

Only when we include those voices, particularly the ones we disagree with,

Are we able to hear the real conversation?

And that's what gives leaders their legitimacy because they won in free and fair elections.

And sometimes they lose in free and fair elections and that's okay.

So I think we need to put back on our big boy pants.