After the man asked his question, some folks snickered. The snickers came from many of the nearly 40 people assembled in the Mason County Commission Chambers last Wednesday for a county-sponsored session titled “Election Observer Training.”

The man had asked Marie Stevenson, the county’s election superintendent, whether election workers could get away with, say, dumping ballots in the woods after retrieving them from one of the county’s election drop boxes. She said no and then spoke of the redundant mechanisms in place to deter and discover such an act.

A bit later, another fellow...