I have nothing against Brandon Trosclair and I’m friends with a great many of his supporters. And Trosclair’s cause as he runs for Secretary of State, namely that of election integrity, is unquestionably a correct one – especially in a national context. One of the great challenges for Americans dedicated to the notion of saving our republic from what the Left would make of us is to get a strong handle on restoring our elections to something which looks like it’s intended to produce an honest and lawful result.

And Trosclair deserves credit for making election integrity an issue in the Secretary of State election. Whether you agree that his prescriptions for improving it are the right ones, or whether you agree with him that Louisiana’s issues with election integrity are the same as those in states like Georgia, Arizona and Michigan, he’s still worthy of respect as a businessman putting himself out there in front of the voters and talking seriously about a crucial issue.

But what we can’t afford to have happen is a collapse in election integrity in this state like what has happened in those others. We can’t allow the Left to come in here with a mountain of Arabella Advisors-directed money and turn our state into Pennsylvania. Get the wrong Secretary of State and it can happen.

Trosclair’s voters are with him because they’re the folks most concerned about this. This is directed to them.

Because pragmatically, the polls – all of them, at least all the polls we’ve seen – show he’s going to do less than 5 percent on Saturday night. He’s not in a position to make the runoff. Everything we’ve seen has Trosclair trailing Clay Schexnayder, Nancy Landry and Mike Francis, and even Thomas Kennedy, not to mention Gwen Collins-Greenup and Arthur Morrell, the two Democrats in the race.

And this is a problem. It’s a problem which is part and parcel of the stupid, awful jungle primary system we have in Louisiana.

Because there are two outcomes which absolutely can’t be allowed to happen in the Secretary of State race, problems we would not have if Saturday’s contest was a pair of closed party primaries leading to a general election between the top Republican and the top Democrat.

One undesirable outcome is both of the two Democrats making the runoff and thus insuring that a Soros regime takes over elections in Louisiana. That outcome is unthinkable; terrifying. That outcome turns us into Arizona, where election laws no longer exist and elections are brazenly stolen, with Republican politicians completely outmatched to defend the integrity of the democratic process.

It can’t happen. Everything must be done to prevent it.

The polls indicate this is unlikely, as Morrell – who is a product of Orleans Parish machine politics and who might benefit greatly from a get-out-the-vote effort from the Usual Suspects in New Orleans – generally polls at six or seven percent or below, well behind Landry, Schexnayder and Francis. The fact that in early voting blacks were just 26 percent of the electorate means barring some massive flood of souls to the polls on Saturday, this first outcome probably isn’t a concern.

But the other outcome is a massive concern. The other outcome is that Clay Schexnayder, a corrupt RINO who spent four years cutting deals with Democrats instead of fighting for our people, might get into the runoff against one of the Democrats. Let’s not forget that Rep. Blake Miguez’ bill banning private funding of public elections offices, otherwise known as the Zuckerbucks bill, came up three separate times before Schexnayder would assist in making it reality – and even then, this year Miguez brought it as a constitutional amendment. It’s on the ballot as Amendment #1, and it’s a must-pass measure. Schexnayder could have made sure the bill passed the House and overcame John Bel Edwards’ veto, but he didn’t, and this makes him wholly and completely unqualified for the job of Secretary of State. He cannot be allowed to represent the Louisiana Republican Party on the November ballot.

The only way, as of right now, to insure that either Nancy Landry or Mike Francis, who are the two people in the race we know both (a) can win and (b) won’t make things worse, will get into the runoff is for Trosclair’s voters – and Thomas Kennedy’s voters, because Kennedy can’t win either – to start voting defensively.

While election integrity is an issue which must be addressed and preserved, what’s true at present is that Democrats aren’t currently able to steal major elections in Louisiana. Which is to say there is no contemporary example of an election they’ve stolen. It’s very reasonable to say they stole the 1996 Senate race from Woody Jenkins, which resulted in three terms of the corrupt leftist Mary Landrieu representing Louisiana in the Senate, since then it’s been pretty quiet.

We can and should use the legislature to enforce that, and on Saturday Amendment #1 absolutely needs to pass and would go a long way toward blocking a lot of the shenanigans they’ve perpetrated in other states. Perhaps there are good reforms which can be put into effect to strengthen our election system against those threats.

But you have to start with having people who are somewhat reputable and competent and not enemies. And that’s why sometimes you have to make a defensive vote.

I don’t have a preference between Landry and Francis. Either would be fine. Landry can hold down the job longer just because she’s younger, and having served as the #2 in the Secretary of State’s office she can make a claim as the most qualified for the job. But if you’re a Trosclair voter you might not see that as a good thing – and in that case, you might see Francis as a better choice, and that’s OK. But most importantly, it won’t get worse with either Landry or Francis and there is a lot that can be said for that.

Vote defensively if your guy can’t win. You’ve got to, though you might find it distasteful. The stakes are colossal. In every other statewide race indicating a new official outside of this one, Louisiana is going to deliver a significant conservative victory, but a catastrophe in the Secretary of State race could literally put all of those gains in jeopardy in future elections.