How to Ruin Election Integrity

By Ashley Sugar

In the wake of the COVID-19 public health crisis, Democrats quickly advocated for mass mail-in voting in the 2020 election. Given the method is proven to be prone to fraud, sabotage, and negligence, President Trump has good reason to be skeptical of and caution against mass mail voting. Predictably, the Left has dismissed these legitimate concerns as conspiracy, painting President Trump as an authoritarian leader unwilling to peacefully transfer power if the election does not turn out in his favor. For weeks, the media have run story after story claiming mail voting is just as secure as in-person voting. This explanatory narrative is partial at best, and propagandistic at worst. The American people cannot be duped by these tactics, and deserve a fair election, void of any interference, foreign or domestic. While we support people being safe and taking precautions against COVID-19, we can’t help but recognize that the Democrats may have other motives. From Russiagate to Ukraine, the Democrats have spent the last four years singularly focused on the removal of President Trump from office and the prevention of his reelection. Mail-in voting is the newest weapon in their arsenal. 

All but five states have decided to adjust and loosen their voting protocols for this election, allowing constituents across the country to vote from home. However, there is a reason that we’ve refrained from mass mail-in voting in the past. Regardless of your political affiliations, we should all be worried about this new disaster-prone system. After all, mail-in voting is fraught with problems. While absentee voters request ballots, confirm addresses, and correct information, taking ownership of their choice to vote by mail, mass voting by mail diminishes accountability, paper trails, and general oversight, calling into question the validity of the election’s results. Mail-in voting would mean ballots would be sent out to “all” eligible voters. This alternative to the in-person ballot box breeds confusion and malpractice. Since voting databases are not always up to date, ballots will inevitably be sent to the deceased, wrong addresses, and even residents who have moved out of state.

Furthermore, people are expected to vote by mail in this election in unprecedented numbers, putting immense pressure on our postal system. In New York, the primary election ballots continued to be counted a month after the election. The chaos that transpired in New York won’t come close to what awaits the Presidential election. The delays, mismanagement, and general confusion will only compound on the national stage. Even if we can count every ballot accurately, the entire process will take weeks if not months. With the US Postal Service’s negligent operations, this extra strain will only exacerbate the situation.  USPS has always run an inefficient operation and isn’t reliable— it has an issue with “postmarking ballots, making it impossible for election officials to determine whether the ballots were mailed in time to be counted.” In fact, The U.S. Election Assistance Commission noted: “that in the last four federal elections, 2.7 million mail-in ballots were misdelivered and 1.3 million were rejected by election officials.” Though Democrats are obsessed with making this Trump’s issue, he has legitimate claims. While the Democrats point to isolated studies that proclaim the efficacy of mail-in voting, the studies and instances cited are nowhere the magnitude and complexity we face in November.

Even if our infrastructure could accommodate all of the ballots, mail balloting often produces thousands of uncounted votes. In the New York primaries, election officials reported that they invalidated upwards of 100,000 ballots. These invalidations mean that approximately one in five ballots were nullified for various reasons, such as incorrect postage, mismatched signatures, and missing signatures. David Becker, executive director at the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said,  “hand-marked ballots have had higher rates of mismarks.” Mail ballots are invalidated at a much higher rate than in-person votes. When voting in person, voters can ask for guidance on proper protocol from poll workers, and identification can be confirmed. According to an NPR analysis, “more than 550,000 absentee ballots were returned but not counted in this year’s presidential primaries — and that number is almost certainly an undercount, considering that data was available in only 30 states.”  A hundred thousand plus ballots were invalidated in the New York primaries alone. That is a hundred thousand people whose votes apparently didn’t matter. Can you imagine what the number would be if all fifty states were accounted for? If we want free and fair elections, we must encourage voting in person. This voting system will not be legitimate because thousands of voices aren’t accounted for. 

Mass mail voting is even more precarious when coupled with ballot harvesting. Legal in 26 states, ballot harvesting, allows volunteers or campaign workers to collect completed ballots and drop them off en masse at polling places and election offices. Ballot harvesting can quickly be abused, as numerous cases have shown. In 2018, ballot harvesting made headlines due to fraud concerns. During the 2018 elections, multiple candidates in California had extensive leads in races until harvested ballots were counted, leading to several races being overturned weeks and sometimes months after the election. In some states, ballot harvesters can be paid by nongovernmental organizations— many of which have their own agendas. For instance,  Project Veritas uncovered a ballot harvesting scheme in Minneapolis. Liban Mohamed, a paid ballot harvester, posted videos on his Snapchat revealing the vast amounts of ballots he had collected for a city council candidate. Recently, military and overseas ballots, mostly for President Trump, were found in a trash bin after a temporary worker tossed them. Earlier this year in New Jersey, a City Councilman collected ballots as a candidate and did not properly identify himself as a “bearer.” A candidate is not allowed to be a bearer, or ballot collector, because it jeopardizes the integrity of the ballots (for obvious reasons). In West Virginia, a postal carrier pleaded guilty to mail fraud after switching the political affiliation of voters on ballot requests. Guaranteeing a secure, fair election is not a partisan issue. We should all demand it. With clear disregard for oversight mechanisms to secure and deter fraudulent ballots, as displayed in California, voting by mail is not the solution.

Democrats claim that mail-in voting will ensure our safety. We call this claim what it is— political. In fact, “experts now say that voting with a mask on is no more dangerous than going to a grocery store with a mask on—something millions of Americans do every week.” In California, we are able to go to bars if we order food. But when it comes to the most highly politicized US election to date, we’re told to shutter our doors and vote from home. The Democratic party is scared, so they’re attacking our right to vote.  While the #fakenews depicts President Trump as an authoritarian and tyrannical leader, the Democrats are the ones verging on authoritarian tactics, threatening our right to fair and safe elections. 

To combat this disingenuous attempt to silence our voices, we must safely vote in-person. If you can’t vote in person, drop your mail ballot in a secure, authorized ballot dropbox. Make sure you sign your ballot and fill it out according to your state’s guidelines. Do not give election officials any reason to invalidate your ballot. From Russiagate to riots, the Democratic party has deployed every weapon at its disposal to prevent the re-election of President Trump. Mass voting and ballot harvesting are just their newest weapons in their arsenal to undermine the integrity of President Trump’s Administration. Just keep in mind that back in 2012, The New York Times admitted that “votes cast by mail are less likely to be counted, more likely to be compromised and more likely to be contested than those cast in a voting booth.” Like anything in life, if you want it done right, do it yourself. Stay safe, and vote in person.

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