Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Column: Mail-In Voting Objections About Fear, Not Fraud

Jul 14, 2020

https://www.thepilot.com/opinion/column-mail-in-voting-objections-about-fear-not-fraud/article_9a5d7a6c-c614-11ea-8c46-7ba082fe58ba.html

In recent statements, Donald Trump has denounced mail-in voting, claiming foreign nations would flood the system with millions of ballots, thereby rigging the election for Joe Biden. This is rich, of course, coming from a man who has cravenly begged Russia, China and Ukraine to help him win an election and re-election.

However, in an interview with “Fox and Friends,” Trump stated his real concern, namely, that a national vote-by-mail system would ensure that Republicans would never again win an election. This countenances a recent article in Forbes stating that Trump’s complaints about mail-in voting have less to do with fear of fraud than fear of losing the election.

The nation’s changing demographics do not favor Trump and the Republicans. Since they long ago despaired of broadening their base to include minorities, they have opted instead to …uh ... cheat — by shamefacedly, even illegally, engaging in voter suppression.

North Carolina is Exhibit A: Under the ruse that they were thwarting fraud, N.C. Republicans passed voter ID laws, purged voter rolls, restricted voting sites (especially in minority communities), shortened voting hours, limited early voting, and even created a spurious and ill-fated anti-fraud commission.

North Carolina’s notorious gerrymandering drew national attention when it was condemned by state judges for its “partisan intent” and “surgical precision” in violation of the state’s constitutional protections of free elections, free speech and assembly, and equal protection under the law.

The crowning hypocrisy was that the most glaring example of voter fraud was Republican fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, where Leslie McCrae Dowless, a convicted felon and a paid Republican operative, directed a team to “harvest” and fill in blank absentee ballots from local citizens on behalf of Republican Mark Harris’ campaign. Election officials called this “a well-funded and well-organized campaign to tip the election for the state’s 9th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.” The election was nullified.

(Side note: Ballot harvesting is a peripheral, non-essential feature of mail-in voting, though it often occurs in tandem with it. However, this state’s abuse of this practice demonstrates its susceptibility to corrupt practice. States like Texas have gone so far as to make it illegal. If serious reform and oversight of ballot harvesting prove impossible, banning the practice would be the preferred course.)

Despite Republican complaints, “the myth of voter fraud is greater than reality,” according to the Forbes piece. Voting fraud in any form is extremely rare in the United States. A panel put together by the president to investigate election corruption found no widespread evidence. More whimper than bang.

Frustrated by the meager evidence supporting their preconceptions, Republicans engaged the “Public Interest Legal Foundation,” a group dedicated exclusively to studying voter fraud in America. Caveat emptor: Media Bias/Fact Check studied their work and pointed to PILF’s distinctly right-wing bias. Its president, Christian Adams, is a frequent guest on Fox and a favorite with conservative commentators Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham.

ProPublica and Politifact, moreover, have cited PILF’s numerous “false claims about the extent of voter fraud in the United States.” For example, PILF endorsed a Real Clear Politics article that mistakenly claimed 28 million mail-in ballots went “missing” over the last four general elections.

The article was corrected by Real Clear Politics the following month, since it was not true. The ballots were not “missing.” They were mailed out to voters, but they were not cast by those voters. “The simple fact is: An un-cast ballot is not a missing ballot.”

In spite of Republican resistance, mail-in voting is gaining traction. It is already the primary means of voting in five states: Colorado, Oregon, Hawaii, Washington and Utah. Republican states, like Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, West Virginia and Texas are expanding mail-in ballots because it makes sense:

It reduces costs by as much as 40 percent.

It provides individuals with more time to research and consider the candidates.

It increases voter turnout, but, according to research from the “Institute for Economic Policy Research” at Stanford University, it does not advantage one party over the other.

It provides more safety to Americans in the face of COVID-19.

FactCheck.org analysis concludes that there is no evidence to back up Trump’s claims that “mailed ballots are corrupt.” Voting experts say the president is exaggerating when he says mail ballots are “fraudulent in many cases.”

While the instances of voter fraud via mail-in or absentee ballots are more common than in-person voting fraud, the number of known cases is relatively rare. Yet even these rare cases could be fixed with better systems and more efficient administration.

If citizens can safely pay their taxes and bills by mail, they should be able to vote by mail. If the president and his family can safely vote by mail, the rest of the country should be afforded the same opportunity, especially in the thrall of a deadly pandemic.

William Shaw, of Pinehurst, is the author of “Fellowship of Dust: Retracing the WWII Journey of Sergeant Frank Shaw.”