One thing is certain about next week’s elections: Fraud will taint the process. If contests are close, it could make a difference.
Early voting, same-day registration and vote-by-mail are all fairly new devices that help Democrats beat Republicans in close elections. There are sound reasons to oppose these new trends, regardless of the partisan implications.
1. Myth: Good Citizens Vote Early.
In some states, voting starts in September. But history keeps happening right up to election day, so early-voters are less-informed. Those who voted weeks ago did so before the Obama administration badly bungled the Ebola outbreak.
Early voting is also expensive to accommodate and uneven in its accessibility, especially for rural voters.
Besides, once upon a time, we all came together on election day. That was good.
2. Myth: Same-Day registration doesn’t invite fraud.
In some states, you can walk into any poll and vote on election day, even if you weren’t registered.
Many states have recently tried to eliminate same-day registration, which prevents election officials from verifying the eligibility of voters and accuracy of voter registration information. Illegal voters using this law likely gave Senator Al Franken, D-Minn., his victory in 2008. Predictably, Eric Holder’s Justice Department has brought suit to preserve same-day registration.
3. Myth: Voting Machines Are Flipping Votes for Democrats.
All of the stories about voting machines switching votes are calibration issues. Anyone with any experience in election administration knows these problems are easily detected, and easily fixed. People concerned about voter fraud should focus on genuine threats, not conspiratorial ones.
One genuine threat to clean elections are paper ballots counted by humans. Paper ballots are subject to human interpretation. When humans count paper ballots, votes really do move from one party to the other.
The best election system is the optical scan ballot where you make selections inside ovals and the paper is fed through an electronic counting scanner. People who waste time on electronic voting machines are overlooking the many other ways the system is manipulated.
4. Fact: Eric Holder’s Justice Department Is Already Facilitating Voter Fraud.
Attorney General Eric Holder has been working overtime to preserve weaknesses in the system. Holder has pursued voting cases against states like Texas, Ohio, Louisiana and North Carolina in order to help the Democratic Party. Attacks on election integrity laws, such as voter ID, are political crusades designed to scare minority voters. Polls show it isn’t working.
5. Myth: Mail-Voting is Fraud Free.
If you wanted to invite fraud, you’d do what Colorado has done: Go to an all vote-by-mail election.
Every single registered voter will be mailed a ballot, including those who haven’t voted in years. Colorado reclassified all inactive voters as active voters for the election. People who should have been removed from the rolls under federal law will now have a ballot mailed to an address where they no longer live. Harvesters will go door to door hoping to collect ballots. Some might be cast under coercion. Some will be cast by someone else.
And the Postal Service — the people who regularly bring you your neighbor’s mail — will now be handling the outcome.
Vote-by-mail is part of Democrats’ plan to keep Colorado blue. We’ll learn next week if it works.
6. Myth: Electing Republicans Will End Voter Fraud.
Voter fraud isn’t confined to Democrats. And don’t assume that just electing Republicans means that election integrity laws will thrive. Republicans sometimes lack the spine to address the institutional and structural issues, which opens the door to voter fraud. In other places, like Colorado, some Republicans have helped make things worse. Colorado election clerks Pam Anderson and Sheila Reiner were two clerks who pushed vote by mail there.
Next week, some of the votes counted will be the fruits of fraud. Let’s hope the election isn’t close enough that any of them make a difference.
J. Christian Adams, an election lawyer who served in the Voting Rights Section at the U.S. Department of Justice, is the author of Crimes Against the Republic, available free in electronic format for a limited time at the PJTV Bookstore. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions for editorials, available at this link.
