Vote Fraud

Vote fraud disenfranchises Americans and poses a serious threat to both the integrity of and confidence in our electoral system. Opponents of measures to prevent vote fraud contend that its occurrence is either nonexistent or so rare as to be insignificant.

Vote fraud is insidious, committed quietly. And once it’s committed, it cannot be undone. Vote fraud contaminates the pool of votes, and if sufficiently extensive, will affect the outcome of an election. As elections determine who exercises political power, there is a motivation among some bad actors to cheat.

Vote fraud is rarely prosecuted for two main reasons. First, it is virtually impossible to identify the fraud before the damage is done as it is primarily committed through absentee and mail-in balloting; second, prosecuting the crime is expensive and is usually a low priority of prosecutors and local law enforcement more concerned with public safety. However, vote fraud is a crime that strikes at the center of our republic.

The principal weakness in our electoral system that fosters vote fraud is inaccurate voter registration rolls. The federal requirement that counties maintain clean, accurate voter rolls has been ignored over the years and actively resisted under the Obama Department of Justice.

Voter rolls should contain only the names of eligible residents of a jurisdiction, but in far too many counties, voter rolls bulge with the names of the dead, those who have moved away, non-citizens, fictional names and voters registered in more than one place.

A Pew Center on the States study in 2012 revealed that:

  • Approximately 24 million—one of every eight—voter registrations in the United States were no longer valid or were significantly inaccurate.
  • More than 1.8 million deceased individuals were listed as voters.
  • Approximately 2.75 million people had registrations in more than one state.

In nearly 200 counties around the nation, more people are registered to vote than the counties’ population of eligible citizens. Examples abound of non-citizens and convicted felons registered to vote. In Philadelphia, an ACRU lawsuit in 2016 revealed thousands of ineligible people on the voter rolls. A sampling of counties in Virginia also found hundreds of illegal registrations, according to a 2016 study by the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

In-person vote fraud, while far more rare than absentee voting, does happen, as shown by the video sting operations of Project Veritas, in which an impersonator at a polling place in the District of Columbia claimed to be then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. and easily obtained a ballot. In other Project Veritas videos political operatives openly discussed how to commit vote fraud in Wisconsin and other states.

The institutional Left has focused on preventing common-sense laws to require voters to prove they are who they claim they are, making the ridiculous and unprovable claim that photo ID laws discriminate against racial minorities and the poor. But, vote fraud is accommodated by other means such as extended voting periods and relaxed standards for acquiring absentee or mail-in ballots and not requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

Several reasonable actions should be adopted to guard against vote fraud:

  • enforce federal voter roll maintenance laws;
  • require photo ID to vote in person;
  • require voter ID and signature verification for absentee ballots;
  • limit early voting to no more than a week prior to an election;
  • require proof of U.S. citizenship;
  • encourage more states to participate in cooperative efforts to identify voters registered in more than one state.

Voting is a privilege of citizenship and only legal votes should be counted. The only way to stop vote fraud is to prevent it!

ACRU Commentary

The media’s greatest power is the power to ignore

Sixty-two percent of Americans believe voting by mail increases fraud. So we reviewed mainstream media vote fraud stories and found nearly every story started with, “GOP to fight voter fraud that doesn’t exist.” The bias willingly ignores fraud despite reams of evidence. Author Gore Vidal once quipped, “Half the American people never read a newspaper. Half never vote for President — the same half?” Glad you read the EIB.

Because you might be sick on election day

Connecticut law permits absentee voting for people away on election day, serving in the military, or disabled. The state’s Democrat executive—with no legal authority—wants to expand that to anyone who thinks they might get sick. The state’s GOP is suing to prevent this unlawful strategy. Perhaps people who know they are going to be sick on election day should be picking lottery numbers for the rest of us.

A citizen’s reminder: absentee ballots have not gone extinct

We are grateful to Mr. Brian Glass of Virginia, who points out in clear prose; 1. A list of confirmed cases of mail-in vote fraud; and 2. The difference between universal mail-in ballots and intentionally requesting an absentee ballot. Yes, we all know this, but sometimes the obvious things are lost in the debate. Everyone in America can still request an absentee ballot. With their name on it. That comes to their actual house.

And also, the dog ate my ballot

Tennessee officials on Friday sought an appeal and an immediate pause to a court’s ruling this week that lets all 4. 1 million registered voters vote by mail during to the coronavirus pandemic, as the state made updates to its materials to reflect the expansion. The state attorney general’s office filed the request in Davidson County Chancery Court to appeal and stay that court’s temporary injunction that expanded absentee eligibility Thursday.

News

Court decides the 14th Amendment only applies after elections

In New Jersey, an Obama appointed judge rejected a Republican lawsuit that charged last minute mail-only changes to the state’s voting system would be a vote integrity mess. The judge used a legal maneuver we expect to see more of—no one has yet to “suffer an injury” and therefore the case is dismissible. He even parroted the DNC argument in his opinion that GOP concerns were “hypothetical.” Neither the state nor federal Constitutions seemed to matter.

Liberal state supreme court gives tacit approval to forgery

On Oct. 23, The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s (5:1 Democrat majority) ruled that local election officials cannot reject mail-in ballots because the voter’s signature on the ballot does not match the voter's signature on file. This is a boon for ballot harvesters, particularly those operating in senior residential facilities, as they no longer must worry about practicing stolen voter signatures before mailing stolen ballots.

Voters who want to vote in person forced to use Postal Service

The Republican governor of Missouri signed a law in June allowing people receiving mail-only ballots to return them in person, as some voters prefer dropping off ballots instead of standing in line during COVID. It required signature validation. A liberal group sued, and won at the appeals level. Now people who have thought since June that they could hand drop their votes are subject to the whims and inefficiencies of the US Postal Service.

Michigan Governor Whitmer is an executive-level vote fraud activist

With bipartisan support, two vote security measures recently passed the Michigan House and landed on Democrat Governor Whitmer’s desk. She then vetoed these bills - they would make it illegal to request more than one ballot, or to fill out someone else’s ballot without their knowledge. In addition to being a COVID crisis tyrant, she’s a vote fraud enabler. It’s just that simple; and disgraceful.

Postal workers at the center of too many discarded ballot stories

It’s all we can do to keep up with all the stories of eagle-eyed citizens finding discarded absentee ballots in trash cans, ditches, and postal worker garages. The latest, from Kentucky, documents over 100 ballots in a dumpster. These are the ballots that were found—what about the ones that are now in a landfill? Not only can your vote be stolen; it can be discarded. Vote in Person!

California voter rolls used for unsolicited ballots are a complete mess

Since liberal Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom unilaterally decreed that California would be an unsolicited mail ballot state, the state’s non-partisan watchdog, Election Integrity Project, has sent every notice possible short of carrier pigeon to the Governor and his Secretary of State sharing research that shows mail ballots will go to the moved, the deceased, those over 105 years old, with multiple ballots going to thousands of individuals. They tried again this week, and their findings are disturbing.