The Latest Way to Steal an Election

 

When winning is seen as the most important outcome, committing fraud is an inconvenience. I think that is the opinion of most people on both sides of the political spectrum. Since “ballot harvesting” gives us one more reason to distrust politicians and their supporters, and risk illegitimate election outcomes, we have to stop this absurd practice—now.

Given the mainstream media’s priority of attacking Republicans, much has been made of the mid-term election in North Carolina. One example of note alleged that Republican political operatives illegally collected and possibly stole absentee ballots in a still-undecided congressional race:

North Carolina absentee ballots require a ‘witness,’ or second signature, to verify the voter’s identity. In Republican-heavy Bladen County, the same people were signing as witnesses for numerous absentee ballots, a telltale sign that they were being ‘harvested.’

In fact, one TV station interviewed a harvester who claimed she was paid by Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., a local political operative, between $75 and $100 a week to pick up completed absentee ballots. Dowless has worked for numerous North Carolina politicians of both political parties.

Several other examples were cited in this article.

But we don’t want the Democrats to feel left out:

In Orange County, an estimated 250,000 harvested ballots were reportedly dropped off on Election Day alone. County Republican Chairman Fred Whitaker claimed the 2016 law ‘directly caused the switch from being ahead on election night to losing two weeks later.’

 No one would argue that Orange County has been becoming “bluer”; but the Los Angeles Times made this observation:

To reiterate: There’s absolutely no reason to suspect fraud in last month’s election — not through ‘ballot harvesting’ or in the large number of provisional ballots turned in or how long it took to count ballots, as Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has irresponsibly suggested. But the ballot collection law passed in 2106 does open the door to coercion and fraud and should be fixed or repealed before the next election.

Right. No reason to be suspicious at all.

Several other states have been struggling with this issue of ballot harvesting:

It’s a practice long used by special-interest groups and both major political parties that is viewed either as a voter service that boosts turnout or a nefarious activity that subjects voters to intimidation and makes elections vulnerable to fraud.

The groups rely on data showing which voters requested absentee ballots but have not turned them in. They then go door-to-door and offer to collect and turn in those ballots for the voters — often dozens or hundreds at a time. Some place ballot-collection boxes in high-concentration voter areas, such as college campuses, and take the ballots to election offices when the boxes are full.

Some states have restrictions on who can turn in the ballots (although it’s not clear whether those turning them in are asked for identification); Montana doesn’t allow third parties to turn them in. Arizona has passed a ban against ballot harvesting. Other states limit the number of ballots that can be turned in at one time. Yet there are stories of people delivering blank ballots to people, helping them complete them, signing the ballots for them and offering to deliver them or supply a stamp for mailing them. Only 16 states regulate the practice at all.

Ballot harvesting is an irresponsible practice on so many levels:

What law says that voting has to be convenient?

Why does fraud have to be proven before legislation is passed?

Why don’t we go back to voting at polling places on Election Day?

We should seriously consider not only declaring ballot harvesting illegal, but also discontinuing early voting and mail-in voting.

The potential and actual abuse of our electoral system is too great and will only become worse.

 

We don’t need one more way to steal an election, do we?

 

Published in Elections
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  1. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Susan,

    The Democrats are the most consistent promoters of every technique that massively increases the opportunity for voter fraud. So much so that you might assume that to them, voter fraud is just part of their campaign strategy.

    Shut it down ASAP.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #1
  2. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Susan,

    The Democrats are the most consistent promoters of every technique that massively increases the opportunity for voter fraud. So much so that you might assume that to them, voter fraud is just part of their campaign strategy.

    Shut it down ASAP.

    Regards,

    Jim

    True. But I was so disappointed to read a Republican who said they needed to figure out a way to keep up. I wasn’t convinced that he meant “legally” either– oh, here it is, from Montana:

    “I think the Democrats, they’re the ones that figured it out and were far more successful in ’18, in this election, than the Republicans ever were,” he said. “The Republicans, what I’m hearing right now early on is, holy cow, we need to learn how to do this as good or better than the Democrats at harvesting ballots. We have the data.”

    • #2
  3. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Susan,

    The Democrats are the most consistent promoters of every technique that massively increases the opportunity for voter fraud. So much so that you might assume that to them, voter fraud is just part of their campaign strategy.

    Shut it down ASAP.

    Regards,

    Jim

    True. But I was so disappointed to read a Republican who said they needed to figure out a way to keep up. I wasn’t convinced that he meant “legally” either– oh, here it is, from Montana:

    “I think the Democrats, they’re the ones that figured it out and were far more successful in ’18, in this election, than the Republicans ever were,” he said. “The Republicans, what I’m hearing right now early on is, holy cow, we need to learn how to do this as good or better than the Democrats at harvesting ballots. We have the data.”

    So the lesson learned, apparently, is:

    1. If it isn’t close they can’t cheat, so run up the score, AND
    2. If it is going to be close, winning is everything.
    • #3
  4. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    There’s a saying in the military; If an order can be misunderstood it already has been. I hate to be the cynic in the room, not really. The moment a system, or law hits the books it has been gamed.

    Ballot harvesting fraud is somewhat dependent upon polling before the election. There are public pollsters, party, and candidate pollsters. Ballot harvesting makes it possible for harvesters to not submit ballots that have been collected. Republicans may look like they’re going to win so their ballots won’t be submitted, or vice versa.

    • #4
  5. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Susan Quinn: Why don’t we go back to voting at polling places on Election Day?

    I voted early in a couple of elections.  It made me feel, well, unclean.  I now stand in line on election day.

    • #5
  6. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Susan Quinn: Why don’t we go back to voting at polling places on Election Day?

    I voted early in a couple of elections. It made me feel, well, unclean. I now stand in line of election day.

    I’ve done mail-in for years. After this election, @randywebster, after being a poll worker, I think I’ll do the same as you are. If I can.

    • #6
  7. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    So the lesson learned, apparently, is:

    1. If it isn’t close they can’t cheat, so run up the score, AND
    2. If it is going to be close, winning is everything.

    I was so hoping that someone would say I was overreacting! Sigh.

    • #7
  8. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    Ever since the 2000 debacle down in Florida and the “hanging chads,” I’ve thought we’re no better than a Banana Republic when it comes to elections. It makes me sick, but there is really nothing to be done until both political parties decide to clean it up. 

    • #8
  9. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Ballots that are not issued and filled out at a physical location are ripe for fraud.  Ballots handled by third parties (other than post office and election officials) are ripe for fraud.  Registration procedures in which no meaningful ID is required are ripe for fraud.  If a lot of Democratic incumbents are nearly beaten in primaries by candidates more brazen than they about making use of these kinds of ‘opportunities’ there could be reform.  As long as Democrats perceive a major benefit from these opportunities, reform is impossible.

    More than a quarter of the ballots in Orange County were in opportunistic formats.  No forecaster or analyst saw that wave, possibly because it was unrelated to the actions and preferences of actual voters.

    Milwaukee is an electoral sewer but at least they make an effort to conceal the fraud.  Numerous precincts in Detroit and Philadelphia don’t even pretend.  But that kind of cheating is in registration and old-fashioned ballot-box stuffing.  Sending out a million ballots in one county so that trained retrievers can extract votes from the lazy, indifferent or deceased…. That’s innovative and much tougher to challenge.  

    The GOP needs to spend money on a Project Veritas-style effort on a very large scale to be able to challenge and jail creative voter assistance programs.  At a minimum, checking registration rolls needs to be ongoing.

     

    • #9
  10. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Goldwaterwoman (View Comment):

    Ever since the 2000 debacle down in Florida and the “hanging chads,” I’ve thought we’re no better than a Banana Republic when it comes to elections. It makes me sick, but there is really nothing to be done until both political parties decide to clean it up.

    And since both parties want to maximize their gaming the system, I see little hope for positive change. “If they can do it, we can do it better,” is the message, and so it goes. Thanks for chiming in GWW!

    • #10
  11. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    The GOP needs to spend money on a Project Veritas-style effort on a very large scale to be able to challenge and jail creative voter assistance programs. At a minimum, checking registration rolls needs to be ongoing.

    Thanks for your comments, @oldbathos. I like the idea of taking sneaky videos. The only problem is: who will broadcast them. Sorry if I sound so cynical.

    • #11
  12. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    More than a quarter of the ballots in Orange County were in opportunistic formats. No forecaster or analyst saw that wave, possibly because it was unrelated to the actions and preferences of actual voters.

    OldB,

    If we weren’t living with a national media that neither has brain nor spine this would have been a huge scandal. The idiots got the result that supported their infantile Marxist identity politics agenda so that was that.

    Just amazing that some of us keep posturing about their principles and then accept the lame explanation that it was Trump’s fault. The history of the Democratic Party is entwined with election fraud. Playing the Trump’s fault card over and over again just emboldened the thieves to make the big heist.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #12
  13. Goldwaterwoman Thatcher
    Goldwaterwoman
    @goldwaterwoman

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):
    Thanks for your comments, @oldbathos. I like the idea of taking sneaky videos. The only problem is: who will broadcast them. Sorry if I sound so cynical.

    My thoughts exactly. Right now the media is all in on proclaiming that there is little or no voter fraud in this country. Without their help in reporting the reality of the situation, it will be impossible to accomplish changing the status quo.

    • #13
  14. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    I saw an article today that said a former election official in Broward County (FL) is demanding that Snipes, who first quit, then was fired by Rick Scott, and then took back her quitting, should be re-instated because the firing was malicious and unfair. Right.

    • #14
  15. Dbroussa Coolidge
    Dbroussa
    @Dbroussa

    This drive to make voting easier and easier also makes it easier to cheat…under many circumstances.  Oregon does all voting by mail, and uses a lot of technology to validate signatures to match whats on file.  Most locations don’t do that however…or its manual and allows the voter to “correct” their signature after the election and after their ballot has been cast.  In some cases, this makes sense…but not all cases should allow this.

    As an election Judge, I think we should vote in three ways.  On election day, early voting at vote centers (same as on election day), and absentee for limited voters (out of county on election day, and elderly/handicapped).  If that last number is starting to approach the margin in most elections, then there are too many voting that way (say 1% cast in that manner).  

    • #15
  16. Josh F. Member
    Josh F.
    @

    Dbroussa (View Comment):
    Oregon does all voting by mail, and uses a lot of technology to validate signatures to match whats on file

    Are there examples in Oregon of cheating the all-mail system?

    • #16
  17. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Josh F. (View Comment):

    Dbroussa (View Comment):
    Oregon does all voting by mail, and uses a lot of technology to validate signatures to match whats on file

    Are there examples in Oregon of cheating the all-mail system?

    I doubt it. The Dems don’t like messy elections.

    • #17
  18. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    Fine and timely post Susan.

    A serious problem that threatens to be an epidemic every other  November. 

    I too have long been for eliminating mail in and other ballots not filled out at a polling place. 

    • #18
  19. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Unsk (View Comment):

    Fine and timely post Susan.

    A serious problem that threatens to be an epidemic every other November.

    I too have long been for eliminating mail in and other ballots not filled out at a polling place.

    Thanks, Unsk. Yep, we have to work with what we’ve got. So sad.

    • #19
  20. Saxonburg Member
    Saxonburg
    @Saxonburg

    Don’t most states have laws against political canvassing within X feet of a polling place?  It sounds like a vote harvester/witness is likely to  violate the tenet of that law.  Does anyone really believe that somebody pushing and collecting absentee ballots is not also providing opinions to the voter at the time of their voting?

    • #20
  21. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Saxonburg (View Comment):

    Don’t most states have laws against political canvassing within X feet of a polling place? It sounds like a vote harvester/witness is likely to violate the tenet of that law. Does anyone really believe that somebody pushing and collecting absentee ballots is not also providing opinions to the voter at the time of their voting?

    They generally collect the ballots at people’s homes, so there is no violation of the law. They can say whatever they would like to people when they confiscate pick up their ballots.

    • #21
  22. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Saxonburg (View Comment):

    Don’t most states have laws against political canvassing within X feet of a polling place? It sounds like a vote harvester/witness is likely to violate the tenet of that law. Does anyone really believe that somebody pushing and collecting absentee ballots is not also providing opinions to the voter at the time of their voting?

    Saxonburg,

    Of course, connect this to the Democratic Party’s love for illiterate, non-English speaking, and now possibly illegal voters and one has the formula for massive voter fraud. The whole principle of guaranteeing a “secret ballot” is thrown out the window so that the most corrupt organization can send their modern ward healers/vote harvesters to beat the votes out of the underbrush.

    Just fabulous.

    Regard,

    Jim

    • #22
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