A few FACTS about vote fraud … and mailed ballots.

Vote fraud IS a problem in EVERY election.  It has resulted in overturned elections.  So, why can those who commit it and defend it claim it does not?

Before answering that question, let me explain that I have – on many occasions – investigated and fought against vote fraud.  Project LEAP (Legal Elections in All Precincts) was one of my clients.  They were organized solely for the purpose of combating massive vote fraud.  I worked with the League of Women Voters, which had an ongoing anti-vote fraud operation.  I headed the City Club of Chicago, which had a standing committee devoted to fighting vote fraud. In many elections over many years, I worked with the Republican Party and independent voter groups in prosecuting vote fraud in virtually every one of those elections.

In my own campaign for the Republican nomination for mayor, 42 percent of the ballots cast in the mayoral primary were mysteriously and illegally not counted.  How that happened is too long of an explanation for this commentary, but the skullduggery was confirmed to me by none other than the top aide to Democrat Mayor Richard M. Daley – who would have been my opponent in the General Election.

With that resume in mind, let us look at the facts and the realities of vote fraud.

Vote fraud is a localized problem

First of all, large scale vote fraud – that sort that can change election outcomes – is a very localized problem.  It is understandable that most Americans believe that vote-stealing is not a significant problem.  That is because it is not happening to any significant degree in their communities.

Vote fraud is most prevalent in America’s major cities where powerful political machines maintain one-party rule.  That means in Democrat-controlled cities.  That observation is not founded in political partisanship, but a matter of historical fact – just as systemic racism is most prevalent in Democrat-controlled cities.

In some ways, the two facts are related.  Most voter fraud to be found in our major urban centers is disproportionately found in the impoverished segregated minority communities that are devoid of any opposition party representation.  This means that all the polling place observers are machine Democrats – often even filling the Republican observers’ positions.  In other words, there are only Democrat operatives on the scene in many precincts.

Because these inner-city precincts are the lowest economic areas in the typical city, there is more opportunity for bribery and other means of financing illegal operations.  The more impoverished the area – White, Black, or Hispanic — the greater the vote fraud.

That fact has resulted in federal marshals being deployed to oversee voting in the most fraud-prone precincts.  Though you would not know it from the reports in the press, President Trump’s hint at using federal marshals to protect voting integrity is neither unprecedented nor unwarranted.

So, what about the left’s claim that voter fraud is virtually nonexistent?  On what basis do they make that claim?

There are several reasons why they can make that claim.  We mentioned the first in that vote fraud is not pandemic across the nation, but very localized.  That means that most citizens would find the left-leaning Democrats and news industry to be credible.

Finding the culprits

The second reason is that with most types of vote fraud, you can see the evidence but not who did it.  Without that, there is no person to prosecute.  By way of one example: In some precincts, we found that more people cast ballots than there were requests for ballots.  Obvious vote fraud.  But impossible to find who “stuffed that ballot box” as the expression goes – and no legal means to correct the overcount even if you wanted to do so.

Another polling cites fraud is the casting of illegal votes.  This comes in a variety of methods.  The most famous – or infamous – is the “cemetery vote” in which someone casts the votes of the dearly departed.  This is a primary reason why there is so much resistance to purging unqualifies voters from the rolls.  The dead vote can come in at the polling place or via absentee balloting – which we will expand upon below.

These fraudulent ballots can be cast in the name of other illegible voters – primarily those who have moved out of the area or even the state.  A review of the record shows thousands of instances where a person has double voted in two states – sometimes without their knowledge or even, to a lesser degree, by their own hand.

Fraudulent double voting even happens in different precincts in the same ward or city as a usually paid person travels around on election day – or more easily with early voting.  This well-established practice has led to jokes about “voting early and often.”

In most of these cases, it is very difficult to identify the culprits.  In some cases it is impossible and in other cases, it would take the accusations and testimony of witnesses or cohorts – all of which are operatives of the political machine.  Such testimony is virtually impossible to obtain.

Lack of prosecution

The reason vote fraud can prevail and yet the left can claim that it does not is the same.  Lack of prosecutions.  You are less likely to be charged or convicted of vote fraud than you are of getting ticketed by driving five miles over the speed limit.  Those committing vote fraud are well aware that the long arm of the law is not long enough to reach them.

As mentioned above, it is sometimes impossible to identify the perpetrators.  But even where they can be found, prosecuting them is almost as impossible.  Again, it has to do with the political reality of the community – one party rule.

Having been involved in the investigation of specific and provable examples of vote fraud, I can attest to the fact that political machine prosecutors – who were appointed by the Party leadership and who have political ambitions of their own – will simply use prosecutorial discretion to NOT file charges – either on the flimsiest of excuses or no excuse at all.

If there is prosecution in rare cases, the defendants will appear before a machine-appointed judge and the cases will be routinely dismissed.

Early voting

It is axiomatic that the more opportunity there is for vote stealing, the more there will be.  Most of the so-call reforms – most often pushed by Democrats – expose the ballots to manipulation.

Early voting has become very popular, BUT it does increase the opportunities for illegally manipulating the vote.  That is because the ballots are available for tampering for a longer period of time – and without the ability for impartial or bipartisan observation.  They are collected and stored in facilities in which the local authorities have total and unique control.  There are limited and ineffective procedures for oversight by all stakeholders.

Early ballots are generally stored for days – or even weeks — in the offices and facilities controlled by partisan election supervisors.  In the dead of the night, ballots can get “lost” or more ballots added.   Because early-cast ballots, themselves, do not carry the name of the voter, new ballots can be added without any evidentiary trace.  Blank ballots – which are readily available – can be marked and filed.

The examples above relate to ballots cast in the polling place – either on Election Day or via early voting.  Off campus voting – otherwise known as absentee or vote-by-mail voting present a whole new breach in ballot security.

Absentee ballots

One of the historic weak spots in ballot security has been the abuse of absentee ballots.  That is why the procedure was strictly limited.  It was a case of accepting greater risk – and exposure to vote fraud – for the greater good of allowing folks to vote who could not get to the polling place on Election Day – especially members of the military.

When we get to the current concept of voting by mail, it is important to understand that absentee balloting and vote-by-mail are NOT at all the same thing.

With traditional absentee balloting the voter had to make a specific request for a ballot – and, most importantly, had to have a legitimate excuse for not being able to cast his or her ballot at the polling place.  To request an unnecessary absentee ballot was a criminal offense.

Absentee ballots travel outside the protective route.  They could be harvested by political operatives, marked and returned without the knowledge of the person listed on the voting rolls.  They were often filled out on behalf of dead people, seniors suffering from mental disability and by false representation by political operatives.

The abuse was most often found in nursing homes where the political operative could “manage” a significant number of votes using what is known as “harvesting” – a practice that was illegal until a number of Democrat state legislatures actually legalized the abusive practice.  It was often said in jest that a lot of lifelong Republican voters became Democrats when they entered a nursing home.

Vote-By-Mail

Democrat leaders and their media cohorts repeatedly claim that absentee voting and vote-by-mail are “exactly the same.”  That is a lie.  They are significantly different.

The current concept of vote-by-mail being advanced by Democrat governors calls for a “live” ballot to be mailed to every registered voter in the state.  Based on voter turnout figures, that would mean the millions of people who have never shown an interest in voting would be sent a usable ballot.

While recipients do not have to use the ballot, political operatives can and do try to collect as many as possible.  That is not difficult in view of the individual’s apparent disinterest in participating in the election.  If you can imagine a precinct worker going door-to-door asking for ballots from those they know never actually vote – according to the precinct record – you can understand the problem.

In addition … according to Pew Research, a liberal organization, there are millions of people on the national voting rolls that are not qualified to vote – the dead, the moved, non-citizens, etc.  They will be receiving ballots.  Individuals who are improperly registered in two states – or two addresses in a single state – would be getting two ballots.

It is beyond refute that were we to have nation-wide voting by mail – in which ballots were sent to every registered voter – there would be literally millions upon millions of ballots floating around the country that represent a bumper crop for abusive and illegal harvesting.

Imagine a situation in which grandma and grandpa are deceased but getting their ballots in the mail.  Any other member of the family could fill out and mail in their ballots.  They could even put them in the same return envelope with only their signature to be recorded.  Under current regulations, the person opening that envelope would not have the authority – or perhaps the desire – to discard one or both ballots even though one of them would obviously be illegal.

Preposterous?  In this most recent primary in Los Angeles County, a man was arrested for casting ballots for himself and his dead mother.  You can bet that there were many others who escaped arrest.

Vote Harvesting

One of the problems with mailed-in ballots is that they are not always mailed in.  As noted in the above examples, they are harvested by political operatives.

Creating opportunities for vote fraud

Democrat policies and proposals have opened new and unique opportunities for vote fraud.  The major opportunity is to actually allow non-citizens – included illegal aliens – to vote for local candidates in local elections – such as school board elections.  Though they are not allowed to vote in federal elections, the federal candidates and state or local candidates appear on the same ballot.  The practice can also provide illegal voters with voter identification cards and recognition at the polling places.

The second practice that impacts on voting is the issuance to illegal aliens of identification cards – such as drivers licenses – which are commonly accepted for voter registration and voting purposes.

Summary

Honest voting in America faces significant challenges largely because it is a crime that is so difficult – impossible in many cases – to identify the perpetrators.  And there is little effort to even try.  Furthermore, political machine prosecutors and judges refuse to apply the law when people are caught or accused – other than an occasional case we read about.

Those who claim that election fraud does not exist usually cite the conviction rate.  That is pure folly.  That is akin to determining how many people drive in excess of the speed limit by counting the number of those found guilty in court.  The convictions are minuscule compared to the day-to-day violations.  Same with vote fraud.

This has led to a VERY false narrative that voter fraud does not exist – proffered by the very people who commit it or gain from it.

So, there ‘tis.