<p>It appears that the die is cast for one of the most chaotic elections in American history – perhaps surpassed only by the 1860 election of President Abraham Lincoln.</p>
<p>The most obvious reason is that Trump and Biden already have their talking points in the can. Whichever side wins, the other Is queuing up to cry foul – especially is the race is close. If President Trump loses, Republicans will argue that the election had been stolen. If Biden loses, Democrats will claim Russian interference and voter suppression. The truth will not stand in the way of the narratives.</p>
<p>As we head closer to the start of the 2020 presidential election – and, with early voting, only a little more than a month away for many voters – let us unpack some of the narratives flowing around the media-sphere.</p>
<p><strong>Absentee voting and mail-in voting are the same thing</strong></p>
<p>One claim that has surfaced among Democrats and the left-wing media is that absentee voting and Vote-by-mail are exactly the same thing. They are not. Absentee voting was allowed ONLY if you had a legitimate claim that you could not possibly come to the polling place on Election Day. In fact, it was a crime to use an absentee ballot if you were healthy, able-bodied and in town on Election Day. It was most widely used by the men and women in the armed forces and those with incapacities or disabilities.</p>
<p>Absentee voting was kept to a minimum because of the potential and the history of vote fraud. In that instance, the greater good of expanding the vote was measured against the exposure to increased fraud. The area of least exposure to fraud was the military ballots because they moved through the process beyond the reach of corrupt political operatives. The greatest danger was in such places as nursing homes where corrupt political operatives would control the distribution and collection of ballots. In many cases, such ward heelers would actually mark ballots without the knowledge or permission of the intended voter.</p>
<p><strong>Harvesting ballots</strong></p>
<p>The collection of many ballots by political operatives – known as “harvesting” – has long been considered a corrupt practice and historically outlawed because of the ease with which such ballots can be fraudulently cast. Democrat administrations in several states have legalized the practice. I mention the political party because Democrats&#8217; political machines have historically been characterized by chronic vote fraud for many years. Democrats also always favor loosening voting procedures that increase the potential of voter fraud – including early voting, same-day registration, provisionally cast ballots, issuing photo IDs that enable illegal aliens to vote and resisting the removal of ineligible, illegal and deceased voters from the voting rolls.</p>
<p>Among the most egregious practices is vote harvesting. A large number of ballots can be requested, cast and counted without any assurance that the person associated with the vote knew they voted or were even alive.</p>
<p><strong>Early voting</strong></p>
<p>The more modern practice of early voting has its own set of problems and weakness in terms of vote frauds – most notably that the ballots are stored for a long time without adequate supervision by all stakeholders – but ironically early voting can eliminate the need for the vast majority of absentee or mail-in ballots. You do not have to be in town on election day. This would leave absentee voting to most of the military and those incapable of traveling in public. Even in the face of Covid-19, early voting can spread the vote over many days – thus eliminating the long lines with voters standing near each other.</p>
<p><strong>Don’t vote mail</strong></p>
<p>Vote-by-Mail is a very controversial proposal, to say the least. Democrats push the idea based on their claim that it can increase voter participation. It can. But it also can increase fraudulent voting and election irregularities.</p>
<p>Democrats claim that they support Vote-by-Mail even though history suggests that absentee ballots favor Republicans. Since that is GENERALLY true, you can bet that Democrats have some other reason to propose Vote-by-Mail. I say it is “generally” true because that applies to places where there is a history and tradition of legal voting. However, in the case of the big city Democrat political machines – where stealing votes is a common practice – absentee voting favors Democrats because of the large number improperly cast by grassroots political operatives.</p>
<p>The second major problem with Vote-by-Mail is the process itself. The post office loses between 3 to 5 percent of the mail. In these days of close elections, that could result in the election of the candidate with the fewest actual votes.</p>
<p>In addition, the Post Office does not postmark pre-stamped envelopes – and even some stamped envelopes – so it is impossible to determine if a vote was mailed before the deadline. That can lead to protracted court cases.</p>
<p>The greater the number of mailed ballots, the long the count. It could be weeks and even many months before election outcomes are determined and certified.</p>
<p>These are not theoretical problems. Recent elections in New York are still undecided weeks after the voters cast their final ballots. Those ballots with a lack of a postmark are being challenged in court. If one state has fallen into chaos and uncertainty over the legitimacy of the process because of the large number of mailed ballots, image the chaos on the national scale – with both sides whipping the public into a partisan political frenzy.</p>
<p><strong>Recommendation</strong></p>
<p>There is something every voting American can do. Do not succumb to the enticement of making it easy to vote at the cost of security and accuracy of the count. Do not be a lazy voter. We can each do our part. DO NOT VOTE BY MAIL unless you absolutely must.</p>
<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>