
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This commentary is NOT a brief on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. ; Rather, it is a more generic look at election fraud and rigging as a reality – apart from the political spin.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Since the 2020 election, there have been two nagging issues. Was the election stolen from President Trump? ; And does election fraud even exist?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Those questions form the parameters of the debate. On one side is Trump and his Republican supporters claiming that the 2020 election was stolen – or as he says, was “rigged.” ; Conversely, Biden and his people say that not only did he win fair and square, but that the entire notion of election fraud is a political myth.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whether true or not, Trump’s claim has been weakened by the inability to reverse election outcomes anywhere. ; And God knows they tried – more than sixty times and counting. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">I have never offered my opinion on Trump’s claim to be the true winner in 2020. ; Largely because I think it is a futile debate and mostly a distraction. ; One cannot refute the case that Joe Biden is the legitimate President of the United States – even if you believe that he was not “duly elected.” ; They are two different things.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That is because the constitutional responsibility to elect the American President is not based directly on the popular vote, but on the vote of the electors in the Electoral College. ; Once they vote and the Congress certifies, it is game over. ; America has a legitimate constitutional President, like it or not.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That does not mean the issue of election fraud should be ignored or disregarded. ; The popular vote has everything to do with how an elector gets elected. ; Any evidence of vote fraud must be investigated. ; Any vulnerabilities to fraud in the systems and procedures must be addressed. ; Protecting the integrity of our elections is an essential part of the “eternal vigilance” our Founders admonished us to maintain. ; This is especially true because most election fraud operates beyond the reach of the law.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>How to cheat in an election</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">There are two means by which an election can be “stolen.” ; The first is outright fraud – stuffing the ballot box, as it was once called &#8230; intentional miscounts &#8230; destroying ballots &#8230; and many other schemes.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The second way is to rig the rules to make fraud more likely by creating weak points in the election chain – or even by changing election laws or procedures that incorporate bias.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One of the problems with vote fraud is that it is virtually impossible to catch the culprits – even more difficult to bring them to justice. When you discover more votes than voters in a precinct, it is virtually impossible to not only know who did it – but there are no means to correct it. ; How do you know which votes to eliminate? ; Consequently, the fraudulent votes are counted.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Also, there are legal and quasi-legal ways to rig election outcomes. ; One of the most obvious is the age-old practice of redistricting &#8212; gerrymandering. ; This has been a standard political method of operation since the founding of the Republic. ; It is used by both parties. ; The power to redistrict the map is one of the spoils of victory. ; Even the Constitutional requirements to draw “compact and concise” districts have not prevented legalized gerrymandering.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Another manner to improperly influence election outcomes is by suppressing the vote through oppression and violence as was the case for 100 years under one-party Democratic rule in Dixie. ; Ponder that. ; For more than a century there was not a legal constitutional election held in any of the solid Democrat states of the old Confederacy – despite U.S. constitutional amendments, a myriad of federal laws and a host of court orders. ; ; That was election rigging on the grandest scale in American history – found only in such places as Russia, China or North Korea.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We saw another way of potentially rigging the system in Pennsylvania, where thousands of ballots arrived beyond the deadline &#8212; and which were to go uncounted according to the state constitution. ; Yet, the legislature and state supreme court allowed them to be counted. ; That is viewed as a legal count, but was such a waiver really legal?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Evidence of vote fraud</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Whether it was sufficient to have overturned the official 2020 election results – and contrary to the Pollyanna statements of those on the left &#8212; there was clear evidence of some level of election fraud in almost every state.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In advance of the 2020 election, Judicial Watch undertook an investigation and found that there were 353 counties in 29 states that had a total of more than 1.8 million more voters than the number of eligible voters in those counties. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Part of the problem is that local authorities do not “clean” or update the voting rolls. ; The names of the ineligible can then be used by fake voters. ; One can only wonder why Democrats are so opposed to purging ineligible names from the voter rolls. ; Yes, that is an issue of constant partisan contention.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is why we learn about people “voting” who have moved away or are dead. ; In my hometown of Chicago, the “cemetery vote” was a regular occurrence. ; In fact, when Mayor Richard J. Daley passed away, a local news commentator jokingly said,” Well, at least he will not lose his voting right.”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Are there vulnerability points in the current election procedures?</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The simple answer is, “yes.” ; There is no human system totally immune to clever and determined cheaters. ; As a person who has spent a fair amount of my professional career investigating and combating vote fraud, I see mischief – opportunities to cheat &#8212; ; in the current systems. ; And they could be – and should be &#8212; ; ; closed.</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Early voting</strong>. For all its advantages and popularity, early voting exposes the chain-of-custody of ballots to weak points. If nothing else, it offers a lot of time for the ballots to be handled or mishandled during an extended period of ineffective supervision. Since it would be virtually impossible to totally eliminate early voting, I would limit it to ten days before election day – encompassing two weekends. That should accommodate the vast majority of voters.</li>



<li><strong>Mail-In-voting</strong>. That is not a new concept. It has been the procedure for election day travelers and our overseas military personnel. Historically, it was only available to a small number of individuals who could not vote on Election Day. They had to have legitimate and verifiable excuses – which could be challenged. Early voting actually reduces the need for mail-in balloting. Mail-in voting makes verification of the voter much more difficult – often impossible. It makes it much easier for political operatives to send in ballots in the names of ineligible voters – without leaving a trace of evidence.</li>



<li><strong>Unprotected drop boxes</strong>. This is another weak point in the chain of custody. It is the safest means to harvest and dump illegal ballots. It also opens some potential for stealing or destroying ballots.</li>



<li><strong>Vote harvesting</strong>. Harvesting was once against the law because there could be no verification that the harvested ballots were properly cast by eligible individuals. There is a reason why harvesting is particularly popular with the powerful political machines – and it is not a good one.</li>



<li><strong>Online access to voting machines</strong>. While there have not yet been any proven examples of individual voting machines being hacked. But that potential exists as long as they are connected – or can be connected – to the Internet. Many voting machines have ports that enable them to be connected. There is no good reason for such ports. Individual voting machines should not have any capability to be connected to the Internet. And that is true for central tabulating computers.</li>



<li><strong>Same day registration</strong>. There is no reason to provide same day registration. Such registrations cannot be vetted or be challenged effectively.</li>
</ol>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And there are many other opportunities for vote fraud, but to cover and explain them all would take a book.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Voter ID</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It is reasonable – and perhaps essential – to suspect the motives of those individuals who oppose the requirement of an official photo identification card as a prerequisite for voting. Photo ID cards are used to assure the authenticity and legitimacy of a person on innumerable occasions. ; We show them how to get into certain (especially government) buildings &#8230; to make financial transactions &#8230; to get on airplanes &#8230; to get a blood test &#8230; etc., etc., etc. ; The most critical and fundamental security measure associated with voting is to ascertain the eligibility of the person at the time they cast their ballot.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>Summary</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We can all agree that encouraging maximum participation is a good thing. ; But it must not be founded on the false premise that easier access to the ballot produces a more honest outcome. ; Trading away security for access is foolish and detrimental to electoral integrity.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In the name of providing easier access to voting, many reform measures provide more opportunities for cheating in a number of ways. ; And if there is a possibility of cheating, there will be cheaters. ; It is critical to PREVENT vote fraud because prosecuting it after the fact is virtually impossible.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That is why it is critical to have bipartisan and nonpartisan stakeholders as poll watchers when ballots are being cast – and when they are being counted. ; There must be an effective means to challenge names on voting lists and voters casting ballots.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A safe voting system needs to minimize the time and distance between the casting of the ballot by a verified eligible voter and the ballot’s inclusion in the final official count.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The debate over the outcome of the 2020 election is one for the history books – and even then, it will be seen only as a controversy – never to be definitively resolved. ; On the other hand, I do believe that the more objective hindsight of history will rebut the claim that election fraud does not exist &#8212; and did exist in 2020. ; It is a feature of EVERY election to some extent. ; The best we can hope for is to minimize it through “eternal vigilance” and a secure chain-of-custody of the ballots.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, there ‘tis.</p>

The nagging question of election fraud
