Dakota Beacon

With the 2020 elections upon us, many have heard the pros and cons of voting by mail. To clarify, absentee voting requires the citizen to proactively request a ballot and identify themselves to the satisfaction of the state. Universal mail-in voting, on the other hand, authorizes a state to dispense ballots to people carte blanche, no questions asked.

During the 2012 presidential election Mitt Romney challenged Barack Obama, and the Democrats opposed mail-in voting. A revealing New York Times article titled “As More Vote by Mail, Faulty Ballots Could Impact Elections” [10/6/12] exposed the risks of mail-in voting. The article is still available online. Democrat leaders were against mail-in voting before they were for it.

That was then; this is now. Their position changed radically for the 2020 election. Generally, the narrative now pushed by the Democrat-leaning mainstream news outlets are reflected by the following excerpts.

“Historically, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud through mail-in voting. But some social media users have pushed grandiose theories casting doubt on the method.” – AP, 6/8/20

“[B]allot fraud is extremely rare.” – The Washington Post, 5/28/20

“Mail ballot fraud is exceedingly rare in part because states have systems and processes in place to prevent forgery, theft, and voter fraud.” – CNN, 5/27/20. The CNN source for this statement is the Brennan Center for Justice, a recipient of funds from George Soros’ Open Society.

Contrary to the media narrative, a factually quite different story unfolds. A mail-in ballot fiasco typically occurs more often than thought.

“Eight states, as well as the District of Columbia, have total voter registration tallies exceeding 100 percent, and in total, 38 states have counties where voter registration rates exceed 100 percent…America’s voter rolls are a mess -- and everyone knows it.” – Real Clear Investigations, 7/11/19

“About 100,000 mail-in ballots were returned as ‘undeliverable’ in Rhode Island’s [6/2/20] primary election, according to state records.” – Breitbart, 6/10/20

“During early voting for a municipal election [May 2020] in Paterson, NJ, mail-in ballots were allegedly stacked outside of apartment buildings rather than put in individual mailboxes, and a post office in neighboring Haledon found 300 Paterson ballots bundled in a mailbox there. When the county wrapped up checking the mail-in ballots to make sure they complied with the rules, 3,190 ballots, or 19 percent of the mail-in vote, were disqualified.” – Real Clear Investigations, 6/7/20

“Yes, we do have a problem with the Baltimore City elections. Namely, voter disenfranchisement through gross administrative incompetence and citywide irregularities.” Peter Franchot, Maryland Comptroller, after hundreds of missing mail-in ballots and printing errors resulted in chaos. -- Twitter, 6/3/20

“A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that in the 2008 Presidential election, 7.6 million of 35.5 million mail-in ballots requested were not counted because they never reached voters or were rejected for irregularities. That is a failure rate of more than 21 percent… [I]magine the impact that would have in a close election in which mail-in voting is tried on a massive scale.” – Marc Thiessen, the Washington Post, 5/28/20

“From Friday to Monday, I could have voted 20 times.” – Unnamed resident, Las Vegas apartment complex, quoted at Fox News, 5/22/20. Dozens of mail-in ballots delivered to neighborhood residents who had died or moved away were pinned to community bulletin boards.

At the risk of sounding cynical, do Democrat leaders have ulterior motives behind the mail-in ballot madness? Is the coronavirus just an excuse for pushing vote-by-mail? Certainly they are not trying to influence the 2020 election the way the Russians purportedly did in 2016, are they? But, you never know. Ponder this.

“Democrats are suing to allow third-party collection in a number of states, including battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina.” –NPR, 6/4/20

“In North Carolina…Democratic legal groups filed a lawsuit arguing that the state should provide prepaid postage for all ballots, eliminate the requirement for two witnesses to sign a mail-in ballot, extend the deadline for when a mail ballot must be received, and allow for voters to fix any signature discrepancies before the state can reject a ballot…In Florida, Democratic organizations filed a lawsuit seeking to suspend ballot-return deadlines and laws limiting who is allowed to collect vote-by-mail ballots and deliver them to local election offices. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, all of which will be critical in deciding the race between…Trump and…Biden. – NBC News, 5/30/20

It would seem that, if leftists can riot en masse in multiple cities and everyone can congregate at grocery stores, then voters can cast ballots in person. The big push by Democrat leaders to vote-by-mail appears ill-founded and a little suspicious.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).