Vote-by-mail Would Create Chaos and Distrust in November

From Tom Fitton’s op-ed  for The Hill:

Mandated mail-in voting and other extreme changes to the 2020 election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic could further undermine public confidence in the American electoral system.

Many states, most notably California, are pushing mass mail-in balloting. This move is driven by inflammatory rhetoric from largely left-leaning politicians and activists suggesting that voting in person is so dangerous that people will die from exercising the franchise. This irresponsible rhetoric is likely to be gravely suppressive of the right to vote, as it could scare many citizens from voting in person.

Mail-in voting is a proven and significant threat to election integrity. In 2005, the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission noted that mail-in ballots “remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.” The commission highlighted the risks of blank ballots mailed to wrong addresses, as well as voter intimidation outside controlled polling places and vote-buying schemes.

One of the main reasons the Carter-Baker Commission identified absentee ballot fraud as “the largest source of potential voter fraud” is simple: It poses fewer risks for a person filling out and mailing a fraudulent ballot. By contrast, a person attempting “impersonation” fraud at a polling site must at least appear to cast the vote and, in consequence, may be found out and detained.

Mass mailing ballots to voters depends on voter registration rolls that are notoriously error-ridden. A Pew Research Center report issued during the Obama administration years noted that “24 million — one of every eight — active voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate,” and more than “1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as active voters.” Judicial Watch has found voter list maintenance issues in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and California, numbering into the millions of voters.

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