Democrats are fully aware that they have almost no path to victory to take back the White House in 2020, so they’re using the COVID-19 crisis to relentlessly push for a scheme to allow them to cheat their way in — by universal nationwide mail-in voting.
But government response to the same crisis illustrates the unworkability of vote-by-mail.
When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., appeared on MSNBC late last month, she claimed mail-in voting was necessary to protect the "life of our democracy," adding, "we will be supporting vote-by-mail in a very important way — we think it’s a health issue at this point."
Vote-by-mail remains as one of the sticking points resulting in an escalating war-of-words between congressional Democrats on one side and the White House and congressional Republicans on the other.
Pelosi argues that because of the pandemic, it would be unsafe to vote in person, so the only viable alternative is to vote remotely from one’s home — either by mail or online.
But the same COVID-19 crisis that forms the basis for her argument also offers proof as to why it’s unworkable: It’s impossible to verify that the person whose name is on the ballot is the same person casting the vote.
That became clear last month when checks were mailed to taxpayers in compliance with the first coronavirus relief package. But it turned out that a significant number of those checks were addressed to people who were deceased.
That has in turn prompted a legal brouhaha in which President Trump, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and the IRS are asking for the funds back, while the survivors of the deceased taxpayers claim it’s theirs.
If ballots are mailed out to voters for the Nov. 3 election, not only would a significant number of them go to deceased voters, but there would be those delivered to the former addresses of voters who had moved.
Currently five states exclusively conduct their elections by mail-in ballots.
They are Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington State. Other states either permit vote-by-mail or make provisions for submitting absentee ballots, and the results of using this method are alarming.
The federal Election Assistance Commission revealed last month that in the last four elections — from 2012 to 2018 — 28.3 million mail-in ballots were unaccounted for.
No one knows where they are. That number accounts for nearly 20% of the mailed ballots.
Those are the ones that were lost. Equally alarming are the ballots that are found.
In Minnesota’s 2008 U.S. Senate election, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that Democratic challenger Al Franken was victorious over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, in part, on votes that were allegedly "found" at the last moment.
Most recently, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said a number of the 2018 congressional election results in California were "bizarre."
The Golden State provides for mail-in voting as well as vote harvesting.
"California just defies logic to me," Ryan said. "We were only down 26 seats the night of the election, and three weeks later, we lost basically every California contested race. This election system they have — I can’t begin to understand what 'ballot harvesting' is."
Vote harvesting is the practice of allowing volunteers to collect completed ballots in person and turn them in to election offices.
One of the "bizarre" election results was in California’s 39th congressional district. There, it was predicted that GOP candidate Young Kim would become the first Korean American woman on Capitol Hill.
The day after the election she had a substantial lead over her Democratic opponent.
But in the weeks that followed ballots continued to trickle in. Ultimately, she narrowly lost.
There were five other California congressional races with similar results.
Finally, Bloomberg’s Ryan Beckwith predicted that if a vote-by-mail scheme were to be used nationwide in 2020, recounts and delays would trigger something akin to the Florida 2000 presidential election — only on a national scale.
Delays in publishing results, counting issues, and an inability to check signatures on ballots against those on registration forms would create a crisis in confidence in our elections.
No one — Republican or Democrat — would trust election results again under such a scheme.
But it’s the only path Democrats have to victory in November.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to BizPac Review and Liberty Unyielding. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter, who can often be found honing his skills at the range. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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