Opinion

ERICKSEN: Let’s Get Serious About Voter Fraud — It’s A Problem

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It is time for an honest discussion of elections, vote by mail and voter fraud in the United States.

First and foremost, the majority of American citizens will cast their vote legally in person or via mail — a vast majority. For the voting public who are not involved in campaign politics, who do not study voter systems and vote legally, the idea that America has a voter fraud problem may not be as clear — but it’s a very real problem.

In-person poll voting is the safest and most secure election system that has the least amount of fraud. Poll voting almost completely eliminates fraud if you require photo ID to vote.

Vote-by-mail is the least secure system of voting that allows the greatest amount of voter fraud. In many ways, vote-by-mail promotes voter fraud and many laws in states where it has been implemented make proving voter fraud very hard to do.

When it comes to universal vote-by-mail, a number of issues raise very serious and legitimate concerns. For one, there is no way to know who actually votes the ballot, and it’s very easy for people who are not legally eligible to vote to register and vote.

With universal vote-by-mail, door-to-door ballot harvesting cannot be stopped and, as we have started seeing in states across the country, ballots are being mailed to addresses where a specific voter no longer lives. Ballot harvesting involves a couple of steps. First, the idea is to register as many people as possible (citizens and non-citizens alike). Step two is to force states to use vote-by-mail systems — and the COVID-19 pandemic is very helpful in making this a reality. When the ballots are mailed, operatives go door-to-door to collect the ballots.

Individuals can be pressured by family members, employers, unions, churches or other groups to bring the ballot to “group voting sessions” where they are forced to vote a certain way.

And, after the election, ballots can be “perfected” or “cured” by campaign workers regardless if the ballot was legally voted.

On top of all these issues, it is just common sense that the longer ballots are floating around the country the more opportunity there is for fraud.

The fact that there is no way to know who votes a ballot is one of the biggest fundamental problems with vote-by-mail.  There is zero way to know who actually voted a mail-in ballot. When a person votes at a polling place, we know who voted that ballot.

Parents and spouses often vote for their children and for their husbands or wives in vote-by-mail. This is illegal and it is voter fraud — but happens by the tens of thousands in vote by mail states. How do I know this is true? I know because I just went through a recount in my own election and we discovered several hundred of these in my district alone.

Non-citizens and illegal aliens can get a driver’s license in many states. With that license they can register to vote. In Washington State, the Department of Licensing actually was automatically registering illegal aliens to vote when they got a driver’s license. When this was discovered the DOL claimed it was a mistake. No one is buying it.

In Washington State, it is now legal for illegal aliens and non-citizens to register to vote prior to turning 18. When they turn 18, the state will send a ballot to the address they list on the voter registration, even if they are still not a citizen and eligible to vote. Many of these 18-year-old non-citizens who receive a ballot will vote, assuming that the state would not entrap them with an illegal ballot.

Political operatives, acting as vote harvesters, can pick up signed and voted ballots and bring them to a drop box. Vote harvesters could try to pick up signed and un-voted ballots, fill them out and take them to a drop box. Or they could pick up unsigned and un-voted ballots, vote them and take them to a drop box. Clearly this is voter fraud and it happens.

There are very few barriers to committing vote fraud by mail. It is much harder to commit voter fraud in person in a polling place simply because you cannot get that person to a voting station.

People not legally registered are much more likely to vote via mail than to risk going to a polling station to vote. That is just a fact.

In a normal year and in a normal election we might just accept a small amount of fraud as normal.

This is not a normal year. Billions of dollars are being spent on vote harvesting. States are quickly trying to put in place vote-by-mail systems that normally take years to develop and implement. And let’s be honest— rioters, extremists, socialists and globalists could easy rationalize voter fraud if it helps beat Donald Trump.

Sen. Doug Ericksen is as a member of the Washington State Senate for the 42nd District