In 2020, we were told — promised! — that mail-in voting was incredibly secure. In fact, in the lead-up to the election, Joe Biden told us that mail-in voting is “the most secure form of voting.”
We could have faith in this process, the experts assured us, because states with mail-in voting “employ numerous security measures to ensure that voters are casting their own ballots.”
These weren’t abstract promises. We were given specifics. The Washington Post’s security experts told us that signature verification of mail-in ballots is “important” for preventing fraud. Columbia University Professor Steven Bellovin agreed, calling signature matching “a guard against imposters using valid ballots.”
Leftist think tank the Brennan Center for Justice addressed even more features, arguing we should trust mail-in ballots given secure “drop boxes . . . behind a counter or otherwise safeguarded,” signature verification and witness requirements. (RELATED: JASON SNEAD: Don’t Open This Pandora’s Box Of Voter Confusion)
We were promised a fortress because Americans want secure elections. Democracy is a wild concept, after all.
We give up a lot of control over our rights, our money, our freedom and even our lives, all based on what strangers decide to do with their votes. To submit to that process repeatedly requires trust in the process, and that requires assurances that the system is safe from improper influences.
Now that 2020 is behind us, these assurances have withered and have come under vicious assault. Brick-by-brick, Marc Elias and allied activists are intent on weaponizing the court system to dismantle the core promises they made us — the very promises upon which we have been assured that our elections are secure.
These Democrat attorneys are attempting to dismantle signature matching in Colorado, calling it racist. Elias is suing Wisconsin to end its witness requirement, saying it violates people’s civil rights.
Elias is also suing Ohio for passing a law that enhances voter ID requirements and secures drop boxes by placing them in the county board of elections office, claiming that these laws somehow infringe on the right to vote. The list goes on, from suing Kansas eliminate a 10-ballot-per-harvester limit, to suing Pennsylvania for the basic measure of asking voters to date their ballots.
I hate being lied to. But that’s not the worst part.
Instead of applauding democracy — that is, cheering elected state legislators passing popular security measures that balance access and integrity — Elias and his group of leftist lawyers try to weaponize the courts to get rid of the same security features that his liberal friends told us were crucial just a few years ago.
This is happening at a time when the American public is losing confidence in our elections, threatening to worsen this already disheartening reality.
But the solution can’t be despair. After all, that’s the Left’s goal: to goad Republicans into staying home or delaying our decision until election day, which is both risky and costly to the party.
We cannot surrender to this cynical agenda. We need to expose it in whatever courtrooms it appears. And so we are.
RITE is fighting against election degrading lawsuits all over the country. For our republic to remain strong there must be faith that our elections truly reflect the will of the people, and RITE will continue to fight to restore that trust in our elections.
We will hold the Democrats to their word.
Riley Compton is a Junior Counsel for Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) and a Daily Caller Election Law Contributor.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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