Jobless claims scam a mail-in ballot warning

Will the state’s deluge of phony unemployment-benefit applications provide a window of what we might see with mail-in ballots for the upcoming primary and general elections?

Though dissimilar, both pertain to the commonwealth’s ability to deal with unprecedented circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Unemployment Assistance on Tuesday added context to the previous reports of largescale fraud in the record-breaking number of filings for unemployment benefits.

The agency indicated it had identified more than 58,000 bogus claims and recovered a total of $158 million as of June 20.

In May, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration disclosed that a sophisticated international scam network had targeted the state’s unemployment agency, along with those in about a dozen other states, in an apparent attempt to take advantage of those overwhelmed offices due to the skyrocketing job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

That scam prompted the DUA to halt weekly payments for some claimants and to block the initial filings of others as it investigated.

The state didn’t disclose how many claims have been put on hold or blocked from being filed because a fraudster had already used stolen information to file in a claimant’s name.

The release said the stolen personal information had been previously obtained in “commercial data breaches’’ unrelated to the pandemic or unemployment insurance.

According to the state, more than 1.6 million unemployment claims were filed from March 8 to June 30, and that about 62% of those claims are being paid or have been deemed eligible to be paid. Denials have been appealed in about 70,000 cases.

We can’t be certain whether the data supplied by the state constitutes the majority of the fraud or just the iceberg tip of funds fleeced from the commonwealth.

And now the state’s poised to undertake another enormous task fraught with uncertainty — and the potential for fraud.

The governor signed legislation Monday that directs Secretary of State William Galvin to send mail-in voting applications for the Sept. 1 primary elections by July 15.

Advocates insist that the new law will allow voters to participate in the upcoming election cycle without putting themselves at risk for COVID-19.

With nearly 4.6 million registered voters as of February, how can the state ensure that every mail-in voting application will be sent to the right address, or delivered to someone among the living? And what happens to those ballot applications if either of those cases occur?

At the rate the state’s going, we might never know. Questions over the permissible use of federal money has delayed those mailings.

“We had hoped to do it by that date (July 15). The legislation calls for it. But the Legislature has not sent the money. We can’t pay for the postage. We can’t pay for the printing until we have the postal permit. We can’t buy the permit until we get the money,” Secretary Galvin told reporters Tuesday.

The bone of contention is a matter of interpretation. There’s disagreement over whether guidance from the Election Assistance Commission allows states to use federal funds through the CARES Act to mail applications to voters.

Until that’s resolved, that snail mail’s going nowhere.

We trust state election officials learn from the DUA’s verification fiasco.

If not, we’ll be in for another rollercoaster ride come this election cycle.