CASTING DOUBT
Local, state officials confident in mail-in voting despite president’s concerns
President Donald Trump has launched an intensive attack on the integrity of voting by mail, sowing doubt in the upcoming election as states grapple with the challenge of conducting balloting in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump has declared, without offering evidence after repeated requests, that the 2020 election will be the most rigged and corrupt election of all time thanks to voting-by-mail options.
The president has gone as far as to suggest delaying the election because of it, an idea rejected by leaders of his own party.
The attacks on voting by mail, which have been echoed by some fellow Republicans, have stirred concern among state and local election officials who say the accusations are unfounded and damaging to the institution.
“Voting by mail is safe, secure and accurate,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar. “There were no reports of fraud in the primary.”
‘Done it safely’
Boockvar pointed out that voting by mail is not a new concept in the commonwealth, noting that voters have had the opportunity to cast absentee ballots for decades.
“We’ve done it safely, we’ve done it securely and we’ve done it accurately,” she said. “And that is thanks to the provisions we have in place that re
quire eligibility checking on both the front end and back end of the process.”
Boockvar said she takes attacks on the system like those lobbed by the president seriously.
“Any misinformation and disinformation has the power to really minimize people’s confidence in the election,” she said. “We have been dealing with this for the last two years more than we ever have before. This is something we have to constantly be fighting.”
Studies have shown that all forms of voting fraud are extremely rare.
A report released by the nonpartisan Brennan Center For Justice found that most allegations of fraud turn out to be baseless and that most of the few remaining allegations reveal clerical errors or other other forms of election misconduct.
In fact, a commission that Trump had charged with investigating voter fraud following the 2016 presidential election was disbanded in 2018 after finding no real evidence of corruption.
Trump has even acknowledged he has cast absentee ballots.
And he’s not alone. More than a dozen other members of his administration have voted by mail, including Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General
William Barr, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, first lady Melania Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump.
A popular choice
Allowing Pennsylvania voters to submit their ballots by mail is new this year. It was one of several changes included in a historic election reform bill signed into law last fall designed by state lawmakers to increase access to the ballot box.
The introduction of widespread voting by mail in the Keystone State proved to be popular among voters in the June primary due to safety concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In Pennsylvania, the election marked the first time in modern history that more ballots were cast by mail than at polling locations.
The state received 51% of ballots by mail and recorded 47% of ballots that were cast on voting machines.
Those results were no coincidence.
Election officials worked for months before the election to inform the public about the option — particularly in light of the ongoing public health emergency.
“Once the pandemic proved to be as serious as it was, we realized that we needed to keep people safe while also ensuring that their access to democracy was protected,” Boockvar said. “We felt very strongly that people should have a choice.”
Congressional perspective
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan said there is no evidence to support these claims, citing a study by the conservative Heritage Foundation which shows few instances of voter fraud over the past two decades.
The Chester County Democrat said she wants to stress that there is strong bipartisan consensus on the need to expand mail voting.
“There are many states that have been voting by mail for a long time successfully, so there really isn’t any foundation to say this method is fraught with fraud and there isn’t any foundation to say it favors one party over the other,” she said.
Houlahan said she remains focused on ways she can help at the federal level to make sure the counties she represents have the resources they need to make sure the November election runs smoothly.
That may mean sending money to help purchase equipment to count the ballots as quickly as possible and advocating for additional funding to the U.S. Postal Service, which has been experiencing backlogs after the agency put in place new procedures described as cost-cutting efforts. The Stop Mail-In Voter Fraud Act would: • Increase penalties for mail fraud from 20 to 30 years in prison; for the use of fictitious information to request or complete a mailed ballot from 5 to 10 years; and for the submission of a fraudulent ballot from 5 to 10 years. • Direct the attorney general to establish a nationwide hotline and online portal to report fraudulent ballots. • Require courts to notify the secretary of state in their jurisdiction and the attorney general about any individuals recused from jury service on grounds of noncitizenship. Meuser said he thinks the likelihood of voter fraud is higher in the eight states that will automatically send ballots to all registered voters, not just those who ask for them. “Some people who may own rental properties, for instance, are getting four different ballots for four different people who may have lived there over the past several years,” he said. “That process opens the door to errors.” He said Pennsylvania seems to be doing things the right way by requiring voters to apply for ballots. “I feel confident in the system we have in place here,” he said. “It’s amazing how well they have done in the past, and this bill will help them by further deterring anyone from even attempting to commit fraud.”