By Rebecca Terrell
Article Source
Half of American voters believe that election fraud will mar this fall’s midterms. A national survey in July by Rasmussen Reports also revealed that 52 percent of voters think “cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.”
Fact-checkers label them all conspiracy crackpots. After all, the nation’s top cybersecurity agency assures us “the 2020 election was the most secure in American history,” and former Attorney General Bill Barr declared no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Case closed? Some states aren’t convinced, and they’re scurrying to secure the midterms.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in July that the state election commission did not have power to authorize ballot drop boxes, though they were used to collect more than 40 percent of the state’s votes in 2020. State law requires voters to return absentee ballots by mail or in person at a local clerk’s office. The court had previously ruled that it was illegal for Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers to grant blanket permission for voters to obtain absentee ballots without photo identification.
Many believe that mass-mailed ballots and drop boxes were used for illegal trafficking, as recounted in Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary 2000 Mules. Lawmakers in Michigan sent a letter to the state’s attorney general in June, urging investigation into possible fraudsters as well as “suspicious activity by the Secretary of State,” Democrat Jocelyn Benson. They accuse her of using Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to “recklessly” mail ballots to registered voters regardless of their absentee status. They also suspect she violated state law by authorizing county clerks to “presume the accuracy of absentee ballot signatures,” and reproach her for ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests regarding the election.
Georgia lawmakers have already answered some of these issues. Last year they passed Senate Bill 202, which limits drop boxes and ramps up ID requirements for absentee voters. It restricts government officials and third-party groups from sending unsolicited or duplicate absentee ballot applications to voters, a practice of which many complained in 2020. Moreover, the law requires voters to request absentee ballots no less than 11 days before an election.
Credit for the unprecedented use of mail-in ballots and drop boxes in the 2020 election goes to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who donated more than $400 million to some 2,500 jurisdictions nationwide, ostensibly to assist with voting during Covid. Critics accuse him of more sinister motives, and a whopping 70 percent of U.S. voters disapprove of his private funding of elections, according to a December 2021 survey by Rasmussen.
Many state legislatures have already passed laws to prevent a repeat performance. “As of July 2022, 24 states have banned or restricted the use of private funds for election offices, and 6 governors — all Democrats — have vetoed potential bans,” reports the Capital Research Center. Individual counties in Wisconsin and Michigan have also banned Zuck Bucks.
Uphill Battle
Are efforts like these enough to secure future elections? Not according to pushback some states face. North Carolina’s Board of Elections is prohibiting county election officials from using signature verification for absentee ballots, according to the state’s Republican Party. The recently adopted Votes Act in Massachusetts makes vote-by-mail permanent and expands early voting options. Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are suing to throw out the state’s broad mail-in voting law, but pundits say there is slim chance of that happening within the two months until voters can begin mailing ballots this fall. Major media have launched smear campaigns against sheriffs in Kansas, Michigan, and Wisconsin over election-fraud investigations in their jurisdictions. In Arizona, the U.S. Department of Justice is suing over the state’s new law requiring voters to show proof of citizenship.
Meanwhile, a federal district judge is forcing DOJ to comply with Freedom of Information Act requests regarding Biden’s 2021 executive order, “Promoting Access to Voting.” The nonprofit Foundation for Government Accountability calls it “a federal takeover of elections” and wants to know if the president is “misusing federal resources” to “ensure Democratic victories.”
The security of electronic voting machines remains a hot-button issue as well. Democratic leaders in Colorado have Mesa County clerk Tina Peters in their crosshairs since she uncovered alleged evidence of manipulation in the 2020 general election during a backup of electronic voting machines. Officials have turned a blind eye to her claims, instead leveling criminal charges at her related to election tampering and misconduct. Journalist Lara Logan chronicles Peters’ story in her new documentary [S]Election Code.
Elsewhere, concerned citizens are challenging voting machines, citing security and lack of transparency issues. Alabama Republicans are suing their secretary of state to ban the technology in this year’s midterms. A similar Arizona lawsuit cites past compromised elections; plaintiffs want paper ballots. But a judge recently tossed a lawsuit seeking to verify voting-machine data in Utah’s 2020 election, and a bill to end vote-by-mail failed in the Utah House in February.
As for private funding, Zuckerberg says he does not plan to bankroll future elections, nor can he in states that have already banned Zuck Bucks. But the newly launched U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence (AEE) “could be an end run around such laws,” reports The Daily Signal, based on the track record of AEE supporters. Inside Philanthropy describes them as “a tech-heavy group of funders that lean liberal in their grantmaking,” such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and executives from Microsoft and Amazon.
The Solution
“This is a battle between those who want to fundamentally transform America and those who want to fundamentally preserve all that is noble, true, excellent, and praiseworthy about America,” Patrick Colbeck told The New American. A former Michigan state senator and certified poll challenger, Colbeck authored The 2020 Coup: What Happened, What We Can Do, which reads like a grand-jury investigation of election fraud. He also maintains an evidence map at his website, The2020Coup.com.
Colbeck offers practical solutions to restoring election integrity, pointing out that what we need is enforcement of current election laws rather than enactment of new ones, and true forensic audits rather than mere recounts of potentially manipulated ballots and voting machines.
Indeed, elections in the United States have traditionally been among the most trusted in the world, as election-integrity expert Kurt Hyde told The New American. He pointed out that only since the introduction of mail-in ballots and electronic voting machines have allegations of fraud become the norm — a clear indication that something is wrong with the system.
He says the answer is to bring back the system that worked for so long: publicly monitored in-person voting and vote counting at the precinct level on election day using paper ballots, and an end to modern abuses such as same-day voter registration, early voting, unattended drop boxes, no-excuse absentee balloting, and voting without proper identification.
Most importantly, American citizens must be engaged, not just by voting, but by serving as poll workers or challengers, supporting election integrity investigations, or even running for office. As Colbeck points out, elections are as critical to our nation’s infrastructure as an electric grid or interstate system. Freedom is not free, and our country is at stake.
