Chipping Away at the Integrity of the Vote

We don’t vote by mail for more than one reason which we have touched on before. Voting early is just not good public policy for an informed plebiscite. Vote bullying opportunities and fraudulent voting are also reasons. Voting security is still another which we highlight here. 

Get this – according to two different Scott County voters who have voted by mail in recent days the instructions say to sign the back of the mailing envelope before sending it in.  VM gave us the tip and investigated further, calling four different county auditor offices and we verified that it is an authorized state-wide practice.  It is new this year as a supposedly cost saving practice. We find it another opportunity to assault the integrity of the vote.

Here is the new vote by mail process in question as described to us. After marking the ballot, the voter places the ballot in a seeled envelope and then a sleeve.  The sleeve with ballot is placed in the sending envelope for return to the auditor’s office via mail. That sending envelope is to be signed on the outside. It is intended to satisfy the voter’s affidavit of voting and avoid the full cost of another envelope as used in the past  . . . and we are told . . . to  “avoid confusion.”

Except . . .  as part of an inquiry several days ago — we were told that as of very early in the process in Scott County a hundred or more had failed to sign the outside. Those ballots are determined to be spoiled unless the voter can be contacted to sign a voter affidavit. How do they know to contact that voter?  Well, those without a signature on the outside must be set aside and opened.  The inside contains a white label with the voters address on the sealed ballot envelope . How many forget to sign the outside as opposed to the older process of including the affidavit in the envelope remains to be seen.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, which we also contacted, allowing this “sign the outside” process  was a legislative priority of the County Auditor’s association.  It was  passed by the legislature.  It is optional to the counties.  Counties can continue the previous process. Scott County uses the new authorization and we believe Linn and Black Hawk and Dubuque counties among others. By the way, as of this writing we do not see that the Scott County Auditor Website reflects the newer absentee instructions.  They have felt ot necessary to follow up the absentee packet instructions with a post card further clarifying, no doubt because of the error rate.

One thing we dislike about it is it enhances the opportunity for onesey -twosey skulduggery – specifically selective vote denial as compared to the onesy-twosey of extra voting and fraudulent voting that comprises the bulk of voter fraud – -such as students voting twice for the cause — a son voting for good old dad — the neighborhood guy taking it upon himself to exercise your right to vote or not vote, etc.*

Consider the chain of custody of the ballot with vote by mail.  Say you return mail it from home — for  pick-up by your letter carrier.  They are already in an envelope that is clearly indicated to be an absentee voting envelope. The letter carrier knows all the mail you get, your affiliations etc. and now he or she has your hot little vote in his or her hands, indeed verified by your signature. How hard would it be to guess your voting preference when you deposit the vote for pick up at your home ?  Granted it was predictable before but now it is down to the person, and the capability is further enhanced in those cases where the vote is deposited in an area mailbox or apartment collection box in a neighborhood with a certain voting demographic. Think of the possibilities.

The ballot then goes through other mail sorting arriving at a county auditor’s office, with the voters signature on the envelope. How hard would it be to guess the vote particularly in less volumetric counties . . . when before no one could identify a particular envelope?  All those votes sitting there, in a closet or office, locked of course. You don’t have to open them, just look for signatures.

Someone will say: why this is outrageous – –  You are accusing Auditors of not having adequate safeguards and letter carriers and auditor employees or volunteers of breaking the law, felonies!  Never mind that prisons are full of people doing smarter and stupider things.  No one does these things thinking they will get caught.  But I am accusing no one, only pointing out the security and custody vulnerabilities that exist with vote by mail in the first place, now enhanced by signatures on the envelopes.  The whole concept of general early voting exists for no good reason and should be restricted for good reason.      R Mall

* Make no mistake, when I refer to “onesey -twosey” it is not to suggest that vote fraud is negligible.  Just the opposite.  While even one such vote could be, the cumulative effect is subversive. It is a Democrat — end justifies the means — mindset that encourages it. You can bet union hall admonitions to make sure every vote in your house votes union is warmly embraced by many, and extended. The desire to continue cumulative onesey-twosey vote fraud, wherever the motivation comes from, is why remedies like photo ID for registration and voting and traditional restrictions on absentee voting are vociferously  opposed by Democrat operatives.

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