Whenever I write about voter fraud, I feel obliged to inject some nuance and caveats, which typically boil down to this: The Right tends to exaggerate the prevalence of the problem, while the Left tends to dismiss and downplay it entirely. The truth is that while there is no evidence of widespread and systemic abuses, fraud does occur, and common-sense steps to ensure the integrity of the ballot and electoral process should not be reflexively assailed as racist or forms of (heavily debunked) "suppression." Indeed, measures like voter ID requirements are broadly popular among the electorate, despite frequent demonization.
Democrats are actively proposing to weaken such provisions, while encouraging the dodgy practice known as ballot harvesting, which is legal in places like California, but was the basis for a fraudulent election in North Carolina that benefitted the GOP. With that said, we've recently learned of two criminal examples of voter fraud, which cannot be ignored or waved away. Reagan told you last week about an elections judge in Pennsylvania who pleaded guilty to stuffing ballot boxes for Democrats, in exchange for bribes:
U.S. Attorney @USAttyMcSwain says, “Demuro fraudulently stuffed the ballot box by literally standing in a voting booth and voting over and over, as fast as he could, while he thought the coast was clear."
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) May 21, 2020
The case was investigated by the FBI and @PAStatePolice.
Now there's this outrageous story out of Michigan (update: these charges were filed last year):
Wow. A city clerk in Michigan who previously received an award from the state’s Democratic Party is being charged with altering ballots during the 2018 midterm election: https://t.co/YFljxl2HNY
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) September 24, 2019
Sherikia Hawkins was charged Monday with six felony counts for allegedly altering absentee ballots during the November 2018 election in her capacity as city clerk for the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Mich. Hawkins, a 38-year-old registered Democrat, stands accused of altering 193 absentee ballots. She was arraigned Monday in Southfield on charges including falsifying returns or records, forgery of a public record, misconduct in office, and multiple counts of using a computer to commit a crime. She was released on $15,000 bond...The alleged misconduct was discovered after the Oakland County Clerk’s Office noticed that 193 voter files had been changed to reflect that the voters failed to include a valid signature or return date, when all of the implicated voters had in fact included both items. The county clerk’s office later discovered the original voter files in the trash at the election-division office. The Michigan State Police then launched an investigation that resulted in Hawkins’s arrest.
Local Democratic officials insisted that this conduct was 'anomalous' and didn't impact final election results, but stories like this raise questions about how often this sort of thing occurs and is gotten away with. And the fact that each of these stories have arisen in crucial presidential swing states doesn't exactly inspire confidence -- especially when taken together with this flashback story of anti-ID activists openly celebrating an official convicted of election fraud in Ohio. I'll leave you with this, via the Heritage Foundation, published earlier this month. Again, these are just the proven and documented examples:
The left claims mail-in elections will allow people to vote without risking #COVID19 infection
— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) May 23, 2020
What they're not telling you? Voting by mail makes it easier to commit fraud, intimidate voters—and destroy the protections of the secret ballot https://t.co/Y1FuqzmOa6