Tipsheet

I've Been Told This Never Happens In American Elections. Well, It Was Pretty Bad in New Jersey.

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 26, 2020 11:20 PM

How many times have we been told that election fraud really doesn’t happen in the US or at least not in such a way that it could really impact the integrity of our elections? That’s something liberals have said for years to dismiss conservatives’ concerns about fraud, while a good chunk of these folks also still think Russia altered ballots in the 2016 election. Is it rare? Yes, but efforts to enhance election security have always been opposed by Democrats. I’ll leave it to you as to why they take that position. Still, as Democrats ponder a vote-by-mail scheme to accommodate the social distancing guidelines over the coronavirus outbreak, this local election might be the kill switch.

Mark Hemingway at RealClearPolitics found one election in New Jersey where one-in-five ballots were invalidated over fraud concerns. In fact, the state attorney general is charging four people with fraud. It’s over who will control the city council of Paterson. It’s become so bad that the local NAACP is calling for the election to be invalidated. Hemingway quoted a law professor who admits that there is an absentee ballot fraud scheme being executed in Paterson. Also, he wrote about multiple lawsuits across the country being filed concerning how mail-in ballots are verified. This was a city council race. Imagine what the chaos would be if hundreds of millions of ballots were mailed out. Would Democratic states verify the results fairly? (via RealClearPolitics):

Following accusations of widespread fraud, voter intimidation, and ballot theft in the May 12 municipal elections in Paterson, N.J., state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal (pictured) announced Thursday he is charging four men with voter fraud – including the vice president of the City Council and a candidate for that body.

With races still undecided, control of the council hangs in the balance…

[…]

Reporting by NBC further uncovered citizens of Paterson who are listed as having voted, but who told the news outlet they never received a ballot and did not vote. One woman, Ramona Javier, after being shown the list of people on her block who allegedly voted, told the outlet she knew of eight family members and neighbors who were wrongly listed. “We did not receive vote-by-mail ballots and thus we did not vote,” she said. “This is corruption. This is fraud.”

There were multiple reports that large numbers of mail-in ballots were left on the lobby floors of apartment buildings and not delivered to residents’ individual mailboxes, further casting doubt on the integrity of the election.

Two of the election results in Paterson were particularly close. Initially, challenger Shahin Khalique defeated incumbent Mohammed Akhtaruzzaman by 1,729 votes to 1,721. After a second recount on June 19, that race is now tied 1,730-1,730. In that race, a video posted to Snapchat has surfaced that appears to show a man named Abu Razyen unlawfully handling a large stack of ballots he indicates are votes for Khalique. Khalique’s brother, Shelim, and Razyen have been charged by the state attorney general for crimes including fraud in casting mail-in votes, tampering, and unauthorized possession of ballots.

[…]

Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, acknowledged on the Election Law Blog last month that there’s “genuine absentee ballot fraud scandal going on in Paterson, New Jersey and it is going to get a lot of national attention.”

[…]

At the same time, dozens of lawsuits have been filed across the country contesting state requirements used to certify mail-in ballots. “Among the main targets are witness and signature requirements for absentee ballots -- such as signing the envelope, or getting a witness or notary to sign it, or making sure the voter's signature is legible,” notes an NPR report earlier this month.

Recently, there was an oversight report that showed the government doled out $1.4 billion in COVID relief payments to dead people. Again, it undercuts this nationalized vote-by-mail scheme that Democrats are pushing. If you wanted voter fraud to skyrocket, then this is your system, apparently. Oh, and while there’s no evidence of fraud, we’ve lost some 28 million ballots in the past four elections. So, if fraud doesn’t give you pause over this vote-by-mail narrative, then the system just being shoddy should give you some pause.