It is no secret in political circles that vote fraud is rampant in US elections, and always has been. Democrats know it, Republicans know it, and the mainstream media know it\u2026 but ignore it.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when one major political party is the primary beneficiary of the fraud, and at least 90% of those in the mainstream media are members of that party, there is little chance that anti-fraud laws can be enacted and\/or enforced.\u00a0 Fraud, violence, and intimidation merely become the \u201cdirty little secret\u201d of the greatest constitutional republic on Earth.<\/p>\n
In the not too distant past, voter registration was done only in person. All it took to become a registered voter was to make a brief visit to the election board offices in the county courthouse. \u00a0In some states, roving registrars set up tables in malls and shopping centers where it was possible to register while shopping.\u00a0 It was a time when local, state, and national elections were held on a single day.\u00a0 The only exception to that rule was absentee ballot voting by those who knew well in advance that they would be traveling, hospitalized, or otherwise unavailable on Election Day.<\/p>\n
But then, in recent decades, as Democrats strove to assemble a permanent governing majority of special interests, they developed a vast array of fraud-friendly electoral processes. Under the guise of \u201cfairness\u201d and \u201cinclusiveness,\u201d they created abominations such as postcard registration, motor-voter registration, same-day registration, electronic voting, voting by mail, and many others\u2026 all open invitations to fraud and all disguised as ways of extending the benefits of democracy to the greatest number of people.\u00a0 But is that what the \u201creformers\u201d actually had in mind, or were they more interested in creating ways to \u201cscam\u201d the system?\u00a0 Either way, the system has become so fraud-friendly that the entire process is in need of major overhaul.<\/p>\n
Democrats have demonstrated no shame whatsoever in their support for fraud-friendly voter registration and voting procedures. In fact, when confronted with the proposal to abandon photo ID legislation, which they invariably oppose, in exchange for a system in which voters would be required to dip a \u201cpinkie\u201d into a vial of indelible ink after voting\u2026 so that voters could be prevented from voting more than once\u2026 Democrats opposed even that anti-fraud reform.<\/p>\n
But now it appears as if Donald Trump has found a way to turn the tables on them. By claiming that, were it not for the votes of more than 3 million non-citizens, he would have won not only a majority in the Electoral College, but a majority of the popular vote as well, he has caused Democrats to suddenly switch sides.\u00a0 They\u2019ve abandoned their long-held claim that \u201cvote fraud doesn\u2019t exist,\u201d in favor of a challenge to Trump to \u201cput up, or shut up.\u201d\u00a0 They apparently feel that by investigating his charge and proving him wrong they can put the issue to rest, once and for all.<\/p>\n
If this turn of events was the result of careful planning by Trump and his inner circle, then he is truly a \u201cmanipulator\u201d of unparalleled skill. But whether planned or inadvertent, the evidence is all on Trump\u2019s side and Democrats have inadvertently walked into a political trap.<\/p>\n
If we\u2019ve learned nothing else from the last seventy years of political and social experimentation we\u2019ve learned that, given a choice between doing things the right<\/em> way or doing things the easy<\/em> way, Americans will almost invariably choose the easy<\/em> way\u2026 and to hell with the consequences.\u00a0 There can be no better example than our current electoral system.\u00a0 But if we are to reform our electoral processes so that we can once again have faith that our votes actually count, we must make some bold reforms.\u00a0 First, it is imperative that we go back to basic principles:<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Registrations must be done only by full-time paid registrars, employees of counties and\/or township government.\u00a0 Third party registrars, paid and unpaid, must be prohibited.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Registration must be done only in the county and\/or township in which the registrant maintains his\/her primary residence.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 As a requisite for voter registration, each voter must show proof of citizenship (birth certificate or passport) and proof of residence (driver\u2019s license, residential deed, apartment lease, utility bills, etc.).<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Qualified voters must be issued a voter I.D. card, complete with photo, permanent address, and precinct number, which must then be presented upon entering a polling place at each election.<\/p>\n 6.\u00a0 Court administrators must be required to furnish local election boards with name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number of every individual convicted of a felony.\u00a0 Election boards must be required to purge voter registrations of all felons at least ten days prior to any election.<\/p>\n 7.\u00a0 County coroners must be required to furnish election boards with copies of all death certificates.\u00a0 All deceased persons must be removed from the voter rolls no later than ten days prior to any election.<\/p>\n 8.\u00a0 Registered voters who move from one state to another, from one county or township to another, or from one precinct to another, must obtain a voter registration transfer document from their local election board. This document must be presented, in person, to county or township officials of the voter\u2019s new place of residence.<\/p>\n 9.\u00a0 Absentee ballots must be received no later than ten days prior to an election.\u00a0 Absentee ballots must be tallied no later than the day and hour that polls close on Election Day.<\/p>\n 10.\u00a0 Absentee ballots completed by residents of nursing homes, elder care, and mental health facilities must be completed only in the presence of representatives of both major political parties.<\/p>\n 11.\u00a0 Other than absentee ballots, voting must be done in person, only on the day of the election, and only in the precinct in which the voter maintains his\/her primary residence. Electronic voting and vote-by-mail schemes must be repealed or superseded.<\/p>\n 12.\u00a0 Provisional ballots must be limited only to the most serious instances of clerical error by election board officials. And finally,<\/p>\n 13.\u00a0 The national Voting Rights Act must be amended to provide fines and mandatory jail sentences for any individual who would, in any election in which the name of a candidate for federal office appears on the ballot, do any of the following:<\/p>\n All of these recommendations meet the test of fairness and inclusion because they apply equally to all citizens. But what are the chances that such a program of reform could be enacted?\u00a0 The chances are not good because Democrats have far too much vested interest in maintaining and liberalizing the fraud-friendly system we have.<\/p>\n But, regardless of the reforms we might impose on the present system, there can be no substitute for an educated and informed citizenry. The election of Barack Obama on November 4, 2008, illustrated precisely the sort of government we can expect when our voting age citizens are uneducated and\/or uninformed.<\/p>\n In a November 13-15, 2008, Zogby poll of 512 Obama voters (97.1% high school graduates and 55% college graduates) we learned that: 57.4% could not identify which party controlled Congress; 71.8% could not identify Joe Biden as the candidate who had engaged in plagiarism; 82.6% could not identify Barack Obama as the candidate who won his first primary race by having all of his Democratic opponents removed from the ballot on technicalities; and 88.4% could not identify Obama as the candidate who said that his policies would bankrupt coal-burning electric utilities and drive power costs through the ceiling.<\/p>\n However, 86.3% identified Sarah Palin as the candidate whose political party spent $150,000 on a campaign wardrobe; 93.8% identified Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter; and 86.9% identified Palin as the candidate who said that she could see Russia from her home in Alaska (Actually, Palin did not say that.\u00a0 That quote is from comedienne Tina Fey of Saturday Night Live<\/em>).\u00a0 Only 12 of the 512 Obama voters answered at least eleven of the twelve multiple choice questions correctly, while only 3 of the 512 interviewed answered all twelve correctly.<\/p>\n Clearly, most Democratic voters get their political information from Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Saturday Night Live. <\/em>And since we can\u2019t do much to change that, the least we can do is to make the electoral process as idiot-proof and as fraud-proof as possible.<\/p>\n Paul R. Hollrah is a retired government relations executive and a two-time member of the U.S. Electoral College. He currently lives and writes among the hills and lakes of northeast Oklahoma\u2019s Green Country.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is no secret in political circles that vote fraud is rampant in US elections, and always has been. Democrats know it, Republicans know it, and the mainstream media know it\u2026 but ignore it.\u00a0 Unfortunately, when one major political party … Continue reading \n
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