New absentee laws in swing states will increase voter fraud

Home Opinion New absentee laws in swing states will increase voter fraud

Not many aspects of American life seemed to go untouched by COVID-19-related changes this year, and how states handle absentee and mail-in voting is no different. 

Certain battleground states have passed legislation to extend the deadline for mail-in votes past Nov. 3, meaning we probably won’t know the election results in those states on election night. Among these battleground states are Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. 

The decisions to extend the deadline come in light of coronavirus-related challenges at polls during the primaries. Polling places saw a shortage of sanitizers and volunteers, and lines did not allow much room for social distancing. Voters who chose to mail in their vote for the primary election also faced difficulties with finding witnesses to sign their ballot if they lived alone, or with ballots arriving late due to postage delays. In Michigan’s August primary, an estimated 6,400 votes were thrown out for tardiness caused by mail delays. 

Of the states mentioned above, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court granted the shortest extension, only counting ballots that arrive on or before Nov. 6, postmarked by Nov. 3. However, Pennsylvania also ruled it illegal to throw out ballots on the basis that the signature on the ballot does not resemble the signature on the voter registration, citing the reason that signatures can change over time from a variety of causes. 

In Wisconsin, District Judge William Conley ruled that mail-in ballots will be counted until Nov. 9, granted they are postmarked by Election Day. They used a similar policy for their April primaries, which resulted in an estimated 80,000 mail-in votes counted that would have otherwise been thrown out for untimeliness. 

Michigan passed the longest extension, accepting mail-in votes up to two weeks after the election, again assuming a proper postmark date. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin also laid out a plan for ballots received with no postmark, or an unintelligible postmark: they will be given the benefit of the doubt for being sent on time, unless there is evidence proving otherwise. These decisions came out of a number of lawsuits by various Democratic entities. 

So what does this mean for the November election? It opens the floodgates for voter fraud and delayed election results. 

Voter fraud is no longer a deniable factor in American elections. The Heritage Foundation keeps a database of 1,298 proven instances of voter fraud — many of which happened over the last 20 years. All these new rules surrounding voting make it more difficult to prove votes legitimate.

In 2016, Trump won Michigan on a margin of just over 10,000 votes, and Wisconsin on a margin of 23,000. This extension could mean the difference between Trump and Biden if the margin is small enough. Because of COVID-19, applications for absentee ballots have skyrocketed, far surpassing the margin by which Trump won four years ago. 

Another question that nobody seems to be asking is whether a deadline extension is necessary. Michigan began sending out mail-in ballots Sept. 24, which is 40 days prior to Election Day. Theoretically, this should give voters more than enough time to receive their ballot, fill it out, and send it back. 

The only people that would have a problem with mail delays, therefore, are those who wait until the deadline to request an absentee ballot. Michigan voters, for example, can request a mail-in ballot until Oct. 30. This only gives five days to receive the ballot and get it back in on time. Why is the system being reformed to accommodate procrastinators, rather than moving up the start date for requesting a ballot to ensure all mail-in voters have time to vote before election night itself?

Republicans in many of these states have spoken about legally challenging these decisions, believing the changes in the rules will be manipulated for political purposes. Dishonest activity or not, voter fraud has always been a point of contention come election time, and the looser regulations will add another level of distrust for results on election night.

Later deadlines for mail-in votes, combined with the loose regulations on signatures and postmarks, mean voters could send in their ballots after Nov. 3. This means that in states where a candidate wins on a close margin, the results could be manipulated in the time after the election and before the mail-in deadline. 

In-person voting is a long-standing tradition, and while the coronavirus has posed questions for how to do it more safely, doing it in person offers much more security for fair voting. Voters in most states have to register ahead of time, so their residence and information can be confirmed. Mail-in voting does not offer this. Instead, it offers a plethora of ways to manipulate the election and introduces doubt to the results that will come on election night.

 

Hannah Fleming is a junior George Washington Fellow studying economics.