By Nancy Thorner & Bonnie O'Neil -
The election of 2020 will be a brass knuckle fight for the future of our nation. It is a given that many members of the press and social media sources will try to suppress conservative voices. This is why it is essential we share not only our opinions but facts with those within our spheres of influence. It is also a given that Democrats will once again use new laws such as ballot harvesting and other questionable election practice to win elections.
It was in 2016 that California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a change to Section 3017 of the Election Code that allows any person to collect a mail-in ballot from voters and turn in the mail ballot to a polling place or the registrar’s office. Prior law restricted the practice to just relatives of or those living in the same household as the voter.
As reported by Fred Whitaker, chairman of the Republican Party in Orange County on December 4, 2018 in the San Diego Tribune, GOP losses in the county were the "direct result of ballot harvesting allowed under California law for the first time."
It took a lawsuit by Judicial Watch to get the state and Los Angeles County to further start removing 1.5 million inactive names from the registration list that could be invalid, as required by the National Voter Registration Act. Judicial Watch also found that the state has more registered voters than it does possible voters. Los Angeles County, it found, "has a registration rate of 112% of its adult citizen population."
Meanwhile, an investigation by the Sacramento Bee found that California officials "still can't say whether non-citizens voted in the June 2018 primary because a confusing government questionnaire about eligibility was created in a way that prevents a direct answer on citizenship."
Is it any wonder that Democrats are now refusing to support even the rudimentary step of securing the southern border? As California has shown, an army of non-citizens can help sway elections. And keeping the border open will only bring in more.
Orange County, CA goes from Republican to Democrat
The new "ballot harvesting law took place for the first time during the CA 2018 Primary Elections. Severely criticized from its inception, many Orange County citizens realized how this new law could easily be abused and difficult for authorities to detect. The ballot harvesting law that permitted anyone to go door- to door and offer to take even strangers ballots to the proper authorities proved to have a chilling impact on Republicans.
The obvious problem many citizens saw from its inception became a reality. The Harvesting Ballot law invites fraudulent behavior due to such a small chance of detection. One could go door-to-door, pretend to be a good citizen, offer to help people fill out their ballot and/or take their ballot to the proper source and save them the trouble of this task. It is surprising how many voters are trusting souls who appreciate such a gesture, without realizing the true motives of the volunteer. The innocent person who surrendered their ballot to a stranger likely never considered the offer was for self-serving purposes rather than an altruistic effort.
Citizens of Orange County had every right to be concerned. The first election after the harvesting law was enacted was an absolute shocker. The Republican Party who had traditionally won the majority of seats lost an unexpected, unprecedented number of seats to their opponents.
Decades long Republican seats were lost to relatively unknown Democrats. Consider what happened to Representative Dana Rohrbacher. As a young and bright Washington D.C. intern, he was given a position within the White House under President Reagan. After leaving Washington D.C., he went home, ran for a federal position, was elected, and held his federal congressional seat for decades.
Surveys taken before the election indicated Dana Rohrbacher in the lead for the office he had held for decades. To everyone’s surprise, a relatively unknown Democrat turned up with more votes and won his seat.
If Rohrbacher's seat had been an oddity — only one shocking loss — there most likely would not have been a public outcry. However, there were other popular Republicans who lost their seats, after polling had indicated they too were well ahead of their opponent(s).
Voters were obviously puzzled when even the polling results just before the election had indicated most every Orange County, Ca. incumbent was leading. How could the election results have been the very opposite? How could polling have been so wrong? How could so many basically unknown Democrats win what appeared solid Republican seats?
Even more problematic is that the seats were lost to relatively unknown Democrats in Republican areas Republicans concluded the newly devised Ballot Harvesting Law that allowed the public to go door to door and offer to take people’s ballots to the proper authorities, as the one different factor in the was the one different factor in the 2018 Primary Elections.
Such a belief does not seem far fetched for Orange County citizen to have concluded, for it allowed strangers to obtain citizens’ ballots, without any oversight to cause the unexpected and surprising election results. It is not likely a coincidence that after the harvesting of ballots law, election results were the opposite of what was predicted. It seems outrageous that anyone would surrender their ballot to a stranger, but the fact is many did just that.
When those who had enacted the new law were confronted, they gave the excuse they were thinking of people in hospitals, nursing homes, etc. and in need of help. Seriously? Are we to believe this questionable law was enacted for this reason? Reasonable person would conclude that it was an invitation for some to abuse the law for their advantage. Specific “harvested” ballots could easily be deposited in the trash rather than delivered to the proper authority.
The Democrat's only goal is to defeat Trump to reclaim the White House, win back the Senate and keep the House. Their desire for power and control knows no bounds. Are Republicans ready?
Sometimes referred to as election fraud, election manipulation or vote rigging, is illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both.
In national elections, successful electoral fraud can have the effect of a coup d'état, democracy protest or corruption of democracy. In a narrow election, a small amount of fraud may be enough to change the result. Even if the outcome is not affected, the revelation of fraud can reduce voters' confidence in democracy.
Although the proceeding article dealt only with ballot harvesting, there are many other ways for ballot fraud to take place to manipulate and change election results. Because the November 2020 election will be a highly contested race for president, coupled with the desire of Democrats to take back the presidency and even the Senate at any cost, it is a given that fraud will take place in states run by Democrats and in all major cities likewise controlled by Democrats.
Forms of voter fraud to watch for and report to authorities include:
- Illegal voting by non-citizen.
- Destruction or invalidation of ballots for an opposing candidate or party.
- Tampering with hardware of the voting machine to alter vote totals.
- Disinformation about polling place.
- Misleading or confusing ballot paper.
- Ballot stuffing.
- Misrecording of votes.
- Destruction or invalidation of ballots.
Importance of voter Integrity
As reported by The Heritage Foundation in 2018:
The full scope of fraud in U.S. elections is unknown, and many states do not have in place the policies and procedures to detect and deter voter fraud.
Opponents of election integrity also want to deflect attention away from the broad popularity of the measures they attack.
If Americans cannot say with certainty that their votes will be counted, that the process is free of fraud, and the outcome is valid, what incentive do they have to turn out in the first place?
Unfortunately, the latest news on the election integrity front is less than inspiring.
Simply put, the full scope of fraud in U.S. elections is unknown, and many states do not have in place the policies and procedures to detect and deter voter fraud.
Yet efforts at studying the problem, such as President Donald Trump’s thwarted Presidential Commission on Election Integrity, or proactively addressing the issue, like Ohio’s move to clean up voter rolls riddled with errors, are vigorously attacked and opposed by liberal activists and politicians.
They have spent years insisting, despite mounting, incontrovertible evidence—to say nothing of common sense—that election fraud is nonexistent. They claim that “election integrity” is a smokescreen designed to conceal efforts at suppression and disenfranchisement.
What they ignore, or more accurately, seek to bury, are the inconvenient facts that dispel these narratives. Participation rates have increased in states that have adopted voter identification laws.
When states do pass photo identification requirements, they include provisions that ensure that anyone without an acceptable ID can get one for free.
Opponents of election integrity also want to deflect attention away from the broad popularity of the measures they attack. Voter ID, for example, is so uncontroversial that even in our bitterly divided era, a Rasmussen poll found that 70 percent of likely voters favor it.
They also want to deflect attention away from the bitter truth that each illegal ballot that is cast essentially disenfranchises a lawful voter. That is something no American should tolerate.
With elections, the process matters at least as much as the outcome, and Americans deserve a process they can trust.
