Today’s entry: Can you research VOTING MAIL FRAUD criminal cases, states, cities, by who and by party?
Bottom Line: This is always a hot topic in South Florida during election cycles for all the wrong reasons. Boxes of ballots showing up in car trucks and in random places play a role. Closed-door ballots being filled out at the Broward and Palm Beach County Supervisors of Elections offices does as well. The fact is, and this is an immovable fact, there is the most opportunity for voter fraud with votes by mail. Far more than any other legal form of voting.
Recently, I highlighted that votes by mail are ten times more likely not to be counted than in-person votes in addition to the added concerns about unvoted ballots by mail being fraudulently tabulated. First, an updated look at voter fraud in the United States generally. According to the Heritage Foundation’s Voter Fraud database, we’ve had 1,290 proven instances of voter fraud and 1,113 criminal convictions for voter fraud. This includes nine criminal convictions thus far in 2020. Successfully prosecuted voter fraud this year has happened in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Surprised? Hadn’t heard of these? Once again, the most pervasive form of bias in news media is omission. Anyway, of these forms of fraud, the methods used/attempted were Ballot Petition Fraud (4), Fraudulent use of Absentee ballots (3), False Registrations (1), and Ineligible Voting (1).
So, a third of prosecuted voter fraud this year has involved the use of absentee ballots for the second most common form of voter fraud. Moreover, had the ballot petition fraud been successful in the four attempted petition cases, it’s likely absentee ballots would have been used for the fraudulent votes.
As for Florida, over the past ten years, we’ve had 19 voter fraud cases successfully prosecuted. And by type:
- False Registrations (7)
- Fraudulent use of Absentee ballots (6)
- Ineligible Voting (4)
- Altering Vote Count (1)
- Intimidation (1)
In Florida, absentee ballots have also been the second most common way fraud voter has been attempted accounting for 32% of all instances. As for the breakdown by individuals/party. Neither political party officially sanctioned the activity and it’s not clear in all cases what the votes would have been if they had been cast. Among the successfully prosecuted cases are registered Democrats, NPA’s and Republicans. In other words, no political party has exclusivity on voter fraud. But to the greater concerns regarding the enhanced use of absentee ballots, it’s a legitimate concern. Only 33% of the voter fraud cases I’ve broken down for you involved someone voting, or attempting to vote, in person.
Submit your questions using one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Twitter: @brianmuddradio
Facebook: Brian Mudd https://www.facebook.com/brian.mudd1
Photo by: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images