ALGOP’s Lathan: Not signed, sealed and delivered

Here they come … again — the Democrats rallying cry for a nationally imposed all mail-in ballot system. While their push to force every possible voter to receive a ballot in any election is not new, they have been reinvigorated for trying to implement this very dangerous scheme due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This viral threat is not a reason for the federal government to mandate national voting laws — especially seriously flawed ones.

Democrat Senators Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Ron Wyden have proposed the Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act of 2020. This bill would allow all vote by mail elections while undoing state voter ID laws. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing states to remove an eyewitness signature. Courts are being asked to allow votes to be counted AFTER the election.

The Democrats are on a mission to destroy our time-tested system of voting in person by most Americans. They have apparently forgotten that our nation is a republic with the states making the decisions on their election laws and procedures.

There is overwhelming evidence that an all-mail voting election dictated from Washington, DC is not to be trusted. The headlines tell the story —the one that the Democrats always fail to share with us: 28 Million Mail-In Ballots Went Missing in Last Four Elections; Error and Fraud at Issue as Absentee Voting Rises; Brokers’ Exploit Absentee Voters; Elderly Are Top Targets for Fraud; Five States Face Federal Lawsuit Over Inaccurate Voter Registrations.

Multitudes of studies have warned of ballot harvesting (letting anyone handle, mark or take your ballot), voter mail fraud and inaccurate voter registration mailing lists. Anyone who says that this is not an issue and it doesn’t happen is simply ignoring the facts or doesn’t want to hear them. According to research by Judicial Watch’s Election Integrity Project in 2017, “Some 3.5 million more people are registered to vote in the U.S. than are alive among America’s adult citizens,” (Source: The National Review). The U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the Election Administration and Voting Surveys report roughly 16.4 million ballots mailed to registered voters went missing between the 2016-2018 elections – including the Trump-Clinton presidential matchup.

As noted in RealClear Politics, there have been 28 million mail-in votes that vanished between 2012-2018. That’s 28 million Americans who were disenfranchised as their constitutional rights were denied. How is this the best practice for our democracy? It opens up a clear path to fraud and easily can question the integrity of elections.

Following the contentious Bush-Gore election in 2000, the bipartisan Carter Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, concluded that “Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.” Rarely is it that I have agreed with Jimmy Carter on a policy, but here’s one where he is absolutely correct.

In the third April 2020 stimulus package for the COVID-19 crisis, what did the Democrats in the U.S. House do while Americans are losing their jobs and truly fearful for their families’ futures? Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats tried to insert their national mail-in scheme into the package. It was utterly outrageous and clearly showed us what their end game is — no ID, no accountability, no eyes on the ballots, no deadlines and no way to see who has what. One needs to ask — why are Democrats aggressively trying to water down safeguards of our democracy?

Democrats are not addressing the problems of fraud, missing ballots or a lack of accountability in our elections. They are trying to wrestle away the states’ rights on elections. They have no answers to these repeated issues, nor do they offer solutions for real problems.

If a state chooses to do all mail-in ballot elections, it is taking a great risk for all engaged citizens to be dutifully counted. History and data clearly validate these concerns — however, it is not Washington, D.C.’s place or responsibility to force states into an “one size fits all” voting mechanism.

There is a joy to voting in person with your fellow citizens. Watching your ballot being counted and walking out of your precinct secure in the knowledge that your vote matters is truly an American moment. It is the most powerful tool in a democracy and to verify it in real time is the fundamental foundation of our elections.

Any national all mail-in election ideas should be simply marked “Return to Sender” to the Democrats and placed in a pile of junk mail.

Terry Lathan is the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party