Americans are worried about the Republic – with good reason. Election integrity matters. We all know that. The 2020 presidential election results are suspect. We all know that, too. They will remain suspect, indefinitely. The question is what to do with this fact.
On one hand, we can hope that – in some yet-to-be-heard lawsuit – fraud will be proven, and a Biden-Harris administration prevented on the merits. On the other hand, this looks increasingly unlikely – as election-shifting fraud is notoriously hard to prove, even when present.
So, what do we know? We know that COVID set up a bizarre election year, hobbling the Trump economy, permitting media and social media bias to sweep the election process, and justifying mass use of mail-in ballots – which opened the door to mass irregularities. Such heavy reliance on mail-in ballots must never happen again. Look at the facts.
With COVID, Democrats pushed unprecedented pre-election ballot distribution – virtually swamping the electorate, sending millions of ballots to unverified addresses, without requests, signature cross-checks, voter identification, ballot collection, or traditional anti-fraud protection.
By election day, 84 percent of American voters – 198 million Americans – could submit ballots without appearing in person. Worse, ballots could be returned for others, potentially completed for infirm, dead, intimidated, indifferent, previously unregistered, potentially ineligible voters.
On the numbers, only five states required in-person voting. By the time dust settled, 101.9 million votes had been cast early, 73 percent of the 2016 vote. Of that number, 65 million were mail-ins. Put differently, the number of 2020 mail-ins roughly doubled 2016’s 33.5 million.
In many states, mail-ins did not just produce a Biden victory margin – they exceeded all votes cast in that state in 2016. In other words, mail-in ballots – in 2020 – wagged the dog.
Traditionally, mail-in ballots favor Democrats, although why is not clear. Some say Republicans vote in-person more, but that is no explanation. Some say Democrat mail-in fraud is common, but in most years marginalized by in-person voting. Either way, mail-in ballots favored Democrats – by huge margins in 2020.
Some states push mail-ins, like California and Colorado, while others like New Hampshire did so for the first time. Ten states sent mail-ins to all voters. Nearly all states saw an absentee uptick.
Curiously, one in four ballots came from someone not recorded as voting in 2016, which could mean unprecedented participation, or an uptick in mail-ins from those usually not voting but “assisted” this year, such as the infirm, ill, disinterested, uneducated, and ineligible.
One variable stands out this cycle, above COVID, media and social media bias, socialist pressure, political violence, China, and a polarized electorate – mass use of mail-in ballots.
This is where the rubber meets the road, where the Republic perseveres, returns to honest vote-casting, or gives away the farm – loses election integrity. While the next four years may be hard to bear, calling for the best from American patriots, including courage and stamina, one thing is for sure: We must never again allow mass reliance on mail-in ballots – for any reason.
These ballots, whether the Supreme Court finds enough evidence of fraud to rule against them or not, are inherently suspect. They are prone to wrong addresses, wrong parties, voters who have moved, died, become institutionalized, infirm, ineligible, or are simply subject to undue influence, ballot harvesting, vote buying, and other indicia of fraud. That is incontrovertible.
So, to review the bidding. Yes, lawsuits remain – and yes, they may not prevail. Yes, the media – and social media – are unprofessional, biased. Yes, a cover-up of Hunter Biden’s corruption may have tipped the balance, points straight to Joe Biden; not covering that was unconscionable.
But the biggest cloud over this election – if Biden-Harris are sworn in – is this: Mail-in ballots set up potential for mass fraud, whether provable or not. This twist undermines the idea of one-citizen-one-vote, and faith in accountable elections. While we will have to deal with what can be proven this cycle, we should NEVER again allow reliance on mass mail-ins. Full stop.