Absentee or mail-in ballots are voted outside the supervision and overview of election officials — thus destroying the secret ballot, an important hallmark of American elections for more than a century. They are susceptible to being stolen, altered, and forced.
The Condos/VPIRG vote-by-mail proposal, if allowed to move forward, will lead to something like 160,000 unclaimed or unwanted ballots just floating around — for any unscrupulous actors to collect, fill out and mail in.
Sen. Benning continued, “I know the excuse is Covid-19 and trying to keep people safe, but as I said to you in my email we have an alternative by way of an absentee ballot that makes perfect sense to cure that problem.”
I have to laugh when I hear members of the Vermont Legislature tell us that their vote-by-mail scheme to send live ballots to everyone on the voter checklist will be free of controversy and fraud because Vermonters certainly don’t try to steal them.
Vermont, with its small state voting population, is prime country for remarkably close elections, making it particularly sensitive to any improper voting. In 2016, in a Vermont state House seat race, the outcome was determined by one vote out of 2,000 votes cast. In such a race there is no room for any fraud.
While Secretary of State Jim Condos says Vermont’s vote-by-mail system has a safeguard in place to ensure that people casting ballots are who they say they are, town clerks on the front lines of elections say it’s not routine to check.
Is vote-by-mail secure voting? Can election officials really know who casts votes in a mail-in election? Vermont’s secretary of state responded to questions from True North about his plan to have ballots automatically sent to all registered voters for the general election.
Lawmakers of the Senate Committee on Government Operations on Tuesday expressed regret over giving the governor a say in this year’s elections and began drafting legislation to strip him of his authority in the matter.
The California Globe pointed out that 458,000 residents who died or moved are still on the “active” rolls — meaning that a half-million ballots will be floating out there for the taking. Another 24,000 people, Election Integrity Project California warns, will get two or more. It’s a recipe for disaster, watchdogs say.
A recent poll on Vermont’s voting preferences reveals a range of attitudes that run counter to election policies in the state — most notably, voters overwhelmingly think an ID should be required for casting a vote, and more than half say election officials can’t verify who is filling out absentee ballots.
As Vermont’s secretary of state and governor continue to discuss a proposal for expanded mail-in voting this election season, some lawmakers and citizens are worried that widespread use of a mail-in system could lead to voter fraud.
The Vermont Secretary of State’s Office hopes to reach an agreement with Gov. Phil Scott this week to institute universal voting-by-mail for the Nov. 3 general election. The SOS plan would require all town and city clerks to mail ballots to all registered voters.