Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Election Integrity

Different than usual for this site, most of what follows is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on September 20, 2021, during a Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on “Critical American Elections.”

Of course, I have my opinion on voter integrity, the fairness of elections, and the thievery that took place in the election of 2020. Nonetheless, I found what is contained in the following excerpts to be especially enlightening. (FYI, these excerpts will be in quotes to avoid any confusion with my salient comments.)

“Sixteen years ago, in 2005, the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform issued a report that proposed a uniform system of requiring a photo ID in order to vote in U.S. elections. The report also pointed out that widespread absentee voting makes vote fraud more likely. Voter files contain ineligible, duplicate, fictional, and deceased voters, a fact easily exploited using absentee ballots to commit fraud. Citizens who vote absentee are more susceptible to pressure and intimidation. And vote-buying schemes are far easier when citizens vote by mail.

“The Commission’s two ranking members were former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and former Secretary of State James Baker III, a Republican. Other Democrats on the Commission were former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton. It was a truly bipartisan commission that made what seemed at the time to be common sense proposals

“How things have changed. Some of the Commission’s members, Jimmy Carter among them, came out last year to disavow the Commission’s work. And despite surveys showing that Americans overwhelmingly support measures to ensure election integrity—a recent Rasmussen survey found that 80 percent of Americans support a voter ID requirement—Democratic leaders across the board oppose such measures in the strongest terms. 

“For instance, President Biden speaking recently in Philadelphia,

condemned the idea of voter IDs. Sadly but predicably, he suggested that requiring voter IDs would mean returning people to slavery.”

OMG! Hard as I try, I do not get Biden’s analogy, but as has become commonplace for Democrats … when there is no reasonable argument for their position, they always pull out the race card!

How do other democratic countries deal with this issue?

“Of the 47 countries in Europe today, 46 of them currently require government-issued photo IDs to vote. The odd man out is the United Kingdom, in which Northern Ireland and many localities require voter IDs, but the requirement is not nationwide. The British Parliament, however, is considering a nationwide requirement, so very soon all 47 European countries will likely have adopted this common-sense policy.

“When it comes to absentee voting, we Americans are often shocked to learn that 35 of the 47 European countries—including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden—don’t allow absentee voting for citizens living in country. Another ten European countries—including England, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, and Spain—allow absentee voting, but require voters to show up in person and present a photo ID to pick up their ballots.

“How about our neighbors, Canada and Mexico? Canada requires a photo ID to vote. If a voter shows up at the polls without an ID, he is allowed to vote only if he declares who he is in writing and if there is someone working at the polling station who can personally verify his identity. 

“Mexico recently instituted strict reforms. Voters must present a biometric ID—an ID with not only a photo, but also a thumb print. Voters also have indelible ink applied to their thumbs, preventing them from voting more than once. And absentee voting is prohibited, even for people living outside the country.”

This last paragraph should be read twice, especially in light of the fact that in Mexico the penalty for voter fraud is quite substantial.

The Democrats are implying, (although not actually coming right out and saying) that many of those that they are championing for are basically too dumb or too disinterested to vote. To that I say … if Mexico can require photo I.D.s and thumbprints to vote, tell me again the logical reason that the USA cannot do the same.

“Those who oppose election integrity reform here in the U.S. often condemn it as a means of “voter suppression.” But in Mexico, the percent of people voting rose from 59 percent before the reforms to 68 percent after. It turned out that Mexicans were more, not less, likely to vote when they had confidence that their votes mattered.”

What about mail-in voting?

I think that mail-in voting is akin to the Wizard of Oz hiding behind a curtain, and opposition to mail-in voting is like Toto pulling back the curtain to reveal the chicanery. 

“H.R. 1, the radical bill Democratic Party leaders have been pushing to adopt this year, would prohibit states from requiring voter ID and require states to allow permanent mail-in voting. And mail-in voting, I hardly need to point out, is even worse, in terms of vote fraud, than absentee voting.”

To be clear in my mind everything that the Democrats propose ‘to insure that everyone has their vote counted’ is just another way of them finagling a way to cancel out my vote with a fraudulent vote.

The talk from Hillsdale College closed with the following:

“Those opposing common sense measures to ensure integrity in U.S. elections—measures such as those recommended by the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission in 2005—are not motivated by a concern for democracy, but by partisan interests.” 

BTW: I did not need Hillsdale College to tell me that!

www.californiacontrarian.com

12/17/21

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