Jim AgnamWith the Presidential elections less than 2 months away, both major political parties are readying for a major battle to take over power in Washington D.C. In the middle of this battle is the usual pre-election gamesmanship. On the one hand, the Democrat party is pushing for 100% mail-in voting. What this means is that, election officials need to send out ballots to every registered voter, whether they request absentee vote or not, as long as their name appears on the voter rolls, regardless of their current address. On the other hand, the GOP would rather limit mail-in voting only to those who formally request for absentee voting. What this means is that the voter has to remember to make such a request on time. Given the nature of the ongoing pandemic, it is impossible for a voter to plan to do this in advance without knowing what will happen with the virus.
Note that both sides have their calculations and are solely motivated by their hunger for power. Let us deal with this one at a time in quick bites.
Democrat Party Possible Motivation:
The democrat party is very good at community organizing and has practiced using their army of activists to engage voters and help them send in their votes by mail. Actually some states allow these activists the ability to collect votes en masse and deliver them, sometimes long after the election.
What is the risk with this democrat desire?
There are several risks here. The first is that, this gives activists the ability to pressure voters to vote how the party wants. For example, activists can knock on doors when they realize their candidate is losing, pressure or pay voters to vote a certain way. In close contests in several swing states, that could be the difference. Secondly, it allows room for massive fraud. Image those third world countries where the dictators always win, sometimes with more votes than the number of citizens eligible to vote. With absentee ballots, it is easy to track and validate the vote, although the voter could still be intimidated into voting a certain way. In the 2018 elections, many Republican office seekers were winning in Orange County CA on election day, but a few weeks later, the democrats were able to find enough ballots to harvest such that the results flipped and democrats won every contested office in the county. You see, the democrat party already practiced and know how to legally cheat, thus the massive push for not only 100% mail-in votes, but also for weakened ballot verification.
What is our verdict? The democrat party only cares about power and is confident they can win in an insecure election.
Republican Party Possible Motivation:
Historically, the GOP has performed well in low turnout elections. What does this mean? In the middle of a pandemic, chances are that republican voters are more likely to come out to the polls in person to vote, compared to the democrat party voters. Secondly, whenever there has been close elections where votes appear after the polls close, somehow, the democrat party has always been the beneficiary of such discovered votes. Put it simply, democrats are really good at hunting for votes after the election, and they always win in such scenarios. Instead of stepping up to the challenge, the GOP rather oppose most forms of mail-in ballots, to limit the number of people who can vote without coming to the polls in person. They argue that 100% mail-in votes are ripe for fraud and cannot be implemented in a hurry.
What is our verdict? The GOP is only scared they might lose in a 100% mail-in voting election, so they want to scare everyone.
Bottom line. Is there a history of large scale recorded voter fraud related to mail-in voting? No. This is because there has never been large scale 100% mail-in voting. Is there evidence of voter fraud with mail-in voting? Yes. There is plenty of evidence. It is shocking when media figures keep saying the GOP is talking about voter fraud without evidence. They just chose to ignore evidence. Election fraud is a thing, and election officials from both parties should take it seriously. On the other hand, the GOP should work with democrats to provide voters with secure verifiable mail-in voting option. On Thursday September 24th, 2020, the Texas attorney general Ken Paxton announced four arrests/indictments related to charges in connection to vote harvesting scheme in the 2018 democratic party primary elections in Gregg County, TX. Is this a voter fraud case? Yes it is. 
Recently trays of mail including absentee ballots were found in a ditch in Wisconsin. There is also recent evidence of mail-in votes casted for President Trump being dumped in the trash. Who dumped them? This is clear evidence of another risk of 100% mail-in voting.
Imaging this situation at scale. There are other numerous cases of people going to jail for voter fraud in connection to mail-in, and example of these cases was in the case of New Jersey in the 2020 democratic primaries.
Secondly, activists should not be allowed to use the guise of voter education to pressure voters into voting one way or the other. Let the best candidate win.
Finally, any municipality that gets more votes that eligible voters should have all their votes thrown out.
Warning: The USA needs to be careful, else it will become like a third world. If people can wear mask and go to the grocery store, they can wear masks and go vote. Regardless, those who need to should be afforded a secured alternative to request and vote by mail.
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