Liz Harrington: Coronavirus voting reforms — Democrats repackage old left-wing plans for today's crisis
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Isn’t it strange how every Democrat proposal for voting during a pandemic is exactly what Democrats called for before we had ever heard of COVID-19?
The new central plan of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for voting in response to the coronavirus looks an awful lot like her last voting plan. But that was before Democrats could use a health crisis as an excuse to push their political agenda. Her prescription last year for "strengthening our democracy" is nearly identical to her prescription now for "protecting our election."
In June 2019, Warren called for government-mandated same-day registration, early voting, and nationwide mail-in-voting. Her excuse then was to protect us against "racist" politicians. Now, to protect us from the coronavirus, Warren is calling fo r… government-mandated same-day registration, early voting, and nationwide mail-in voting.
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Like Nancy Pelosi’s $4 billion ruse to nationalize ballot harvesting, Warren is using the pandemic to push for election changes Democrats have pushed for years.
The 15 days of mandatory early voting Warren said was necessary in 2019, is now up to 30 days. She simultaneously wants to massively expand mail-in voting. Warren would strip voter ID requirements for absentee ballots, claiming they "undermine" social distancing, while she would force polling stations to be open longer, for a month before Election Day. The proposal is inherently contradictory: vote in person, for longer, because it is too dangerous to leave the house.
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Warren slanders Republicans as "using the crisis" to "disenfranchise millions." In reality, millions of voters have already been disenfranchised this year – due to the very policies Warren supports.
This primary season, 4 million people voted early, sometimes months before the election was held in their state. By the time Super Tuesday rolled around, thanks to early voting (and a little maneuvering by the Democrat establishment), countless Democrats had cast essentially worthless votes for candidates who had dropped out.
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"I mean it’s just sad because so many calls, so many emails — ‘Can I have another chance to vote again?’" lamented one election official.
Conducting an entire election via mail would also disenfranchise voters. In 2016, some 400,000 absentee votes were never counted — and that was an election where less than a quarter of votes were sent by mail.
Warren claims a one-size-fits-all federal takeover of an election just seven months away is necessary for it to be held "securely, and on time." The opposite is true. Nationwide mail-in voting would delay results far past election night with legal challenges.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democrats have even argued (unsuccessfully) to allow voting after Election Day in Wisconsin. In addition, Warren would ban states from cleaning up their voter rolls, a necessary tool to prevent fraud, making our election less secure.
President Trump is right, it is easier to cheat by mail. Votes can be bought and sold. Voters can be influenced by others.
Republicans do not oppose voting by mail. However, sending a ballot to every registered voter, while preventing states from making sure its rolls are accurate and up to date, is a recipe for massive fraud. Under Warren’s plan, there likely would be more ballots in circulation than adults who are eligible to vote.
Many states do not perform regular maintenance on their voter rolls, even though it is required by law. The most glaring example is California, which was forced to remove 1.5 million ineligible voters from its rolls last year.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}It is not just California, and the issue is not new. The Associated Press reported Alabama had thousands more "voters" than living adults back in 2008. A Pew Charitable Trusts study in 2012 found errors in one of every eight voter registrations. Twenty-four million voter registrations were "no longer valid" or "significantly inaccurate," nearly 2 million dead people were registered, and nearly 3 million people were registered in multiple states. The problem was evident in 2016 when 20 percent of absentee ballots were never returned.
President Trump is right, it is easier to cheat by mail. Votes can be bought and sold. Voters can be influenced by others. Are Democrats no longer worried about women "being under tremendous pressure" from "fathers, and husbands, and boyfriends, and male employers" on how to vote, one of the many reasons cited by Hillary Clinton for her loss?
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Since elections take place at the start of normal flu seasons, it is long past time to discuss how to make polling places more sanitary, like deploying more cleaning and medical supplies and utilizing social distancing. But we can make voting safe, without upending the way we hold free and fair elections.
While we are taking unprecedented steps right now to fight the coronavirus, it will be safe to go outside again. It will be safe to go to work. And it will be safe to vote.