Thursday, August 13, 2020

Trump Says Mail Voting is Bad but Absentee Voting is Good


President Trump tried to Draw a Distinction between "Mail-in-Voting" and "Absentee Voting," but his own Lawyers acknowledged in Court Documents the Two are the Same Thing.

"With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history," Trump claimed without Evidence.

Some States have used All-Mail Elections for a Long time. There have been more than 250 Million Ballots Cast by Mail in the last 20 years, and only 143 Prosecutions Related to Mail Ballot Fraud from: Voters; Candidates; their Campaigns; and Election Officials, or a Rate of about 0.00006%.

Trump said he Opposed "mail-in-voting" but "totally" supports "absentee voting," even though they are the same thing. Trump and many of his Aides have Repeatedly Voted by Mail themselves.

Trump and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, for example, have Claimed that they voted "Absentee" in Florida. But there is No "Absentee" Voting in Florida. Instead, the State has a "No Excuse" Vote-by-Mail System that Allows anyone to Cast a Ballot-by-Mail for any Reason.

Then there is the Problem that Trump Illegibly Voted in Florida. When Trump made Mar-a-Lago a Membership Club, he Signed an Agreement it would Never be his Residence. So when he Registered to Vote he used an Address that could Not be his Residence and in Florida that could result in a $5,000 Fine.

Attorneys for the Trump Campaign noted that while some States have Different Wording regarding the Terminology, "the terms 'mail-in' and 'absentee' are used interchangeably to discuss the use of the United States Postal Service to deliver ballots to and from electors".

Marc Elias, a Lawyer for the Democratic Party who frequently argues Election Cases in Court, said "there is no distinction" between the two terms. They are synonyms," "Some states tend to use the term 'mail-in.' Some states tend to use the term 'absentee.' Sometimes, within a state, the statutes will refer to both. But they are both the same. They are both processes by which people who don't want to show up to the polls in person can receive in the mail a ballot . . . that they either mail back or deliver through some other mechanism to election officials. There is no difference." he said.

Trump's Complaints appear to be based on the Premise that Mail Voters typically have to Request and Fill-Out a Form in order to obtain a Mail-in-Ballot, but some States are Sending every Eligible Voter an Application in Anticipation of a Surge in Mail Voting due to the Pandemic.

For those States that Vote-by-Mail is their Standard way to Vote, I agree with Mailing All Register Voters their Ballot. But I agree with Trump that Other States should First Mail Ballot Request. Then use the Undeliverable Requests to Clean their Voter Rolls before Mailing the Ballots.

Beverly Clarno, Oregon's Republican Secretary of State, said that "the state's system uses unique barcodes for each ballot it sends out."

Kim Wyman, Washington's Republican Secretary of State, said that "vote-by-mail has a lot of security measures. At the end of the day, all voting systems are like banks, You build a lot of things in to protect from fraud. You build in a lot of measures to detect it. But ultimately, if somebody wants to commit fraud, or if someone wants to rob a bank, they can. And then we have measures on the back end to prosecute that criminal activity. So you hope to deter it, and you hope it doesn't happen. But if it does, you have ways to deal with it."










NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker


No comments: