You’ve heard it a million times before: Despite a massive last-minute shift to mail-in voting because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election was the “most secure in American history.”
Those words, from a Nov. 12, 2020, media release with the catchy title “Joint Statement from Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees” (just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?) was and continues to be parroted by every establishment media organization. If you follow election security, you can recite those words as surely as schoolchildren can recite the “Pledge of Allegiance.”
Mind you, nobody went about verifying that statement. Nobody bothered to look at, say, the 1920 or 1952 presidential election with a critical eye toward the modern mail-in process. They scarcely bothered to compare it with the 2016 election, which didn’t see a massive shift toward mail-in voting prompted by a global crisis and which presumably saw fewer disruptions in ordinary ballot-casting patterns.
Everyone with a job in journalism who wanted to keep it saw the news release, picked out those four words and repeated them over and over and over and over again, almost as an incantation against basic common sense.
So, answer me this, then: Did over one in five absentee voters commit fraud before 2020? Because, according to a new poll from Rasmussen Reports and The Heartland Institute, that’s exactly what they did three Novembers ago.
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The national telephone and online survey, released Tuesday by Rasmussen, found that 21 percent of mail-in voters admitted to practices that were likely or definitely fraudulent during the 2020 election — and that those Americans constituted 30 percent of those who cast ballots.
“Nineteen percent (19%) of those who cast mail-in votes say a friend or family member filled out their ballot, in part or in full, on their behalf,” a media release by Rasmussen read.
“Furthermore, 17% of mail-in voters say that in the 2020 election, they cast a ballot in a state where they were no longer a permanent resident. All of these practices are illegal, Heartland Institute officials noted.”
There is a slight caveat to this, as the Heartland Institute noted: “Filling out a ballot for someone else is illegal in all states, although many states allow people to assist others with voting.”
The wording of the question made it unclear whether this was legal assistance or illegal tampering (“During the 2020 election, did a friend or family member fill out your ballot, in part or in full, on your behalf?”), although it’s highly dubious that 19 percent of people included in the poll met the state requirements to have their ballots filled out by another person.
WHOA: Heartland/Rasmussen Poll: One-in-Five Mail-In Voters Admit to Committing at Least One Kind of Voter Fraud During 2020 Election
–17% of mail-in voters admit that in 2020 they voted in a state where they are “no longer a permanent resident”
–21% of mail-in voters admitted…— Peter Schweizer (@peterschweizer) December 12, 2023
Casting a ballot in a state where you are no longer a permanent resident, on the other hand, is definitely illegal — and could have allowed voters to choose based on whether the state they previously resided in or their current residence had a closer race between presidential, senatorial or gubernatorial candidates.
“The results of this survey are nothing short of stunning,” said Justin Haskins, the director of the Heartland Institute’s Socialism Research Center.
“For the past three years, Americans have repeatedly been told that the 2020 election was the most secure in history. But if this poll’s findings are reflective of reality, the exact opposite is true. This conclusion isn’t based on conspiracy theories or suspect evidence, but rather from the responses made directly by the voters themselves.”
OK, so where’s the outrage? Where’s the hasty retraction of “most secure election ever” claims? Where’s the investigative reporting that either backs up or debunks the results of this poll?
There’s none. Reporting on the bombshell survey has been kept to the right side of the media spectrum. The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC — pretty much all crickets.
And it’s not as if the poll dispositively proves that Donald Trump would have beaten Joe Biden even if the findings were accurate. Aside from the 3 percent margin of error among the 1,085 likely voters polled between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6, there’s also the fact that cheating seems to be pretty evenly distributed.
“Among those who cast mail-in ballots in 2020, nearly equal percentages of Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters admitted to fraudulent activities,” the media release read.
“For example, 19% of Republicans, 16% of Democrats and 17% of unaffiliated voters who cast 2020 mail-in ballots say they signed a ballot or ballot envelope on behalf of a friend or family member. On the question of voting in a state where they were no longer a permanent resident, more Republican mail-in voters (24%) than Democrats (17%) or unaffiliated voters (11%) admitted doing so.”
However, the results are problematic for a number of reasons, particularly since prior Rasmussen polling shows a dramatic shift in how much confidence Americans have that the 2024 election will be conducted fairly.
“How likely is it that the outcome of the 2024 presidential election will be affected by cheating?”
IT’S LIKELY –
Men: 54%
Women: 58%
18-39: 62%
40-64: 56%
65+: 48%
White: 55%
Black: 51%
Hispanic: 60%
DEM: 40%
IND: 55%
GOP: 73%
All Voters: 56% https://t.co/63nHpQn2Db— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) November 18, 2023
In a November poll from Rasmussen, 56 percent of likely voters felt that “cheating is likely to affect the outcome of the next presidential election.” That’s more than half who believe the system is somehow rigged — and over one in five voters are saying that, yes, they’re actively rigging the system.
In a country that touts free and fair elections — and ostracized anyone who questioned the dramatic shift toward mail-in voting during the 2020 process — that’s a huge trust gulf that won’t just be ameliorated by vague statements about how 2024 was even securer than “the most secure election ever,” and how 2028 will be even securerer than 2024, and 2032 securererer than 2028, repeated ad nauseam every four years. (Provided the right candidate wins, of course.)
But, no. Anyone who raises serious questions about the move toward mail-in voting and whether or not proper security measures are taken to ensure signatures match and the individual can legally vote in the jurisdiction is ostracized and branded a loon. In fact, the Democrats attempted to make mail-in voting pretty much a sacred institution with their failed voting reform overhaul — and, rest assured, they’re going to try again.
This poll proves what conservatives have been saying all along about voting security. Ballot fraud isn’t just some cooked-up scheme by conspiracy theorists weaned on too much InfoWars. It’s real and it’s happening, even if it’s not organized. It doesn’t have to be to affect the legitimacy of U.S. elections, especially when swing states are so close. Americans deserve transparent and secure voting — not convenient, slapdash mail-in races where we accept that one out of every five ballots might be cast illegally.
