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May 14, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show
08:24
The Nightmare of Universal Voting by Mail ⎜The Dennis Prager Radio Show
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First, let's just get some facts straight.
Who is pushing for a universal mail-in ballot?
All of the progressive groups and their vehicle of choice is Nancy Pelosi's supposed coronavirus relief bill.
And as you know, that bill has everything in the world stuffed in it, including subsidies for the National Endowment for the Arts.
But it also has a lot of voting mandates for the states.
It would say that in the case of an emergency, and that would mean the pandemic we're in now, all states would have to go to universal mail voting.
In other words, no in-person voting.
Everybody votes by mail.
People would also be no longer required to have any identification to get a mail ballot.
As in California, it would probably be mailed out to every registered voter, which includes the 20 percent of registered voters who are dead, have moved, aren't eligible, or are here illegally in the country.
In other words, there'd be no security measures whatsoever.
It'd be open season.
And at the same time, I'm sure that the progressive groups are pushing, as in California, to legalize ballot harvesting, where political operatives can go door-to-door.
And collect people's votes or perhaps even fill them out or perhaps even lose their vote if they think they're voting for the opposition.
And this combination creates a perfect storm or perfect nightmare whereby you could have millions of ballots out there.
And in fact, the U.S. Election Assistance Corporation, which is a federal agency, says 28 percent of ballots that are already cast by mail Can't be accounted for.
They just disappear.
Okay, let me process this, because this is extremely scary.
First, I think people need to understand what ballot harvesting is.
I understand it, but I think a lot of people don't.
And I'd like to, this is what I do not understand.
How did that even begin, and why is it legal?
In most states, it isn't legal.
Although there's a real effort to increase voter turnout by allowing political operatives, people who work for a particular candidate, to go door to door, knock on the door, saying, have you gotten your mail-in ballot?
Let me help you fill it out.
Let me collect it from you.
I'll deliver it for you.
Now, there's several problems with that.
One is, we've seen in California, where this was first legalized in 2016, people being intimidated or even coerced on their doorstep.
To give the ballot over.
People of limited language ability are, shall we say, assisted by the political operative and who they should vote for.
Ballots thrown away.
Ballots stolen from mailboxes and filled out by somebody else.
If everybody has mailed a ballot, they may not even notice that they were supposed to get one.
This is probably the least secure method of voting you can imagine.
I'm perfectly in favor of absentee voting if you need a reason to do so.
Out of town, frail.
Well, wait.
Why are you for that?
It's the same thing.
No, because here's why.
We have existing security provisions.
Many states require a witness for an absentee ballot.
Many states require you to cite an excuse or a reason to get an absentee ballot.
The voter has to take an affirmative step to get the absentee ballot.
And in most states that don't push absentee ballots, between 5% and 7% of people will cast an absentee ballot.
In military, of course, voters have to cast an absentee ballot, people serving overseas.
So absentee ballots with security provisions limited to a part of a population where you have enough resources to control and monitor what goes on, that's acceptable.
But 100% universal mail-in voting is an engraved invitation to confusion, coercion, and fraud.
I see.
So it has now been put into the next trillion dollar, two trillion dollar?
Three trillion.
Three trillion dollars.
By the time we finish this conversation, it'll probably be up to 3.1.
Yeah, well, what's 100 billion dollars?
So it's amazing that 0.1 means 100 billion dollars.
Okay, so she has put this into this, which one has nothing, well, she would say it has something to do with it because people can't vote physically because it can't be managed.
What's your answer to that?
Well, first of all, in the Ebola epidemic of 2014, the nation of Liberia, with some international observer help, managed to conduct a complete election at the polls using several safety measures.
They had great turnout and honest result, and they did it in the middle of the Ebola crisis, and that was almost 100 percent fatal.
Secondly, Wisconsin conducted a primary.
About half the people in early April voted at home.
About half voted in person at the polls, and that went very well.
Turnout was up.
How did half the people vote at home?
I'm sorry, they voted absentee by mailing it from home.
Yeah, I understand that.
So Wisconsin does allow what you're opposing?
No, no, they had a temporary...
It was right in the middle of the viral pandemic.
What the Democrats wanted to do is have everybody vote by mail.
And the existing law wouldn't allow that.
So a lot of people applied for absentee ballots because of the virus.
I see.
So theoretically, you would be okay with 100% mail-in if everybody asked for it.
No, because they need a reason.
And by November, we are going to be over the pandemic, and we are not going to use that as an excuse to get rid of in-person.
Are the Republicans opposing its inclusion?
Absolutely.
And they have to, because otherwise I can assure you that if it goes through one election, the cry will be, well, it worked so wonderfully, turnout went up.
We have to use this for every election now.
This is a dangerous precedent.
Absentee voting with an excuse or a reason.
Fine.
We've done that since the Civil War.
But abandoning in-person voting for the U.S. Postal Service to be trusted with our ballots?
Excuse me.
I opt out.
What is the earliest that you know of in any given state?
In other words, days before Election Day that one can vote?
Last election, I don't know whether it was Maine or North Carolina.
You could vote the Friday after Labor Day, so early to mid-September.
You're kidding me.
By the way, that was before any debates in any state.
That's the problem with all mail-in voting.
It changes completely the character of the election.
Exactly.
Wait, you could vote two months before the election day?
Most states had it a month before.
But even a month before?
Well, again, the Constitution...
Our institution and our laws, Dennis, say election day.
None of them say election month.
If you go to all-mail voting, you've turned election day into election month without even consulting anyone.
And that means people are voting at different points in the campaign with different levels of information.
All right.
Maine is Democrat.
What was the other state?
North Carolina.
North Carolina.
Yeah, another Democrat.
I see.
Wherever Democrats...
So Democrats...
Think it's best for them if people vote almost two months in advance.
Well, that gives you more than two months to vote harvest, you see.
Explain that when we get back.
I'm talking to John Fund, who knows his stuff.
He's at National Review.
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