I wonder whom Walt Disney voted for in the presidential election.
No, I’m not talking about the 1960 election when he was still alive. I’m referring to the 2020 election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
While I can’t be sure about Disney’s collective ashes voting from beyond the grave, ballots from dead people indeed have been cast in this or any other election. While many of these fraudulent ballots are snuffed out, others surely manage to pass by undetected or undeterred.
Voter fraud is a real thing. To deny it is to argue against proven facts. A ballot cast in the name of a dead person isn’t the only example of fraud, but it may be the most egregious.
Because voter fraud has been proven, the argument should never be over whether fraud exists. Instead, the debate should be over the best way to prevent it.
How to crack down on voter fraud
I wrote the other day that I think mail-in ballots and early voting should be eliminated. These methods are too susceptible to fraud and human error. Exceptions to mail-in or “absentee” voting should be granted only to those serving or working overseas, as well as to the feeble elderly. All other Americans should show up on election day and vote. In fact, I’m even in favor of the government declaring it a national holiday to give Americans the time off to stand in line, if need be.
Voting in person on election day is just one step toward eradicating voter fraud. Step 2 is ensuring that once potential voters are in the building, they’re even allowed to vote.
There is absolutely no justifiable reason not to have voter identification cards. Our fellow Americans on the left like to call voter ID laws a form of suppression. That is a weak argument on its face. If you are old enough to vote, you are capable of going through the process of registering and receiving an identification card.
The process is no different than applying for a driver’s license. In fact, it would probably be even easier, since unlike getting a driver’s license, you wouldn’t have to take a test or demonstrate the slightest bit of competency for a voter ID card.
When I think of the fact that we don’t have universal voter identification, it reminds me of Keanu Reeves’ line from the movie Parenthood. (Just replace “father” with “voter” — and dispense with the name-calling, too.)
Democrats who call voter ID laws a form of suppression are unknowingly belittling the constituents they allege are being suppressed. Truly, if they think someone is incapable of filling out paperwork to get a little plastic card, and then are unable to carry that little plastic card with them on election day, they must think so lowly of that person and assume they can’t manage to get by in life. Seriously, not being able to vote would be the least of such a person’s problems.
Cut down on manual vote tabulation
Step 3 in eliminating fraud is to cut down on the amount of manual vote tabulation.
I still believe in paper ballots because I know the importance of paper trails. But I advocate that we push for scanning systems that do all the vote tallying automatically.
Yes, I understand that technology can be glitchy and electronic systems can be hacked. This is why manual vote counting can be used as a backup system.
But are you telling me that in the year 2020, with as much digital progress as we’ve made, that we can’t roll out a much more efficient system of vote tabulation?
There used to be an adage I heard when I was growing up that seems to have gone by the wayside. It started with: “They can put a man on the moon, but…” People often used this expression to question why a certain task could not be completed given that the highly improbable feat of placing a human on another celestial body did get accomplished.
The other day, I sent a tweet using that adage.
Yeah, I’ll say it: we can put a man on the moon but we can’t figure out a way to tally ballots in one night in the year 2020. 🤔 #Vote2020
— Ryan Glab (@ryanglab) November 5, 2020
The leaders of our tech industry should get together and create a system that quickly and efficiently can tally 150 million ballots nationwide in the span of a few hours. It’s inconceivable that it cannot be done.
Conclusion
Voter fraud is indeed a problem. Although it might not be so widespread as to seriously alter the outcome of large scale national races, it still must be addressed. If gone unchecked, it can devolve into a much bigger issue, and it is not out of the realm of possibility that such fraud can influence the outcome of local or state races.
I’ve laid out three simple steps to curbing voter fraud: 1) get all voters through the doors on election day, 2) have them present their legal voter ID cards, and 3) scan their ballots, and confirm successful input, before they leave the room.
No election should ever be influenced by fraud. Not ever, but certainly not in the digital era of the twenty-first century.
