I hate to say it but Trump is right about postal voting’s flaws. The traditional system is almost foolproof. Sure, one can turn up and find someone has used your name to vote but provide identification and the false vote would be cancelled and replaced by one’s own.
But to rely on the postal service is fraught with dangers such as non-delivery, theft and general uncertainty.
A household bully could take voting papers from an intimated wife or other family members and cast their votes, something impossible with the existing system. There are numerous other contingencies where it could go wrong.
Indeed, as the Economist reported a week ago, the American Postal Service is currently chronically dysfunctional thanks to Covid which has decimated its delivery staff levels.
If there’s a bright side to this, it’s the possibility of a close election win for Biden and Trump trumpeting fraud and refusing to leave the White House. The prospect of seeing him led out handcuffed would be a wonderful happiness cap to what’s been a horrible year for the world.
19 Comments
Bob,
We have examples of abuse of postal voting already in New Zealand. I know of a person who goes around rest homes “helping” patients to fill out their voting papers.
Online verified with a hack-proof login is the CV19-proof way of the future.
Ask anyone who works in cyber-security and there’s no such thing a hack-proof. Nothing beats good old fashioned paper
Hard to beat paper for sure, but there are many potential technological solutions to this problem now that are worth exploring.
How do you stop the bully standing over teh voter and making them vote against the voter’s wishes?
Computers are just tools run by people. The “verified” and “encrypted” and “hack-proof” stuff is just advertising. Unless you know and trust the people running the system you are rooted – in every sense of the word.
I know of three instances where people voted for other people in local body elections with postal voting – one voted for his son who was overseas, one voted for his elderly mother and a family cast a vote for their dead mother.
Not going to happen Bob, Trumpy will win. !
Trump and Sir Bob certainly has the postal vote issue right. Trump wouldn’t complain if he was on the left as he would benefit….the the Democrats only complain as they stand to lose a lot of questionable votes.
Bob has a bias against Trump because he relates to the establishment being an ex politician himself. Trump is all for America. Politicians of the establishment lie through their teeth.. one only need listen to the recent Democrat convention.
I am also a great believer of being an informed voter and though it is not the PC thing to say…..9nly motivated voters should vote our government from a polling booth.
I am a shareholder of many companies. I often throw away my vote and leave it to the informed shareholders to decide the directors and constitution matters.
There is an alternative that’s even scarier. Trump pulls off a come from behind win, the Democrats call fraud, Antifa and BLM take over Washington as they have done in Portland and civil war breaks out.
Trump in hand cuffs? Here’s my list…to be followed up with a period of time in stocks interspersed with regular sessions of bombardment with tomatoes until a genuine apology is elicited. Obama’s…both of em, Clinton’s…both of em, Gates’s…both of em, Fauci….his wife gets a reprieve only because I’m in a good mood and closer to home that Aussie goon that proudly want’s to stab everyone with a poison tipped needle and of course our very own PM……ahh both of em also…he just annoys me, I say he’s complicit. If Trump gratuitously tramples on my rights and freedoms I will in due time add him to my list. Oh I forgot to mention AOC…absolutely painful.
Bod, I’ve got a challenge for you: Can describe for us the worst thing you believe Trump has done, as president? His worst public policy, that is?
I like Trump. Obama was an airbag. Biden is demented. Trump has provided huge laughs, passed some solid legislation, he utterly detests the media but fronts up unlike Jacinda who has lapdogs grovelling at her feet. Trump will win again, warts and all, at least he cares for America.
Kurt Schlicter sardonic piece from Town Hall on postal voting- voter harvesting (link below).
Voter fraud has been significant in past elections.
RNZ was happy to play comment fromt he US postal worker’s union but did notdisclsoe the union is Democrat affiliated and have endorsed Joe Biden.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2020/08/20/the-post-office-conspiracy-is-first-class-stupidity-n2574613?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=08/20/2020&bcid=ed3cb8610252ed32d3e588e9c01d2b6c&recip=27414600
Bob, Trump will cruise in later this year. The sacrosanct nature of the ballot box affords people the opportunity to express a view without fear of being vilified. For a country at risk by China’s expansionist designs we should be grateful if Trump is in power.
Hey Bob.
Trump is far from perfect, but what is concerning is I am scared of the alternative.(Socialism?)
Love your columns.Keep them coming because they are refreshing.
P.S. I checked my grammar and spelling so hope I got it right.
Postal voting fraud is becoming an issue in the UK, not that you’ll ever hear about it in the UK media, who’d rather look the other way in instances where this occurs in ‘diverse neighbourhoods’. (Ditto rape gangs.)
Specifically, in Pakistani ghettos in the North of England, people described as “community leaders” (which is basically a mixture of thugs and clerics) demand people apply for postal votes so they can stand over them to ensure they chose the favoured candidate. There are various versions of this, some more obvious than others. Often called ‘family voting’ this is where the patriarch of a wider family demands the younger members postal vote so he can supervise.
In some cases election officials have had to fight with thugs to prevent them entering voting booths while others were voting. In other instances voters took in phones so they could photograph their voting papers to prove who they had voted for, so as to receive payment for voting or maybe avoid a beating.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1146638/peterborough-by-election-illegal-family-voting-polling-station-brexit-party