Is Voter Fraud a Myth?

• Controversial races in Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Mississippi have fueled concerns of possible voter fraud in the 2018 midterm elections.
• Given our nation’s long history of corruption and documented election fraud, the true question should not be whether voter fraud exists, but how widespread it is.
• Seriously questionable activity is transpiring in Florida
• So long as we the people refuse to demand justice, we have no reason to expect change … instead, we should expect to see increasingly pervasive and brazen acts of election tampering

Controversial races in Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Mississippi have fueled concerns of possible voter fraud in the 2018 midterm elections. At the center of the greatest controversy have been two southern Florida counties. Governor Rick Scott, who is on the ballot for U.S. Senate, warned, “Every Floridian should be concerned there may be rampant voter fraud happening in Palm Beach and Broward Counties. And the Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes has a history of acting in absolute bad faith.”^[1] Similarly, Senator Marco Rubio Tweeted, “No fraud? Fine. Then what is the right word for Broward submitting vote totals that include ballots disqualified by canvassing board (as reported by @MiamiHerald)? Or Palm Beach illegally making duplicate ballots without submitting to canvassing board?”^[2]

In contrast, the news media has been unified in reporting that there is absolutely no evidence to substantiate such claims, dismissing the notion of election fraud as a myth.^[3] Ironically, the same media that salivates over special counsel investigator Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election is adamant that election fraud on any meaningful level is nothing more than a conspiracy theory. Likewise, the same news media that champions demonstrations protesting the legitimacy of elections where Republicans won is the same media who decries as authoritarian and fascist any questioning of the electoral process that might reverse the results of the media’s favored candidates.^[4] But our nation has a long history of corruption and documented election fraud.^[5] The true question should not be whether voter fraud exists, but how widespread it is.

Here’s a small sample of the kind of voting fraud that occurs in our country:

• A hidden camera captured NYC Democratic Commissioner of the Board of Elections Alan Schulkin talking about how some minority neighborhoods bus people to different polling precincts in order to vote multiple times.^[6]
• Public Interest Legal has documented thousands of non-citizens who are registered to vote in states throughout America.^[7] In a small sample of just eight Virginia counties, they discovered 1,046 aliens who registered to vote illegally and cast hundreds of verified ballots before being removed from the voter rolls.^[8]
• A local NBC affiliate reported an Indiana statewide investigation into possible voter registration fraud. According to the report, “Police believe there could be hundreds of fraudulent voter registration records with different combinations of made up names and addresses with people’s real information.”^[9]
• Texas Democrats are under investigation for mailing voter registration cards to non-citizens with the citizenship box pre-checked.
• ^[10][11]Members of the New Black Panther Party were charged with voter intimidation when they stood in front of a polling place in Philadelphia on Election Day, clad in military gear.^[12]
• Four women were indicted in Texas as part of a paid voter fraud ring who harvested ballots from senior citizens.^[13][14]
• Former interim head of the Democratic Party Donna Brazile admitted in a Politico opinion editorial and in her book Hacks that the Democratic Party rigged the presidential primary election against Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Lincoln Chafee, and Jim Webb.^[15][16] Senator Elizabeth Warren also agreed that the DNC primary was rigged in Hillary Clinton’s favor.^[17]

Even seemingly minor accounts of voter fraud could swing an entire election. Colorado’s 7^th Congressional district was determined by 121 votes out of the more than 175,000 that were cast in 2002.^[18] And who could forget the 2000 presidential election when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in Florida by just 537 votes out of the nearly 6 million cast?^[19]

Voter fraud exists, and there is reason to be concerned about what is transpiring in Florida during these 2018 midterm elections. Nearly four days after the polling precincts closed in Broward County, Florida, the nation still had no idea how many total votes had been cast, and more than 80,000 ballots were discovered after election day.^[20][21] These additional ballots were sufficient to change the election results in one of the state cabinet races and to force the state’s top three races—governor, U.S. Senate, and agriculture commissioner—into a statewide recount.^[22]

Florida law requires that all early voting and vote-by-mail ballots be accounted for and tabulated by 7 p.m. the day before the election,^[23] and the results must be submitted to the Department of State within 30 minutes after the polls close on election night.^[24] Additionally, updated precinct election results must be provided at least every 45 minutes until all results are completely reported.^[25] Nevertheless, new absentee ballots arrived by the truckload for days after the election was complete, and regular updates were not provided.^[26]

Concerned by how many ballots from outside the chain of custody were arriving after the legal deadline, Agriculture Commissioner candidate Matt Caldwell’s attorney spent more than 14 hours endeavoring to serve a subpoena to Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes. She repeatedly ducked service and refused to accept the subpoena.^[27]

Other concerns include the county’s refusal to permit observers to monitor the vote tallies;^[28] Brenda Snipes’ refusal to comply with court orders;^[29][30][31] a judge’s ruling that Snipes violated the Florida Constitution by not allowing access to the records;^[32][33] Snipes’ mixing together illegal provisional ballots with valid ballots, making it impossible to know which ballots are illegitimate;^[34] and “irregularity after irregularity.”^[35] Snipes even took it upon herself to open mail-in-votes before they had been canvassed. Politico explains, “Under state law, an elector or campaign can challenge the lawfulness of an absentee ballot, but only before the ballot has been opened from its mail-in envelope. By opening the ballot before it got to the three-member Canvassing Board, the Republican Party complained, Snipes’ office was breaking the law and making any challenge impossible.”^[36] Astonishingly, Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, who has been in office since 2003 and sits on the county’s three-member canvassing board, defended her actions by pleading ignorance of the word “canvass.”^[37][38]

These concerns of possible corruption are aggravated by the county’s history of violating election laws, and by Brenda Snipes’ personal record.^[39] According to blogger Taryn Fenske, Brenda Snipes has a “colorful history of fraud,” including:^[40]

1. Illegally destroying ballots^[41] (Sun Sentinel, May 14, 2018)
2. Absentee ballots that never arrived^[42] (Miami Herald, November 6, 2018)
3. Fellow democrats accused her precinct of individual and systemic breakdowns that made it difficult for voters to cast regular ballots^[43] (Miami Herald, November 4, 2014)
4. Posted election results half an hour before polls closed – a very clear violation of election law.^[44] (Miami Herald, November 2, 2018)
5. Sued for leaving amendments off of ballots^[45] (Miami Herald, October 20, 2016)
6. Claiming to not have the money to notify voters when their absentee ballot expired^[46] (Sun Sentinel, November 8, 2018)
7. Having official staffers campaign on official time^[47] (Broward Beat, July 20, 2016)
8. Problems printing mail ballots^[48] (Miami Herald, November 2, 2018)
9. Accusations of ballot stuffing^[49] (Heritage, August 1, 2017)
10. Voters receiving ballots with duplicate pages^[50] (Miami Herald, November 2, 2018)
11. Slow results and piles of ballots that cropped up way after Election Day^[51] (The Capitolist, November 8, 2018)
12. Opening ballots in private, breaking Florida law^[52] (Politico, August 13, 2018)

Given her record, many have asked how it is possible that Brenda Snipes has not been removed from her position as Broward County Supervisor of Elections. Whatever the answer may be, it appears as if she has been repeatedly permitted to engage in illegal and fraudulent voting activity, such that she now feels emboldened to flagrantly thwart state election law, just as King Solomon warned, “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong” (Ecc. 8:11, NIV).

We seem to be witnessing some degree of election fraud unfold in Florida, such that Brenda Snipes is now under criminal investigation for her actions,^[53] but lest we be too quick to levy blame for our present predicament upon Brenda Snipes, we, the American people, are also culpable. Time and again we’ve been exposed to the reality of election fraud in America, only to repeatedly ignore it and refuse to hold our officials accountable. We’ve been told that there is great potential for corruption and abuse, but we’ve chosen to ignore the problem.

• One out of eight voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or are significantly inaccurate.^[54]
• More than 1.8 million deceased people remain on the voter rolls.^[55]
• Approximately 2.7 million people have registrations in more than one state.^[56]
• Hundreds of counties across America have more registered voters than live in the county.^[57]

Most recently, President Trump commissioned the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to “study the registration and voting process used in Federal elections.”^[58] However, it was disbanded when many states refused to “provide the [commission] with basic information relevant to its inquiry.”^[59] Rather than demand transparency and accountability, our news media rejoiced, and the average citizen showed no concern.

Therefore, we have no right to become overly outraged by election fraud and what is unfolding in states such as Florida because our lack of concern has made it clear that we don’t want change when it comes to voter fraud. So long as we the people refuse to demand justice, we have no reason to expect change … instead, we should expect to see increasingly pervasive and brazen acts of election tampering (Ecc. 8:11). Rather than become angry with Brenda Snipes, the Democrat Party, Floridians, or any number of other easy targets, perhaps we ought to take a good long look in the mirror and ask what role we’ve played in fostering a corrupt culture where some people feel emboldened to steal an election. Change begins with us!