Mail-in ballots problematic

If you don’t believe mail-in ballots are a problem, think again. My wife and I became permanent Boulder City residents when we moved from California five years ago. We own property here and have Nevada driver’s licenses. We have no connection to California whatsoever and haven’t for five years.

Surprisingly, we received a mail-in voting ballot from the Orange County registrar of voters. That’s right, a mail-in ballot. Why were we sent a mail-in ballot? Who knows? I sent an email to Neal Kelley, an official for the registrar, and asked him what was going on and how many other ballots were mailed to out-of-state nonresidents. We await his response.

Another interesting note is the ballot’s return envelope flap. The flap has a place where the voter can authorize someone other than themselves to return the ballot. Really? Not only can the voter receive a nonsolicited ballot, he can fill it out and not even have to mail or deliver it themselves. Is this the proper process for voting in a national election? My golly, we certainly don’t want to make this process inconvenient for anyone.

If people can go grocery shopping, drive their cars, ride their bikes or even go for long walks, certainly they can go and cast their votes in person. If that is impossible due to travel or disability, they can request an absentee ballot. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Anyone with common sense would think so.

There is a big difference between an unsolicited ballot and an absentee ballot, the latter being that it is formally requested thus qualifying as reliably proper.

My story is just one story; but, beware, the story doesn’t stop here. We are beginning to hear all sorts of reports of mail-in ballot calamities. Our neighbor reports that he has received several mail-in ballots at his post office box, all with different names.

The United States has a long and unfortunate history of election fraud. The Heritage Foundation is providing a list of election fraud cases from across the country, broken down by state, where individuals were either convicted of vote fraud, or where a judge overturned the results of an election. This is not an exhaustive list but simply a sampling that demonstrates the many different ways in which fraud is committed. Preventing, deterring and prosecuting such fraud is essential to protecting the integrity of our voting process. Look it up folks, it is a real issue. (Heritage.org/voterfraud)

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures regarding double voting, underlying these state statutes is the Voting Rights Act’s prohibition on “voting more than once.” 52 U.S.C. § 10307(e). NCSL has been unable to find a prosecution of any person under that statute for voting in multiple states at the same time (for instance, voting for state and federal offices in the 2016 election in state X and for state offices in state Y, when the voter owns residences in both states). Thus, the question of whether federal law prohibits such voting practices remains unresolved.

Anyone can complete these mail-in ballots, sign the name it was addressed to and it will be counted. Does that sound right to you?

Answer provided

In response to Fred Bachhuber’s letter of Oct. 15 to the editor, I would like to know specifically where the “hate-filled” rhetoric is within my commentary. An elaboration is certainly desired. Further, in response to his question regarding whether or not I will commit to a peaceful transfer of power if our president loses re-election. The answer is a simple yes, as I do not condone violence of any sort. The real question is will I accept the election loss if it is evident that voting fraud has occurred? The answer is a simple no. Fortunately, I don’t believe this election will require litigation since the president is likely to win re-election by a landslide.

G. Kevin Savord is currently a professional pilot and former small business owner. He can be reached at gksavord@gmail.com.

The opinions expressed above belong solely to the author and do not represent the views of the Boulder City Review. They have been edited solely for grammar, spelling and style, and have not been checked for accuracy of the viewpoints.