Voter Fraud Angst Uncovered: What Officials Are Relying On From Voters, And It’s Not An ID
Voter fraud is front and center of the 2016 election amid a bitter presidential race. Reports of a rigged voting system have been fueled by arguments made by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Is voter fraud as rare as so many reports claim it is?
Some precincts are voicing concern over voter fraud during this election cycle because they have fears that they’re not going to be as thorough as they should be when they check in voters on November 8. There’s a very real sense of angst that people will be voting when they shouldn’t. There’s only one piece of information that officials are required to have from people arriving to vote, and it’s not identification.
According to TMZ, voter fraud is a major concern for some officials running the polling stations for the 2016 election.
Some states aren’t requiring voters to present any ID before casting their ballots. Alternatively, they’re depending on precinct poll workers to match a person’s signature with the signature on the voter registration form. It basically comes down to an untrained handwriting expert to determine whether a signature is legally valid.
Three officials in different counties shared their concerns over voter fraud. Nick LaLota, the Suffolk County NY Board of Elections commissioner, expects 500,000 people to show up at voting booths on Election Day and says signature verification “compromises the integrity of the voting process. He says it will be hard to know who votes when they shouldn’t.”
Marcy Crawford, the deputy commissioner of the Board of Elections for Allegany County in New York, tells the news source that voter fraud is a big concern and is a topic on everyone’s mind in the office.
John Arntz, the director of Elections in San Francisco, reveals that voters arrive at the polling station and give their name to a polling worker, who checks for their name on the roster and reads off the resident address they have on file. If the voter says, “That’s my address,” the person receives a ballot. Arntz says it allows the system plenty of room for voter fraud.
The report concludes that counties and states are relying more and more on signature verification in place of IDs.
People worry that voter impersonation fraud will occur if ID isn’t required. As the Independent Journal Review also point out, the burden of responsibility falls on poll workers, many of whom are volunteers.
Another worry is the voting machine made by a company that billionaire George Soros is linked with. Soros is famous for donating generously to the Clinton campaign and other Democrats. The voting machine has been distributed to 16 states across the nation. There’s mounting suspicion among many Republicans that the equipment could be rigged.
#CNNRealityCheck: Donald Trump’s claims of “large scale” voter fraud https://t.co/zI2jq6mP1H pic.twitter.com/Kp8xXpK2ZC
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 18, 2016
While the mainstream media continuously maintains that voter fraud is rare, investigative journalists are learning something more. The arguments that Donald Trump is making at his rallies are played down by the media while voters are secretly wondering if what he’s alleging is true.
President Obama is working hard to reassure the American people that subscribing to the rigged system claims is dangerous and undermines the democracy. He adds that all it’s doing is creating angst so they won’t go out and vote. Trump is encouraging people to vote but cautions that the system isn’t just against him, but voters nationwide. He wants his supporters to understand that voter fraud exists and is hammering home that message in every one of his rallies from now until November 8.
[Featured Image by John Moore/Getty Images]
