WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman Jason Smith introduced the Integrity of Our Elections Act, which would ensure only U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote receive a mail ballot for a federal election.
Recent concerning reports around the country involving voting irregularities and fraud through the mail directed the need for Smith to act. About taking the action Smith said, “Safeguarding our federal election process and its integrity has to be a priority as we enter what will be one of the most important elections of our life time. For every fraudulent ballot cast, the value of the vote of law abiding Americans is diminished.”
Specifically, Smith’s bill would require the chief state election official of each state to certify that recipients of mail-in or absentee ballots are living, U.S. citizens, and eligible to vote prior to mailing a ballot for a federal election.
For the 2020 Presidential elections several states such as California, Oregon, Vermont, Hawaii and others are moving to Universal Vote by Mail, where all voters are mailed a ballot regardless if they specifically requested one. The lack of integrity surrounding who is receiving these ballots, and more importantly who is actually filling them out is alarming.
Reports such as those out of Los Angeles and New York have highlighted the problems which may occur under a universal vote by mail system. For example, it has been reported that Los Angeles, which has a population of over ten million people, has a voter registration rate of 112 percent of its adult population. In other words, more than one in five voter registrations belong to a voter who has moved, is deceased, or is otherwise ineligible – yet they would be mailed a ballot under this system. New York tried mail in balloting for its primary elections earlier this summer, the result was the New York City Board of Elections said that 84,108 of the 318,995 mail-in ballots for the June 23rd Democratic president primary were invalid/not counted.
“Sweeping policies that would automatically send a ballot to every voter will drastically reduce safeguards intended to protect the integrity of our national elections and will lead to widespread confusion, fraud, and abuse,” said Congressman Smith. He continued, “Given the importance of elections and how close 2016 was, I would think every American and every elected official would want to do everything they could to make sure we have the most accurate count for the upcoming November elections. Anything which jeopardizes the accuracy and veracity of who is voting should be heavily scrutinized.”
The most recent example of the governments failed attempts to handle large scale mass mailing was seen earlier this year with the ‘Stimulus checks’ sent out to millions of Americans, many of which should have never received them, and thousands more who should have but never did.
“The Federal Government’s inaccurate recordkeeping was put on full display during the COVID-19 pandemic. If the government can send stimulus checks to dead Americans, state governments could easily do the same with ballots,” Smith added.
