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Stuffing Ballot Boxes and Leaking Passwords: A Look at Election Integrity ahead of Nov. 5

November 1, 2024

Election Day is only days away, but election integrity concerns still abound. Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), reported this week that CPAC has uncovered a “ballot harvesting” operation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“CPAC received reports of illicit ballot harvesting at the dropbox location outside Milwaukee City Hall. A witness reported an individual depositing a significant number of absentee ballots into the dropbox before fleeing the scene,” Schlapp announced on social media. He continued, “As part of CPAC’s efforts to ensure elections are free and fair, CPAC has filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Election Commission (“WEC”) and reported to local law enforcement allegations of potential efforts to commit fraud or corruption in the voting process by an unknown individual.”

According to the Washington Examiner, an unidentified individual carried two bags of ballots to a ballot drop box outside Milwaukee City Hall and deposited anywhere from an estimated 50 to 500 ballots into the drop box. Once the individual realized that he was being photographed, he fled the scene. Under Wisconsin state law, “ballot harvesting” is illegal, as each voter is responsible for delivering his own ballot.

WITI Fox6 Milwaukee reporter Ben Handelman also warned that election officials in the battleground state are predicting that Wisconsin’s vote total may not be reported the night of the election. “Expect a LOONG election night in Milwaukee,” Handelman wrote on social media. He said that since Milwaukee is “about to surpass 80,000 early voters, the election commissioner says she expects counting to go into the early morning hours. She says counting to 2-3am is likely.” In some states, early votes can be counted prior to Election Day, but Wisconsin mandates that ballots cannot even be opened to be counted until Election Day itself.

Election integrity worries have also surfaced in another battleground state, Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) won an election-related lawsuit on Wednesday centered on Bucks County. As voters stood outside the county’s election office waiting in line to apply for early voting on Tuesday, the last day to apply, security guards began turning voters away, citing a 5 p.m. deadline and the office being overwhelmed with applications.

The Trump team and the RNC filed a lawsuit, seeking an extension for early voting applications until 5 p.m. on Wednesday. “This is a direct violation of Pennsylvanians’ rights to cast their ballot — and all voters have a right to STAY in line,” the Trump campaign said in a press release. The press release continued, “This is against the law. This is voter suppression from the left. We will fight for every legal vote in Pennsylvania. Go vote and stay in line!”

A Bucks County judge not only granted the Trump campaign’s request on Wednesday, but extended the early voting application deadline to the end of the day Friday, November 1. James Blair, the political director for both the Trump campaign and the RNC, said in a social media post, “Thank you to the court for making the right decision and for finding that Bucks County violated the Pennsylvania election code and providing the requested relief.”

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley added, “We will keep fighting. Go vote! Stay in line!” Prior to the court’s order being issued, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro criticized the Trump campaign for trying to “stoke chaos.” His office has issued no statement on the subject since the court issued its order. On Thursday, Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), said that Shapiro “should do something about operatives in his own party depriving people of their right to vote. If he doesn’t, he is complicit in voter fraud.”

But in Erie County, Pennsvlania, Democrats have filed a lawsuit claiming that up to 20,000 voters have allegedly not received mail-in ballots that they requested. The Erie County Board of Elections said in a Tuesday statement that it was “acutely aware that many voters in Erie County have not received their requested mail ballots” and was thus extending its operating hours and deadlines so that voters who had requested a mail-in ballot but not yet received one could obtain a ballot in-person until the end of Monday. According to local WPXI News, approximately 300 Erie County voters were incorrectly given duplicate mail-in ballots earlier this month. The Board of Elections responded that it was working to fix the error and ensure “the integrity of the upcoming General Election…”

In comments to The Washington Stand, former Congressman Jody Hice, senior vice president at Family Research Council and author of “Sacred Trust: Election Integrity and the Will of the People,” explained, “From a political perspective, there is no greater issue than election integrity. Only when the voice of America’s citizens is accurately heard at the ballot box can the ‘consent of the governed’ be authenticated.” He added, “Anything less undermines our entire system of a ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ It is for this reason that many people have grave concerns going into this election cycle.”

A major election integrity concern is the use of voting machines, which was the center of some controversy following the 2020 election. Colorado’s Democratic Secretary of State, Jena Griswold, has been accused of leaking passwords for voting systems for 63 of the Boulder State’s 64 counties. According to a legal complaint issued by the Trump campaign, Griswold’s office was aware of the leak as early as August, but did not change the leaked passwords until October 24, when the story garnered national scrutiny. Lawyers for the Trump campaign demanded that Griswold’s office “immediately halt the processing of mail ballots received and prepare to re-scan all mail ballots already scanned” once the compromised voting systems are secured.

In Kentucky, a Laurel County voter shared a video showing voting machines switching her vote for Trump to a vote for Harris. Republican Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown confirmed that the video shared is genuine and that the state Attorney General’s office was able to replicate the scenario within “several minutes.” Brown noted that the machine will show voters a review of their ballot before printing it, in order to ensure their selections are accurately represented. If ballots are printed with errors, voters can “spoil” those ballots and receive new ones, but Brown noted that voters are only allowed two spoiled ballots under Kentucky law. “I hate that this has occurred here in Laurel County,” Brown said. “We strive to have accurate, secure and safe elections that we are proud to provide to our citizens.”

Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office recommended “changing out” the particular voting machine apparently suffering from a glitch. Coleman added, “All Kentucky voters can have confidence that our elections are secure and any potential issues will be addressed quickly.” Kentucky’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams noted that the woman who recorded the video was still able to print a correct ballot, concluding that “there is no ‘vote-switching.’”

Another election integrity concern is noncitizens illegally voting. A recent survey found that 90% of Americans agree that only U.S. citizens should vote in U.S. elections, including 70% who “strongly” agree. A prior poll found that 84% of Americans support requiring photo identification in order to vote and 83% support requiring first-time voters to provide proof of citizenship. Yet evidence still abounds that noncitizens may be voting on November 5. America First Legal (AFL) sued Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and his office earlier this month, demanding a list of nearly 220,000 registered voters who had refused to comply with a state law requiring proof of citizenship.

“A majority of Arizonans no longer trust the election system of our state. One of the reasons is the lack of transparency from our state’s elected officials,” AFL senior counsel James Rogers said in a press release. “When Secretary Fontes discovered the glitch that allowed 218,000 individuals to register without providing proof of citizenship, he should have immediately shared the list of affected individuals with Arizona’s county recorders, who are in charge of verifying the citizenship of voters.”

On Thursday, the Arizona Superior Court ordered Fontes to hand over the list of names, which will be published by the Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona and sent to Arizona County Recorders and election committees and leadership in the state legislature.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court quashed a lower court’s order blocking Virginia from removing an estimated 1,600 noncitizens from its voter rolls in the final days ahead of the election. Conservative commentator and lawyer Rogan O’Handley said, “America now has legal precedent to remove illegal aliens from their voter rolls. Every red state needs to do this today.” The Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) had sued Virginia to block the state from removing noncitizens from the voter rolls and Virginia escalated the issue to the Supreme Court. The DOJ has also sued Alabama to keep noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls.

Hice told TWS, “The prospect of noncitizens participating in our elections has the frightful potential of disenfranchising and overriding the will of the citizens.” He continued, “Therefore, for the sake of our Constitutional Republic, each of us must not only participate by casting a vote, but we must also be alert and involved in whatever capacity, to ensure the overall integrity of our elections.” Studies estimate that anywhere from 1.5 million to 2.7 million noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, may vote in the 2024 election.

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.



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