The following statement from Secretary of State John H. Merrill is in response to the inaccurate op-ed published yesterday morning by Josh Moon of Alabama Political Reporter:
This morning, Josh Moon of Alabama Political Reporter alleged that “voting by mail does not lead to fraud.”
Moon went on to undermine the six voter fraud convictions and the five associated with tampering with absentee ballots in the last five years, claiming that these numbers are not substantial enough to have basis.
Let’s start with the facts, Josh.
When you have one person that violates the trust and confidence in the elections process by committing illegal activity, that is one too many. Whether you have one voter fraud conviction or a thousand, you are proving to the electorate that elections require integrity and credibility! We will continue to work to build trust and confidence in the elections process.
Claiming “you can’t commit enough fraud to alter the outcome of such a race” is naive and careless.
In 2018, we saw a member of the legislature who won her race by a mere six votes and another member who won his race by 28 votes. That same year, we witnessed a sheriff’s race that was tied even after the recount. It should be apparent to anyone that just a few votes can determine the outcome of an election.
The fraudulent practice of ballot harvesting, which is often associated with voting by mail, led to the defeat of seven Republican candidates in the California 2018 midterm election. Young Kim, who ran to represent California’s 39th Congressional District, was leading the vote count on election night and even in the week that followed the election. Two weeks later and after Kim attended New Member Orientation, the Democrat challenger was declared the winner after 11,000 mail ballots were counted. These ballots favored the Democrat challenger at a much higher rate than the previously counted ballots.
Similarly, during the 2018 Election Cycle, the North Carolina Board of Elections appropriately refused to certify the results of the 9th Congressional District’s election due to the illegal misuse of absentee ballots.
It has also been reported, through data collected by the Election Assistance Commission, that between 2012 and 2018, 28.3 million mail-in ballots went unaccounted for, which equates to one in five of all absentee or mail-in ballots.
So, obviously, Josh, you can commit enough fraud to alter the outcome of an election.
The issues with mail-in voting far exceed the few that Josh attempts to raise. Consider Nevada where thousands of absentee ballots were just sent to inactive voters in Clark County. Consider the thousands of envelopes piling up in post offices or outside homes, apartments, and other facilities. Consider California in 2016 where 83 ballots were sent to one address housing just two people.
Then, Josh, after you have considered Alabama where in 2016, 109 absentee ballots were sent to the mother of a mayoral candidate in Brighton or when 119 absentee ballots were mailed to an abandoned home in Wilcox County, tell me that mail-in voting does not increase the likelihood for fraud to be committed.
To then pretend “small-town races” in Dothan, which is Alabama’s seventh largest municipality out of 463, are not worthy of being noted is ludicrous.
The state’s absentee law requiring a photo ID to be submitted with the application, which I remind you was passed last year with bipartisan support and sponsored, at our request, by Rodger Smitherman (D-Birmingham), has worked to prevent these sorts of opportunities in our state. This comprehensive, reform legislation has provided safeguards in our absentee process.
One major consideration that many supporters of mail-in voting fail to mention is cost. Currently, the administration for one Election Cycle (Primary, Runoff, and General) in our state is $16.5 million, whereas the administration of a full mail-in Election Cycle is almost $60 million.
I am positive that even Josh Moon can find a better way to spend $43.5 million generated by taxpayers.
