So while we are Nationally, finally, talking about the problems with VBM, and people are paying attention I’m going to work on refreshing the list, the FAQ, and start working through some video explanations as well. I’ve been writing about problems with Mail Voting for 16 years now… so…
Problems with Vote-By-Mail (The Running List)
1. The Postal Service is part of the Executive Branch, and allows the President a lot of undue power over elections, when we vote by mail in large numbers. The Precinct system with poll sites, is not under the thumb of the executive branch.
2. Absentee ballots are not “secret ballots.”
3. Absentee ballots are still counted by the same privately owned voting machines that have been in the news, including Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and all the rest.
4. In many cases, like King County, WA, the Post Office no longer controls the incoming mail, instead a private company sorts incoming absentee ballots into precincts before giving them back to county for counting. This breaks down any chain of custody rules that may have been in place, and privatizes another link in the chain.
5. The cost of running an all mail voting system can actually be greater than a poll based voting system.
6. The Signature Verification Process is error prone and routinely disenfranchises thousands of voters when it is used. Ballots rejected for having invalid signatures are treated as “Guilty before proven innocent.”
Almost 96 thousand votes were tossed in Washington in our 2020 Presidential Primary, tens of thousands of which are routinely rejected for signature problems.
7. Voter Suppression, Vote Buying, Vote Stuffing become far easier in this system. Granny Farming is a real term, and means collecting ballots from old folk’s homes, often illegal.
8. Accidental double voting can and does happen.
9. Some studies show a short term spike, but long term decline in voter participation, in 100% absentee systems. Claims that Vote-By Mail will increase turnout have no real evidence supporting this assertion.
10. The post office loses mail or just misplaces it for years, the county loses ballots, and people lose their own ballots. MIT Reports up to 21% of ballots are lost in the mail. And New York recently rejected 1 in 5 or 20% in their 2020 Presidential Primary.
11. The Absentee System greatly alters the Precinct System.
12. Vote-By Mail systems vastly increase the time it takes to count elections. This is going to be litigated endlessly.
This is both a promise and a threat:
https://nypost.com/2020/07/30/trump-says-mail-in-ballot-election-results-may-take-years/
13. Vote-By Mail systems eliminate “Election Day” and replace it with “Election Month,” thereby greatly increasing the costs campaigns must spend on GOTV (Get-Out the Vote) efforts.
14. Many, many people have gone to jail already for rigging elections using absentees, throughout the country and around the world. This is occurring in the here and now, not some distant past. These are not “isolated incidents.”
Here’s a famous case where a whole congressional race for Mark Harris was rigged by Republicans in North Carolina:
15. Vote-By Mail systems alter the time-table of the election cycle. The change to Vote-By Mail means many voters will vote before all the information has been presented by candidates, civic institutions are forced then to either adjust their calendars, or as is currently the case, they don’t change there forum dates, rather fewer voters have a chance to see candidates in person at these forums.
16. From beginning to end, the whole system of Absentee Ballots is insecure, as ballots are no longer strictly controlled by the County and citizen poll workers in the individual Precincts.
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Other things to consider:
A. Fauci says poll sites are safe with proper social distancing…
https://www.businessinsider.com/fauci-says-in-person-election-with-distancing-masks-is-safe-2020-8
B. A Hybrid System with Early Voting Centers could increase the safety and security of our elections. Making absentee voting safer with monitored drop site locations, while removing the vulnerable system of mailing our votes through the USPS. This hybrid system could also re-store the secret ballot.
C. Your Democratic Candidate for Secretary of State in Washington is either willfully ignorant or woefully ignorant of the issues.
D. There are ways to fix the system, but this election is too late. Your goal should be to vote in person at the polls if possible, drop your ballot off, and try to get 10 people to vote to overwhelm the system.
E. Moving forward after November is going to take a lot of education. Most of you all seriously don’t understand elections, accounting, or the ability to audit systems, or not.
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Okay, I’ll keep updating this list with links for sharing. Liking doesn’t help much.
Cheers.
Gentry Lange
Director of The No Vote By Mail Project
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PS I’ll be working on a full explanation of each item in the coming weeks. Welcome to the No Vote By Mail Project. It’s my way of researching and tracking the myriad problems encountered and created by all mail voting systems. I try to use this site for the education of others, as the media, and most people in general have no understanding of these systems, how they work, and how they don’t work.
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The No Vote By Mail Project 
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