Many believe that 'Politics is a dirty game.' Whether or not people prevailing in the elite political positions have gone through the bad stage or made a bad decision to climb to the height. It is not absurd, but it is a sad reality that we see in every political, in every country, region, or state worldwide.
As of the current scenario, the 2020 Presidential Election of the United States has garnered wide attention across the world. Current President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are the candidates for the forthcoming election. We hope for the sound and healthy competition between the two candidates. Still, several critics and theories are revolving around the media about the fraud that might go through the presidential election.
As the election is getting near, the administration in the United States has decided to expand the postal voting service. However, it has gained several critics and reviews throughout the months. And President Donald Trump has openly criticized the plans to increase the postal voting in November's election. He mentioned that there's tremendous fraud involved around.
Speaking at a Republican Party Convention, Trump stated, 'We have to be very, very careful. On the contrary, the Commissioner of Federal Election Commission, Ellen Weintraub, said, 'There's simply no basis for the conspiracy theory that voting by mail causes fraud.'
Is Postal Voting Fraud?
In recent times, we can not say that Postal Voting Fraud, but it might lead to widespread fraud for sure.
Back in the 2016 Presidential election, around one-quarter of votes were cast by post, which is likely to increase in 2020's election, due to the concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. The central theme of the postal voting is to avoid gathering at polling stations on election day for the safety from the virus.
Postal Voting (©: YouTube/Renfrewshire Council)
As of now, there are six states set to hold an 'all-mail' ballot, including California, Utah, Hawaii, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. All the states will send all registered voters postal ballots, which will be sent back or dropped off on election day.
Concerning the potential fraud, President Trump said, 'You get thousands and thousands of people sitting in somebody's living room, signing ballots all over the place.' Also, critics support his statement citing that people might vote more than one time via absentee ballots and in-person. But there is no evidence of major, widespread fraud.
Instead, there have been several isolated cases of postal ballot fraud, which includes the 2018 North Carolina primary, which was re-run after a consultant for the Republican candidate tampered with voting papers.
Also, in early 2020, there was a case in New Jersey, where a couple of Democratic Councillors got charged with alleged fraud concerning postal voting. Hundreds of ballots were found stuffed in a post box at the time. As per the study by the Brennan Center for Justice (2017), the overall rating of fraud in the United States is between 0.00004% and 0.0009%.
In the 2016 election, the Washington Post review found one proven case of postal voting fraud. Similarly, there were 491 cases of postal ballot fraud out of hundreds of millions of votes in between 2000 to 2012, as per the voter fraud database.
Hence, the study says that although there is no evidence of widespread fraud for the upcoming election, some cases might appear. However, safeguard guidelines must be accessed to avoid fraud, and the United States' Federal Election Commission might be working on that. The results from the November's election will show how legit is the postal voting.