As the coronavirus continues to ravage through the country, voters are turning to mail-in-ballots to avoid crowded polling stations where the virus could be present.
But, as President Trump has urged several times, voting by mail is a major risk for fraudulent activity.
And voters in Ohio are experiencing it first hand.
Nearly 50,000 voters received incorrect absentee ballots in the county that is home to Ohio’s capital, election officials said Friday.
And with around 240,000 total ballots mailed, that means one in five voters received an incorrect ballot, according to Politico.
The error occurred after someone changed a setting on a machine that places absentee ballots into mailing envelopes, Franklin County elections officials said in a statement Thursday, promising that correct ballots would be mailed within 72 hours.
“The Franklin County Board of Elections would like to thank the voters of Franklin County for their patience as we strive to fulfill our goal to administer safe, fair, impartial and accurate elections.”
We can now confirm that 49,669 voters received an incorrect ballot.
Those voters will be contacted directly by the Franklin County Board of Elections and a replacement ballot will be mailed to them. Please visit https://t.co/wnMx1Tg0U4 or call 614-525-3100 if you have questions. pic.twitter.com/OMdOd2jWOS
— Franklin Co. Boe (@FranklinCoBOE) October 9, 2020
The incorrect ballots had an array of problems: some had an incorrect congressional race, while others had the correct information but were sent to voters in a different precinct, Politico reports.
The board said it will mail postcards to all voters affected by this major slip, detailing the situation and highlighting the options moving forward.
The options include voting in-person.
As expected, President Trump made sure to address the issue on Twitter.
“Breaking News: 50,000 OHIO VOTERS getting WRONG ABSENTEE BALLOTS,” he said. “Out of control. A Rigged Election!!!”
The news of this major voting mishap brought a renewed focus on the 2020 presidential election and the unprecedented number of absentee ballot requests around the country.
Ohio’s elections chief announced Tuesday that the state’s 88 election boards received a record number of absentee ballot requests. Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said 2,154,235 applications had been received – more than double that of the 2016 election, according to Politico.
Mail-in Chaos: Anger, Confusion in PA County as 58,000 Ballots go Undelivered
Ballots in Westmoreland County delayed, voters confused and frustrated
Contrary to the narrative that Democrats have been peddling this election cycle, Westmoreland County, PA is finding out firsthand just how unreliable mail-in voting can be.
According to WPXI, 58,000 ballots that were supposed to be mailed out to residents on Tuesday have yet to be sent out as of Thursday.
In a statement, Westmoreland County Election Bureau blamed the contractor it hired to send out the ballots:
“The first batch of processed and approved applications was submitted to the County’s mail house, Mid-West Direct on October 3rd. It has been brought to our attention today that Mid-West did not send out the ballots on Tuesday as indicated.”
Breaking: nearly 60,000 mail in ballots for voters in Westmoreland county were supposed to be mailed out on Tuesday but election officials discovered today they were never sent. Contractor responsible for mailing them says they will go out tomorrow. Details tonight at 11 #wpxi
— Rick Earle (@WPXIRickEarle) October 9, 2020
WPXI reports the following statement was released after it reached out to the Attorney General’s office and the Secretary of the Commonwealth: “The County has been assured that the ballots will be sent out starting tomorrow morning. Once Mid-West is able to catch up on the backlog over the weekend, the County expects the process to run smoothly.”
Democratic Operative Comes Clean: ‘I Was A Master At Fixing Mail-In Ballots’
One top Democratic operative took it upon himself to whistleblow on the fraudulent practices of voting, especially with mail-in ballots. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of his own criminal activities participating in voter fraud, the Democratic operative sought out New York Post reporter Jon Levine to explain it all.
Levine’s article published over the weekend was titled, “Confessions of voter fraud: I was a master at fixing mail-in ballots.” A “top Democratic operative says voter fraud, especially with mail-in ballots, is no myth. And he knows This because he’s been doing it, on a grand scale, for decades” writes Levine. The anonymous operative admitted, “this is a real thing…and there is going to be a f-king war coming November 3rd over this stuff” but admits “if they knew how the sausage was made, they could fix it.”
Operative trick #1: “the ballot has no specific security features – like a stamp or a watermark – so the insider said he would just make his own ballots. ‘I just put [the ballot] through the copy machine and it comes out the same way’ the insider said.” The man admitted, “his dirty work has taken him through the weeds of municipal and federal elections in Paterson, Atlantic City, Camden, Newark, Hoboken and Hudson County and his fingerprints can be found in local legislative, mayoral and congressional races across the Garden State.”
The Post confirmed the whistleblower’s identity, rap sheet and “long history working as a consultant to various campaigns.” The insider “says he not only changed ballots himself over the years, but led teams of fraudsters and mentored at least 20 operatives in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.” Unfortunately, “some of the biggest names and highest officeholders in New Jersey have benefited from his tricks, according to campaign records The Post reviewed.”
The whistleblower is a self-admitted Bernie Sanders “die-hard with no horse in the presidential race.” He simply said he “felt compelled to come forward in the hope that states would act now to fix the glaring security problems present in mail-in ballots.”
Additional unethical practices the insider engaged in, is “he would have his operatives fan out, going house to house, convincing voters to let them mail completed ballots on their behalf as a public service. The fraudster and his minions would then take the sealed envelopes home and hold them over boiling water. ‘You have to steam it to loosen the glue’ said the insider.” They would then replace the real ballot with a counterfeit ballot and reseal the envelope.
He and his operatives would be careful to sprinkle fake ballots in mailboxes around town. He even said sometimes postal employees are in on the scam. “You have a postman who is a rabid anti-Trump guy and he’s working in Bedminster or some Republican stronghold…He can take those [filled-out] ballots, and knowing 95% are going to a Republican, he can just throw those in the garbage.”
