(Excerpt from “A Simple Test for the extent of Vote Fraud with Absentee Ballots in the 2020 Presidential Election)
Concerns over fraud with absentee ballots are not something limited to Republicans in the United States. Indeed, many European countries have voting rules stricter to prevent fraud than what we have in the United States.
1. For example, 74% entirely ban absentee voting for citizens who live in their country. Another 6% allow it, but have very restrictive rules, such as limiting it to those in the military or are in a hospital, and they require evidence that those conditions are met. Another 15% allow absentee ballots but require that one has to present a photo voter ID to acquire it. Thirty-five percent of European countries completely ban absentee ballots for even those living outside their country. The pattern is similar for developed countries. Many of these countries have learned the hard way about what happens when mail-in ballots aren’t secured. They have also discovered how hard it is to detect vote buying when both those buying and selling the votes have an incentive to hide the exchange. France banned mail-in voting in 1975 because of massive fraud in Corsica, where postal ballots were stolen or bought, and voters cast multiple votes. Mail-in ballots were used to cast the votes of dead people.
2. The United Kingdom, which allows postal voting, has had some notable mail-in ballot fraud cases. Prior to recent photo ID requirements, six Labour Party councilors in Birmingham won office after what the judge described as a “massive, systematic and organized" postal voting.
Sources:
John R. Lott, Jr., “Why do most countries ban mail-in ballots: they have seen massive vote fraud problems,” Crime Prevention Research Center, revised October 15, 2020
PDF: https://americanvotersalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/6.-John-LottJr.-Part-3.pdf
“In Corsica, the tormented history of the vote by correspondence,” World Today News, June 15, 2020
“Corsicans of France Are Feeling the Sting of Publicity Given to Criminals, “New York Times, January 7, 1973
3. The fraud was apparently carried out with the full knowledge and cooperation of the local Labour party. There was "widespread theft" of postal votes (possibly around 40,000 ballots) in areas with large Muslim populations because Labour members were worried that the Iraq war would spur these voters to oppose the incumbent government. In 1991, Mexico’s 1991 election mandated voter photo-IDs and banned absentee ballots. The then-governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) had long used fraud and intimidation with mail-in ballots to win elections.
4. Only in 2006 were absentee ballots again allowed, and then only for those living abroad who requested them at least six months in advance.
5. Some European countries allow proxy voting, but that is very strictly regulated to minimize fraud. For example, proxy voting requires the verification of photo IDs and signed request forms. In Poland, a power of attorney is necessary to have a proxy vote and then can only be granted by the municipal mayor. In France, you must go in person to the municipality office prior to the elections, provide proof of who you are, provide proof of reason for absence (for example; a letter from your employer or medical certificate), and then nominate a proxy. Proxy voting is not only very limited, but it prevents the problem that absentee ballots are unsecured. Proxy voting requires that the proxy vote in-person in a voting booth. Unsecured absentee ballots create the potential that either fraudulent ballots will be introduced or votes to be destroyed. Some safeguards can at least minimize these problems, such as requiring matching signatures, but even this is not the same as requiring government issued photo voter IDs. Nor does it prevent votes from being destroyed. In addition, one of the controversies in this election was that states such as Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin did not match signatures on the outer envelopes match the voters’ registration records.
6. Other states, particularly Pennsylvania, were accused of accepting absentee ballots that didn’t even have the outer envelope where the voter’s signature would be or were missing postmarks. “Evidence of Voter Fraud and the Impact that Regulations to Reduce Fraud Have on Voter Participation Rates,”
7. For example, as a result of fraud in their 1988 Presidential election, absentee ballots were not allowed in Mexico until 2006.
Peter Navarro, “The Immaculate Deception: Six Key Dimensions of Election Irregularities,” December 15, 2020. 7 Ibid
Vote fraud concerns are important in that they will not only alter election results, but they can also discourage voter participation.