CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, October 5, 2020

Election 2020: Elder votes in peril

According to The Washington Times of March 31, 2020, "It is most often the poor and the elderly who lose their votes to ballot harvesters." But why target the elderly? Because the elderly comprise the segment of our population that is most likely to hold Traditional American Values. And because the vision-, hearing- and/or mobility- impaired tend to be concentrated in nursing homes and assisted-living centers where it is relatively easy for the ballot harvesters to get their hands on the ballots of the elderly for either alteration or outright destruction.

The Heritage Foundation, the American Constitutional Rights Union, and The New York Post are leaders in documenting cases of ballot fraud visited upon the elderly. Here are some samples of what they have uncovered: Sometimes, it is as easy as paying a staff member to coax the residents to vote a certain way. Or, paying someone to simply collect all the completed ballots and turn them over to the ballot harvesters.

After steaming open the outside envelopes, the ballot harvesters can cast the ballots they like and destroy the others. Alternatively, the ballot harvesters can substitute counterfeit ballots pre-marked for their candidate, reseal the envelopes, and drop off the ballots.

In most jurisdictions, the ballot form itself has zero protection against voter fraud. The outside envelope and the signed certificate inside are supposed to protect the ballot; however, it is a simple matter to steam open the envelope, attach a counterfeit ballot to the signed certificate, reseal the envelope, and, where permitted, drop it in the mail or take it to a polling place or official drop box. Sometimes, computer wizardry and some forging skills may be needed. But to the professional ballot harvester that’s all in a day’s work.

Often, the harvesters go from home-to-home posing as "good Samaritans," willing to put ballots in the mail or take them to polling places. Another trick is to manufacture what appears to be an official ballot drop-off box. And, if Election Day results are not satisfactory, the harvesters manufacture enough ballots to win.

Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation who manages the foundation’s election law reform initiative, says, "None of these techniques are new."

In California and the District of Columbia, ballot harvesting is legal. Prior to 2018, California law stated only a relative or household member could drop off a ballot. But the law was changed for the 2018 election so that any person could be designated to return a ballot. In the 2018 elections, voting registrars reported dozens of individuals dropping off hundreds of absentee ballots. Several incumbents, who had comfortable leads going into Election Day, were turned out of office.

Despite the restrictions imposed by the Wuhan virus, the adult children of parents in nursing homes or assisted living centers should do all they can to see that the voting preferences of their parents, whatever they may be, are preserved and protected.

But the best protection against voter fraud is to vote in person. Drs. Birx and Fauci say in-person voting can, with appropriate precautions, be safe for our senior citizens. Whenever possible, make Election Day "Take your elders to vote day!"

(c) 2020. William Hamilton.

Suggested reading:The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (1848), Nineteen-Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1940), Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945), Brave New World by Aldous Huxley(1932), Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky (1971).

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com