By Rene Sotolongo:
On December 18th, 2016, the New York Times stated emphatically that U.S. Officials found next to no voter fraud in the recent election.
In an election in which more than 137.7 million Americans cast ballots, election and law enforcement officials in 26 states and the District of Columbia — Democratic-leaning, Republican-leaning and in-between — said that so far they knew of no credible allegations of fraudulent voting. Officials in another eight states said they knew of only one allegation.
According to the New York Times, these findings unambiguously debunk the “myth” of voter fraud. Those in the mainstream media and academia general support this stance as well.
In a recent study by Rutgers University, Lorraine Minnite stated emphatically; “Fraud by Individual Voters is Almost Nonexistent.” Thomas E. Mann, a resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley stated, “The old notion that somehow there are all these impostors out there, people not eligible to vote that are voting — it’s a lie.”
Really?
The reality is that there is election fraud. But no major news source will talk about it because they, along with many of those in academia, are complicit actors in a broken system.
In the political system of the United States, voter and election integrity is critical. Fraud by voters casting ballots illegally may be a “miniscule” problem to some, but this “miniscule” problem is a political weapon. A weapon large enough to influence the outcome of an election.
Consider:
A 2012 study by the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan American think tank, showed conclusively that one in eight voter registrations were either invalid or inaccurate. In fact, in this study, they showed that
“…more than 1.8 million dead people were still listed as voters; and 2.75 million people were registered to vote in more than one state.”
Or, how about the 2014 The New York City Department of Investigations (DOI) examination of the New York City election process?
During the 2013 New York City Mayoral Election, they had undercover investigators deliberately attempt to cast fraudulent write-in ballots in the name of 63 legally ineligible voters.
The undercover agents of the DOI were told to write in the name of fictional candidate “John Test” so as not to sway the election. At the end of the investigation the votes were tallied. They found 61 out of a possible total of 63 deliberately corrupt ballots. That is a voter fraud success rate of 97%.
And our officials tell us this is not a problem? This is minuscule? By whose standards?
But of course, instead of expressing outrage, Liberals attacked the undercover agents. According to the National Review;
The (New York) DOI published its findings in a searing 70-page report accusing the city’s Board of Elections of incompetence, waste, nepotism, and lax procedures. The Board of Elections, in typical bureaucratic fashion, approved a resolution referring the DOI agents for prosecution.
Or how about more recently?
According to a Detroit News report from December 2016, voting machines in more than one-third of all Detroit precincts registered more votes than they should have during the Nov. 8 presidential election.
This is an age old election cheating technique called “stacking the ballot boxes.” And to anyone who was paying attention, it was clearly an orchestrated effort. There is no way it could have been an “accident.” It’s statistically impossible. We are talking about a “common error” that occurred in over 37% of the polling stations.
So, let me guess… it was the Russians again?
Voter Fraud effects local elections more.
Everyone wants to focus on the Presidential election, but is anyone looking at how these “minuscule” events are affecting local area elections?
Case in point: In August of 2011, the Fairfax County Electoral Board in Virginia notified the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, as well as the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department (which coordinates election crime prosecutions) in Washington, of possible voter fraud by non-citizens.
In checking with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, the board had discovered 278 registered voters who, when they got their driver’s license, had told the DMV that they were NOT U.S. citizens.
Before the board cancelled any of the seemingly illegal registrations, they gave plenty of opportunity for “illegal” voters to confirm their citizenship. None of them did so. Almost half of them (117) had not only registered to vote, they had in fact voted in state and federal elections.
Now, consider that the “Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses,” the handbook written by the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, clearly states that falsely claiming to be a citizen on a voter registration form violates three different federal statutes: 42 U.S.C. §1973gg-10(2), 18 U.S.C. §1015(f), and 18 U.S.C. § 911.
Each of these violations are felonies, subject to imprisonment of up to three or five years, depending on the statute.
The handbook further explains that actual voting by a non-citizen violates 18 U.S.C. § 611, and is a strict liability offense. In other words, it “does not require proof that the offender was aware that citizenship is a prerequisite to voting.” Violations are misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in prison.
The Electoral Board’s letter to the Justice Department received absolutely no attention or action. There were no phone calls, no emails, and no inquiries from the U.S. attorney’s office or the Public Integrity Section.
The reality is that these cases would have been extraordinarily easy to investigate and prosecute. With copies of the voter registration form and the voting history in hand, prosecutors would then simply have to verify whether the individual was a citizen at the time of registration or voting. If they were not, it would be an easy conviction.
But the Justice Department apparently had no interest whatsoever in investigating almost 300 cases of possible felony violations of federal law.
This highlights the incredibly serious problem with our broken system: even when election officials uncover examples of possible voter fraud, they often find it difficult—if not downright impossible—to get the appropriate law enforcement agencies to do anything about it.
There could be a very good reason behind this problem. In today’s “politically correct” and violently charged atmosphere, I know of very few prosecutors who want to get involved in “voter fraud” cases that critics might — no, scratch that — will racialize the investigation with false claims of vote suppression and voter intimidation.
And this, of course, highlights my point. Fairfax County is well known for extremely close elections. Virginia is a state where even a small amount of fraud could make the difference in local elections.
Consider the 2013 Virginia Attorney General’s race, where Democrat Mark Herring was declared the winner by fewer than 1,000 votes out of 2.2 million cast. Or how about the 2005 attorney general’s race, which was decided by fewer than 400 votes?
There is a 97% success rate for a crime that undermines the very fundamental fabric of the American Republic. The potential worst-case consequences of such a high success rate for voter fraud are drastic in nature.
But the Justice Department apparently has no interest whatsoever in investigating any of the claims of voter fraud. The Justice Department, previously under Eric Holder and now under Loretta Lynch, studiously ignores evidence of possible fraud and steadfastly refuses to do anything about it.
With courts consistently overturning voter ID laws, we have now reached a point where it is impossible to safeguard American elections. By conservative estimates, we now have a system in which voter fraud easily exceeds two percent of the vote. And these fraudulent votes, as shown above, can tip the scales in local elections.
It is my belief that at five percent these fraudulent votes will be enough to sway National Elections. But of course, Obama’s Justice Department and Administration, along with the complicit media, will tell you that this is a “minuscule” problem and not worthy of investigation.
Bottom Line: I for one believe the system is broken. I believe that whoever controls the fake balloting process controls America. What do you think?
Rene C. Sotolongo is an OpsLens Contributor and a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer who served for over twenty years as an Information Systems official. Sotolongo also specialized in homeland security and counterterrorism.
