The problem with mail in voting

 Daily Signal:

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“Outside of the privacy of a voting booth, other individuals may buy or sell votes or overtly pressure a voter to make particular ballot selections … The paths that mail ballots travel introduce other risks that are typically avoided with in-person voting” (page 66).

Similarly, a risk assessment issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in July 2020 highlights multiple potential avenues of integrity or availability attack on mail ballot application processing or ballot collection infrastructure.

For instance, an attack on a voter’s mailing address in the mail ballot request list could result in failure to receive a ballot or receipt being delayed. The assessment also outlines risks associated with outbound ballot processing—printing and assembling ballot packages and mailing them to voters.

Given this context, the DOJ’s incipient review of voting procedures and infrastructure is an important step forward.

In particular, the agency has authority under the National Voter Registration Act to assess a state’s compliance with federal rules governing maintenance of voter registration records and to issue guidance or clarification to facilitate compliance with the law. Accurate and up-to-date voter databases are a critical line of defense against mail-in voting fraud.

The presence of duplicative or stale records (such as the same individual appearing twice, with differing addresses, or an individual who has relocated elsewhere) can facilitate “voter identity theft.” In such a scenario, a malevolent actor would apply for a mail-in ballot by usurping an obsolete record on the voter registration list, with minimal risk of being detected, or worse, a hostile foreign entity could influence the outcome of an election by coordinating such an identity theft operation.

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The only time I have ever used mail-in voting was when I was an officer in the Marine Corps stationed in Quantico, Virginia, before I went to Vietnam.  Since then, I have always voted in person in Texas.  I never tried to sell my vote; in fact, it never occurred to me that people did that.

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