It was Stalin who famously said: "It doesn't matter how people vote; what matters is who counts the votes."
Anyone who has ever lived through an election in Chicago knows that Stalin was a piker.
When I left college I lived for twelve years in Chicago -- all these years later, no doubt I'm still voting there -- and I saw for myself that there are many more ways to cheat than that. As a general rule Republicans cheat by tossing people off the registration rolls (or artfully throwing ballots away) while Democrats stuff ballot-boxes, but either of them will use either method when it suits them. Classical methods include:
"Vote early -- and often": In some states, counties and municipalities, voting registration clerks are remarkably tolerant about what they accept as identification for voting. It's dismayingly easy for somebody to get several forms of ID and register several times over.
"This city is so democratic that even the dead can vote": Doting registration clerks must be sternly warned (and watched) about a lot of people signing up to vote who have the same address, differentiated only by "suite" or "apartment" numbers; such addresses should be checked against the tax records to see if the address is truly a large apartment building, a resident hospital, or a cemetery.
"Vote once, vote always": Despite state laws which insist that a registered voter who hasn't voted for two elections must be taken off the rolls, a lot of registration clerks somehow fail to remove such entries -- sometimes for decades -- leaving available names for other people to use with less-than-accurate ID.
"Unfit ballots": In some states "illegible" or otherwise "marred" ballots are rejected out of hand, instead of being relegated to "provisional" status where they can be examined further. In such states, a bit of pencil-lead tucked under a fingernail can be used to swipe across a ballot, thus "marring" it, without being spotted by a poll-watcher -- and there are other methods.
"The wrong box": In states where "marred" or otherwise questionable ballots must be put in the "provisional" category for further examination, it's possible to sneak perfectly good ballots into the "provisional" category -- or even the trash-basket -- if the poll-watchers aren't looking, and there are many ways to distract a poll-watcher.
"Midnight Donation": After the polling-place closes, a vehicle pulls up to the back door, but instead of taking in boxes of ballots, it drops some off. They've been filled out before-hand, and now they're mixed in with the ballots from the polling-place.
"Lost in transit": Ballots on their way to a counting-center are usually packed in labeled boxes and transported by a vehicle with a driver and a witness -- but sometimes there are shortages of personnel and only one driver transports the boxes. It's easy for a box or two to "fall off the truck", especially if the poll they're coming from has a history of getting a lot of votes for one party in particular.
"Too far to see": A more blatant cheat, this consists of keeping poll-watchers from the "wrong" party out of the polling-place or counting-center, or stationed too far away to see what the counters are doing.
"Lopsided": Poll-watchers are supposed to represent all available political parties, but there's usually a preponderance of watchers from one party or another. Quiet collusions can occur.
With the present fad for mail-in voting the possibility of cheats increases. New tactics can include:
"Blizzard": In most states voters who want to vote by mail must register at their local or county registrar's office, in person, showing adequate ID, and deliberately ask for mail-in ballots. Usually this is granted without question. Some states require a reason, but acceptable reasons are military service, distance from a polling place, or health requirements; avoiding a plague is definitely an adequate reason. The problem with voting by mail is that the filled out and returned ballot contains no proof of the voter's identity except the registration number and the voter's signature on the ballot's envelope. It's rare that any mail-in ballot that isn't "marred" or "questionable" has its voter's signature checked against the signature on the original registration application. When mail-in ballots are broadcast to every registered voter in the book, inevitably some of them will go to addresses -- and names -- of voters no longer actually there. Such can be used by anyone who finds them.
"Interception": Where there are a lot of mail-in ballots, less-than-scrupulous mail-carriers, or even local post offices, can quietly divert ballots from neighborhoods known to vote a certain way -- and a certain percentage of those ballots can even-more-quietly disappear.
"Harvesting": When there are so many mail-in voters that the post office might be overwhelmed, there are always friendly officials willing to provide "drop-off boxes" to help out. There's no guarantee that whoever comes to collect those drop-off boxes will deliver them to legitimate polling places.
Ah, but the use of computers for recording and tallying votes would make Stalin wet his pants. Consider the case of Diebold Election Systems, center of a voting scandal a few years back:
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-market-for-voting-machines-is-broken-this-company-has-thrived-in-it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacking_Democracy
And then there's the parallel case of Dominion Voting Systems, which was caught "flipping" some 6000 pro-Trump votes to pro-Biden:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/22/us-voting-machine-private-companies-voter-registration
These are the reasons why I laughed my @ss off when I heard various Democrats piously insist that there is "no evidence" of voter fraud in the 2020 election. There are plenty of accusations -- including the "Sharpiegate" case of disqualifying ballots right here in my home county -- and all of them need to be investigated before the final decision on this election can be settled.
So there's the problem. Now, what can we do about it?
First, we must stop using the damned computers. Go back to using solid paper ballots and counting them by hand, with adequate poll-watchers -- of all political parties -- watching. That would include Libertarians and Independents, and secure high-resolution video-cameras too.
Second, go back to giving mail-in ballots only to voters who specifically ask for them.
Third, devise a third method of proving the identity of a mail-in voter on or inside the ballot's envelope; this could be as simple as requiring a xerox copy of the driver's license, and maybe passport, along with the ballot.
Fourth, put secure videocams on "drop-off" boxes and inside post offices during the days when mail-in ballots are dropped off. Also have secure cameras watching not only the polling-places themselves but their back doors and parking lots.
Fifth, call in the state police if necessary, but make sure that the collected ballots are never out of sight from the moment they're filled out until they arrive at the vote-counting center -- and after. The "chain of custody" must be ironclad. This applies to the "provisional" ballots too.
Sixth, print no more ballots than there are registered voters in the state. "Same day" registration must be totally outlawed.
Seventh, stop using "private" voting systems completely. Elect the state's Electors early, and have the Electors themselves conduct the election. That was the original function of the Electoral College: to guarantee that the people who conducted an election were themselves elected, and therefore under the control of the voters.
I doubt if this will stop absolutely all election fraud, since cheats will always find a way when the stakes are high, but it will make the frauds a lot more difficult.
--Leslie <;)))><