America’s coming banana republic storm

OPINION:

Fully 50% of likely voters think it “somewhat likely” that “widespread cheating” will impact the coming midterms, and of that, 24% say it’s “very likely,” a Rasmussen Report found.

Welcome to America’s new banana republic reality.

The growing unease over America’s elections have come hand-in-hand with the growing trend toward mail-in balloting, absentee voting, early voting.

In 2020, according to the Current Population Survey’s November 2020 Voting and Registration Supplement from the Census Bureau, 43% of voters cast ballots by mail and another 26% voted early. In case you missed the math: “In the 2020 election, 69% of voters nationwide cast their ballot nontraditionally,” Census.gov wrote.

By comparison, in 2016, about 40% cast ballots by mail or before Election Day — 21% by mail; 19% in person, but early.

And yes, the coronavirus can be blamed for much of that.

But the trend toward absentee and mail-in voting was already on a significant upswing before COVID-19 hit. 

All according to Census data: In 1996, about 10.5% of ballots were cast by nontraditional means; in 2000, it was 14%; in 2004, it grew to 20.7%; in 2008, it was 30.7%; in 2012, it was 32.8%. Between 2016 and 2020 — 40.1% to 69.4%, respectively — nontraditional voting soared. 

Meanwhile, having dead people listed on voter rolls is still an issue.

Public Interest Legal Foundation, in a September 2020 report on the state of the nation’s voting rolls, identified 349,773 deceased registrants; 37,889 duplicate registrants; and 34,000 registrants who listed nonresidential addresses. Some of these wrongful listings were egregious. As PILF’s president, J. Christian Adams, said in June, New Jersey’s voter rolls actually contain people who were born during the Byzantine Empire.

“Additionally,” PILF wrote on its website on June 6, “[New Jersey’s] voter rolls have 2,398 registrants who appear to be aged 105 years or older.”

That’s just one state.

Forty-nine more to go.

No wonder The Guardian ran with this headline in January, citing an Axios-Momentive poll: “More than 40% in US do not believe Biden legitimately won election.”

But it will be more of the same if America doesn’t get back to a time when voting was taken as a somber, serious, patriotic duty, and Election Day an actual day — not week, not month, not whenever — but day.

“Voters remain skeptical of the integrity of vote-by-mail,” Rasmussen found. “Fifty-eight percent think it’s at least somewhat likely that wider use of mail-in voting will lead to more cheating in elections, including 39% who say it’s Very Likely.”

It is likely. It is very likely.

“Democratic groups launch $7.5 million campaign to encourage voting by mail,” CNN wrote back in August 2020.

“Democrats return nearly three times as many mail-in ballots as Republicans in Pennsylvania,” Politico wrote in November 2020.

COVID is not a factor any longer, and some states have tightened election laws to reduce the chance for fraud from absentee voting and mail-in balloting and so forth. But America is still on an upward swing with nontraditional voting. And curiously enough, dead people are still making an appearance.

That’s a recipe for a banana republic. Ignoring the situation, as Democrats and even Republicans do, won’t make it go away.

“Asked which is more important in elections, 59% say making sure there is no cheating is more important, while 38% say making it easier for everybody to vote is more important,” Rasmussen found.

The people seem to have spoken.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE  or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.