Because of the pandemic, many states expanded the use of mail-in and absentee ballots during the 2020 elections, which led to accusations and even documented cases of fraud.
Jon Caldera of the Independence Institute, a think tank that works to empower individuals and to educate citizens and legislators about public policies that enhance personal and economic freedom, says no one is arguing against absentee ballots, and no one wants to make it harder for citizens to vote; they simply want more security.
"Some states, like where I live in Colorado, gradually moved to all mail-in voting and put in some relatively good safety protocols," Caldera tells AFN. "Other states rushed into all mail-in ballots as a response to COVID, and there're still a lot of reasonable questions if those elections are secure."
In Colorado, every registered voter can look online to see if their ballot has been used – if not by them, then fraudulently so.
"There are still questions about people harvesting ballots that are not theirs and turning it in," Caldera notes. "But if you vote in person, or you can see if your ballot has been returned, you know very well if somebody else has used your ballot."
The Independence Institute president says the voting changes implemented during COVID definitely benefited Democrats more than Republicans, because "the Left has more ground troops, and they are better disciplined at going out and going after voters who they know, if they vote, will vote for Democrats."
Also, mail-in ballots often take days to count, allowing Democrats to close the gaps in many elections. That, Caldera says, has led to a fundamental distrust of the system.
"It's a danger if we don't trust our vote," he recognizes.
So he encourages people to use that as a reason to get involved in the system, "to either prove to themselves that it's a trustworthy system, or to prove to the world that there is malfeasance going on."
