As Democrats continue to advocate for mail-in voting and decry claims of voter fraud from opponents, a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier in West Virginia has been charged with attempted election fraud. The breaking news underscores concerns raised by conservatives that large scale mail-in voting invites too much opportunity for voter fraud.
On Tuesday, federal law-enforcement officials announced charges against Thomas Cooper for “Attempt to Defraud the Residents of West Virginia of a Fair Election.” The affidavit states that an investigation by the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office, the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office, and the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General found that Cooper tampered with mail-in absentee request forms from eight voters in April. On five of the forms, the party was changed from “Democrat” to “Republican” and on the other three forms, the request had been altered, according to the affidavit.
The Hill reports Cooper admitted to altering some of the requests as a joke. His case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen D. Warner on behalf of the government.
The case comes on the heels of heated debate over the need for mail-in voting in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and whether it is worth the risk of voter fraud in light of the progress states are making to resume normalcy now that the curve has been flattened.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, five states currently conduct all elections entirely by mail: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and Utah. The pandemic has prompted additional states to expand mail-in ballot access, CBS News reports. Absentee ballot applications were mailed to all registered voters in West Virginia last month, according to the New York Times.
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Critics of mail-in-ballots contend Americans have been successfully engaging in public activities while simultaneously wearing masks and respecting social-distance guidelines during the pandemic and should be able to do so to vote as well. Others point to the April 7 in-person elections in Wisconsin as evidence that it is possible to conduct in-person voting during a pandemic.
President Trump has threatened to deny federal funding to states looking to expand vote-by-mail in tweets railing against Nevada and Michigan last week.
And on Tuesday, Trump took to Twitter to slam mail-in ballots and criticize California Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order that has mandated all registered voters in the state receive vote-by-mail ballots.
Trump tweeted, “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!”
Predictably, Twitter placed “warning labels” under Trump’s tweets. The labels claim the president’s claims are “unsubstantiated” by left-leaning media outlets such as CNN, the Washington Post, and others.
But while Democrats claim voter fraud is a myth, evidence continues to show the opposite to be true. In an article published earlier this month titled “Database Swells to 1,285 Proven Cases of Voter Fraud in America,” the Heritage Foundation observed, “Without rigid safeguards to prevent fraud, misuse, and voter intimidation, absentee ballot fraud — while it may occur sporadically — already has affected the outcome of elections in states and counties across the country.” The Heritage Foundation notes the database is “by no means comprehensive” and fails to capture all instances of voter fraud, but does sufficiently demonstrate the vulnerabilities in the election process.
Claims that election fraud does not exist continue to be disproven. Just last week, an election official in Philadelphia pled guilty to stuffing ballot boxes with fraudulent votes for Democratic candidates in 2014, 2015, and 2016, the Daily Wire reports.
“During his guilty plea hearing, [Domenick J.] DeMuro admitted that an unnamed political consultant gave DeMuro directions and paid him money to illegally add votes for certain Democratic candidates,” the Department of Justice said in a statement. “These candidates were individuals running for judicial office whose campaigns had hired the consultant, as well as other candidates for various federal, state, and local elective offices who were preferred by this consultant for a variety of reasons.”
And DeMuro’s fraudulent ballots had a significant impact on the election outcome those years, observes United States Attorney William M. McSwain. “DeMuro’s fraudulent votes accounted for over 22% of the total voting in that division in 2014. In 2015, his fraud accounted for over 15% of the total votes in the division. In 2016, his fraud accounted for over 17% of the votes,” McSwain said.
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Raven Clabough acquired her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English at the University of Albany in upstate New York. She currently lives in Pennsylvania and has been a writer for The New American since 2010.
