Which Is More Likely to Affect the Election, Voter Fraud or Foreign Influence?

             Both Republicans and Democrats realize that the 2020 presidential election is a battle for the soul of the nation. However, their description of “the soul of the nation” is quite different. Republicans are fighting to keep the nation the America that we know that is governed by the Constitution and includes the American way of life. Democrats – at least the left wing of the party – wants to move the United States further down the road to socialism.

It is one thing to have the election become the result of a national discussion about the future, and it is something else to have the election affected by voter fraud and/or foreign influence. There is a lot of concern in the nation about both voter fraud and foreign influence, but few people seem to know which will have the greatest impact on the election. James Carafano at The Heritage Foundation believes that voter fraud is “more likely to affect the election.” 

One of the reasons why voter fraud is such a problem is that the two parties will not work together to safeguard the electoral process. Instead, each party points their finger at their political opponent and completely forgets that the main interest for Americans is to make a difference with their vote.

Carafano emphasized that “Foreign powers have tried to meddle in our elections – through overt action and covert manipulation – since we started having elections.” He said that “Election meddling is part of foreign statecraft.” He shared the example of Great Britain trying to “tilt a neutral America their way in the battle against the Axis powers” during “the years leading up to Pearl Harbor.” It stands to reason that China would prefer Joe Biden to be elected because his attitude toward China is much different than that of Donald Trump. If we are being honest, Russia would most likely prefer Biden also.

Carafano said that foreign influence presents two threats to American voting integrity. The first is “efforts to actually manipulate and change voting outcomes,” and the second is “efforts to influence voters.” He said that the US government “already takes very seriously” any “Efforts to actually change votes.” He added, “There is no proof that the Chinese, Russian, Iranian, or any other foreign government changed or interfered with balloting during the 2016 election.” However, the “allegations of wrongdoing” brought significant toughening of “ballot protection efforts” by both the federal and state governments. He said that those efforts will continue as we move toward the 2020 election.

Carafano said that “Americans ought to be far more concerned about domestic voter fraud and the integrity of state-managed election efforts.” A database maintained by The Heritage Foundation “shows that domestic voter fraud is all too real and all too common.” This is a sad conclusion because “Every vote cast illegally undermines the integrity of the system and the rights of legitimate voters.” In close elections, voter “fraud could undermine our democratic will.” We should all admit that voter fraud does happen even when we cannot determine how, where, or by whom.

Carafano suggested that Americans “worry less about foreign interference and concentrate on pressing state and local election authorities to adopt practices and provide oversight to assure that every legitimate vote is counted, and every bogus vote gets spotted and tossed out.” This sounds like good counsel for our deeply divided nation. We should all be working together to protect our election process, particularly when we know that the soul of our nation is at stake.