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The Executive Branch Must Act Within Its Authority

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Published in The Galveston County Daily News February 8, 2024 "Yes Abigail, voter fraud exists."  But we know those who manage our county’s elections and they won’t tolerate any shenanigans!  Our County Clerk and Chief Deputy Clerk for Elections would jump in and stop it in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, however, voter fraud still does exist. Here are some of the numerous examples:    A 2018 case in Gregg County, TX where a county commissioner pleaded guilty to election fraud and record tampering associated with the Democrat primary election; A 2023 case from Bridgeport, CT where a judge ordered a new election for mayor after city employees and supporters of the current mayor were caught on camera stuffing absentee ballots into drop boxes; A 2021 Democrat primary election for alderman in Aberdeen, MS where 75% of absentee ballots were fraudulent. Police also found evidence of voter intimidation at the polls. A new election was ordered; A 2020 case in Paterson, NJ where a city council election was overturned when hundreds of absentee ballots were found to have signatures that didn’t match; A Galveston County, TX case where a resident of Minnesota voted absentee using his island condo as his residence while voting in person in his home state.  Our District Attorney nailed him to the tune of $4,000; 2016/2020 cases where a former chief of police and a city council member of Amite City, LA pleaded guilty to conspiracy for paying voters for their votes (they received prison sentences); A 2023 case from Wayne County, MI where a nursing home worker registered 26 legally incapacitated residents to vote and then requested absentee ballots for them (She accepted a plea deal to one year probation and a $3,500 fine); and A 2020 case from Hawthorne, CA where a man pleaded no contest to submitting more than 8,000 fraudulent voter registration applications on behalf of homeless people (He went to jail for 60 days and got two years’ probation). Naysayers claim fraudulent voting doesn’t exist; their claim is based on a lack of prosecutions.  They’re pushing a false narrative.  Under a ruling by Texas courts, our Attorney General is prohibited from prosecuting election fraud cases – only the local District Attorneys can do so.  This reduces the number of prosecutions but it can work with good DAs like we have in Galveston County.  But this isn’t so in all counties. Testimony last year in Austin made clear that voter fraud exists, especially in Harris County, where thousands of dead people, voters who no longer live in the county, and people who didn’t request an absentee ballot were actually voted illegally and there were no prosecutions. Action: We need to clean up voter rolls and perhaps move to a biometric method on absentee ballots -- like fingerprints on carrier envelopes -- to verify it's a real person voting, and -- if contested -- to be able to identify who the voter is while ensuring ballots aren't being harvested. This isn't voter suppression; it's ensuring every eligible voter can vote while stopping those who want to threaten the integrity of our elections.  "Yes, Abigail, there is voter fraud, and together we need to stop it." Comments From Readers: - Who are the "Naysayers" who "claim fraudulent voting doesn't exist"? I'm not sure there is such a person. Response: Testimony before the Texas House Committee on Elections and the Senate State Affairs Committee from those who oppose stricter election integrity legisltion continually testify that such measures are not necessary because there are so few prosecutions for election fraud that it must not exist. We would contend that it does, in fact, exist especially in counties here in Texas where the local Criminal District Attorneys are not interested in prosecuting such cases. - If voter fraud does exist, and the 2020 election was "stolen" why did President Trump allow it to happen on his watch? Repsonse: Actually, President Trump wanted to take action but his Vice President (Mike Pence) chose not to act. Pence was asked to refer the vote counts in the contested swing states to the various state legislatures asking them to verify what slate of electors to use, because under the U.S. Constitution it is the various state legislatures who have the authority to make such determinations. Pence chose not to do as requested. - State and local officials have the responsibilities for how elections are run, not the President. Repsonse: Absolutely correct. Here in Texas the Secretary of State oversees adhearence to the Texas Election Code but until recently had no authority to take enforcement actions against violators. As a result, in the 2020 election cycle when counties like Harris County to our north decided to send mail ballots to people who hadn't requested same, they pointed out the violation but had no authority to sanction them.
	About the Authors and Columnists 2024 Bill Sargent and Mark Mansius have written over 250 guest columns over the last ten years and continue to do so. Bill lives in Galveston, Texas and Mark in St. Georges, Utah. Both ran against each other in the 2012 Republican Primary for Texas Congressional District 14, since then they have become close friends and colleagues.
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