We are now five months away from a presidential election, and it appears Americans don't trust the process. A recent Gallup survey asked people if they are confident in the honesty of our elections. "Forty percent of Americans said yes, and 59 percent said they did not have confidence in the honesty of elections, and that is one of the worst ratings in the world," says Robert Popper, senior attorney at Judicial Watch. "Only two other countries had a lower confidence rating in their elections."
The Gallup survey was taken months ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic caused even more reason for doubt, with elections delayed in several states and a push for expanded mail-in voting by Democrats. The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled that fear of COVID-19 is not a qualifying factor for an absentee ballot in Texas, striking down Democrats' attempt to send absentee ballots to every voter in the state. In other states, however, Democrats are still pushing for either a mass expansion of mail-in voting or an all mail-in election.
Popper tells KTRH a bipartisan commission from 2005 determined that absentee voting is at high risk of fraud. "With the COVID-19, suddenly people are asking how likely is it that there is fraud with absentee ballots," he says. "Well, it used to be understood that that was the most likely source of voter fraud."
Ultimately, Popper believes the way to increase confidence in elections is expanding common sense ideas like voter ID. "In the survey, 75 percent of those polled support voter ID, including 63 percent of Democrats," he says. "You have to construct an election so that it looks clean, so that people have faith in it...you wouldn't go to a restaurant if the kitchen was dirty."