The 2020 Election brought forth many various feelings among people, but none were bigger than the feeling that there was election fraud that occurred. From the City of Philadelphia just stopping the count of votes at 11 pm on election night, to the Maricopa County scandal, there has been eye opening new stories that emerge almost yearly. Harris County is no stranger to it either, with various lawsuits launched over voter integrity by Mattress Mack, among others.
Yet, many people, especially on the Left, remain blissfully ignorant to the facts in front of them. There have been records of dead people voting, there has been rampant mail-in ballot fraud, and cases of people voting twice in some states.
They continue denying that any problem exists, and that if you believe in the slightest that there is election fraud, you are a conspiracy theorist nutjob. It has almost reached a point where denying voter fraud exists is a conspiracy theory in itself.
Former leader of the Harris County GOP Jared Woodfill says this really accelerated with a big appeals court decision a few years ago.
"They too from the Attorney General offices the ability to prosecute voter fraud...so now, only local county or district attorneys can prosecute the claims...and a lot of times, there is a fox guarding the henhouse," he says.
Leaving it in the hands of local officials as well usually means leaving it with liberals, who have no incentive to take action.
"You have a highly liberal democrat trying to maintain a majority...so the last thing they want to do is prosecute voter fraud," he says.
Voter fraud is no real new concept, though. It goes back many a decade. Claims of it came about during the infamous 'Dangling Chad' incident in 2000, and it goes back even to the Lyndon B. Johnson days, or even before that.
While leading the GOP here in Houston, Woodfill says they did their part in adding poll watchers to locations. They were then met with cries of racism from the Left, and that they were suppressing voters. The premise of that argument alone, that poll watchers suppress voters, is outrageous.
But those vehement cries from the Left when you do try to point out voter fraud is exactly why more do not speak up.
"People are afraid of the attacks against them, being called a conspiracy theorist...we need to stand up and be unafraid or this will continue," he says.
Until that happens, we just keep encouraging a vicious cycle that compromises our own democracy.
"If people know they will not be prosecuted...they will just engage in more of it...and as that happens, the integrity of our elections becomes more compromised," says Woodfill.
While it is likely impossible to get rid of all voter fraud, especially in a country of this size, we cannot just sit on our hands either.
"If we prosecute...it might deter others from it...as long as we are not, there is incentive for people to commit voter fraud," he says. "We need to take a stand...and when it does happen, we need to be on guard, and speak up."
But until something is done, we will keep living Groundhog Day over and over again.