You could call it mail-in ballots on steroids. Democrats are touting a massive operation to mobilize voters overseas to vote for Kamala Harris. A DNC organization called Democrats Abroad recently announced a $300,000 commitment to "register and earn the votes of the nearly 9 million Americans living and serving overseas." The DNC brags they are leaving "no stone unturned to ensure Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States."
Critics are raising serious questions about this operation, especially as mail-in balloting here at home is already fraught with problems. For starters, Democrats Abroad claims to target 9 million voters, while a Pentagon report from 2022 estimated only 4.4 million Americans living overseas, and fewer than 3 million of those eligible to vote. And while many of these overseas ballots go to military members and their families, most apparently do not. Federal election data shows that in 2022, only 34 percent of ballots sent overseas went to uniformed service members.
Jared Woodfill, attorney and former Harris County GOP Chair, says this raises serious election integrity concerns. "This is an opportunity for fraud to very easily occur, where someone overseas is registered, unbeknownst to them, and then votes, unbeknownst to them, here in the United States," he tells KTRH. "That's what we need to stop, and we need to stop it immediately."
Woodfill warns that this type of fraud, where an eligible voter is registered and has a ballot cast in their name without their knowledge, is more common than reported. "We've seen that happen time and time again during elections here in the United States," he says. "So now the opportunity for fraud is much greater when you look to do the same thing abroad, because the ability to verify whether or not that individual actually registered and cast the vote is challenging at best."
"That's why it's important that we, as Republicans, watch this process with very close scrutiny."
Photo: AFP