Mail-in balloting has become a highly contentious issue, with Republicans warning of fraud and Democrats charging any restrictions on it amount to disenfranchising voters.
But it wasn't always that way, Just the News editor John Solomon points out. He highlighted a 2005 report from a bipartisan panel with ex-President Jimmy Carter and ex-Senate leader Tom Daschle on the left and former Secretary of State James Baker and former House Minority Leader Bob Michel on the right.
The panel cautioned that mail-in voting is "likely to increase the risks of fraud and of contested elections."
At that time, mail-in voting had been expanded in Oregon.
The panel, the Commission on Federal Election Reform, proposed "that federal, state, and local prosecutors issue public reports on their investigations of election fraud, and we recommend federal legislation to deter or prosecute systemic efforts to deceive or intimidate voters."
"States should not discourage legal voter registration or get-out-the-vote activities, but they need to do more to prevent voter registration and absentee ballot fraud," the panel said.
The senior political leaders said that voter identification is a key to preventing problems.
"The electoral system cannot inspire public confidence if no safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud or to confirm the identity of voters," the report said. "Photo IDs currently are needed to board a plane, enter federal buildings, and cash a check. Voting is equally important."
The commission, set up by American University, sharply criticized mail voting.
"While vote by mail appears to increase turnout for local elections, there is no evidence that it significantly expands participation in federal elections. Moreover, it raises concerns about privacy, as citizens voting at home may come under pressure to vote for certain candidates, and it increases the risk of fraud," the commission concluded.
"Oregon appears to have avoided significant fraud in its vote-by-mail elections by introducing safeguards to protect ballot integrity, including signature verification. Vote by mail is, however, likely to increase the risks of fraud and of contested elections in other states, where the population is more mobile, where there is some history of troubled elections, or where the safeguards for ballot integrity are weaker."
Commission members noted problems during the 2004 elections.
"In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, investigators said they found clear evidence of fraud, including more than 200 cases of felons voting illegally and more than 100 people who voted twice, used fake names or false addresses, or voted in the name of a dead person. Moreover, there were 4,500 more votes cast than voters listed."
Trump and his administration appear to be in alignment with the commission's conclusions, but Democrats are pushing widespread mail-in voting and reject photo ID and other validation efforts, JTN reported.
There have been hundreds of court cases involving voter fraud in recent years. This year a New Jersey community is re-doing an election because of "widespread fraud," JTN reported.
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