Ballots and Drop Boxes are Safe and Secure
by Crystal Rhoades
The voting should be easy for citizens. The idea that ballot drop boxes or by agent are dangerous is simply not true. Ballots delivered to the election commission via drop box or by agent, a practice known as “ballot harvesting”, are secure.
The election commission stations ballot drop boxes across the county for voters to deposit ballots for collection by election commission staff. The ballots deposited in the drop boxes are taken to the election commission, and then the signature of the voters is matched with the signature on file on the voter registration card. In the event the signature is missing or doesn’t match what is on file the ballot is rejected. The election commission and the secretary of state post whether each ballot was accepted or rejected so that voters have an opportunity to contact the election commission to find out how to correct the problem that led to the rejection of the ballot.
All ballot returns are logged the same day they are received. An audit is completed to ensure all ballot returns are properly recorded. Accepted ballot return envelopes are opened by a team of two workers of differing political parties. All accepted early voting ballots are counted and reported. Suspended ballots are processed during the canvass (auditing) of the election. If accepted, the ballot will be counted and added to the final official election results. After the canvass of the election is complete, all early voting ballots and materials are stored for 22 months.
The election commission allows for people other than the voter to deliver ballots to the drop boxes. For example, my husband could take his ballot, my ballot, and our son’s ballot to the drop box without making it a crime. This practice is also used in nursing homes, hospitals, or with other members of the community to make voting easier. However, the process remains the same for verification of signatures to ensure that election integrity is maintained. Elimination of the practice would only create barriers to voting and would do nothing to improve election security.
In reality voting in person is less secure because there is no signature verification when you vote in person. You show up and sign the book, they don’t match the signature.
There are many advantages to using a drop box including not worrying about mail delivery times and avoiding long drives to the election commission. Ballots must be received by the election commission by election day in order to be counted and it would be difficult for some of the most disadvantaged in our community to have to make transportation arrangements to deliver ballots to the election commission in person. There have also been many stories about the longer delivery times for the postal service due to budget constraints. Placement of secure community drop boxes help to alleviate this problem. The election commission should add additional drop boxes, ideally, one for every two or three precincts in town to optimize convenience for the electorate.
PREVENT VOTER FRAUD IN NEBRASKA
by Douglas Kagan
Several investigative endeavors by reliable sources following the 2020 election have proved beyond a reasonable doubt to me that irregularities occurred in the process of counting the ballots. All these allegations vividly portrayed in the Dinesh D’Souza film 2000 Mules. Using geotracking and mining of other voting data sources, together with video surveillance, True the Vote and other investigative groups have highlighted these irregularities in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona. Their evidence tracks individuals (mules) traveling from nonprofit offices to several or more drop boxes, stuffing in dozens of ballots that filled the boxes. Immediately after, these mules removed their latex gloves and threw them into garbage receptacles, likely to avoid the tracing of their fingerprints. Individuals received payment for ballot trafficking. Evidence of photocopying ballots and stealing ballots from mailboxes. Requested mail-in ballots filled out by someone in a deceased individual’s name or for an individual who had moved away. Homeless shelter people bribed to vote for a particular candidate. Plying votes from mentally-incapacitated nursing home residents, tricked into voting a particular way and signing ballots. Nonprofit foundations, forbidden to endorse candidates, funded get out the vote activities for candidates in key states. Apparent coordinated fraud committed in multiple states, which I believe resembles organized crime activity. The totality of this effort shown in 2000 Mules may have tipped the balance in the 2020 presidential election.
Voting is the bedrock of democracy in America. Without guaranteeing secure and honest elections, our democracy will mirror false democracies like Russia. We must prevent vote-rigging in Nebraska. First, voters should sign the Voter ID petition being circulated for inclusion on the November ballot. Second, citizens must press state senators to pass legislation in 2023 to prohibit ballot harvesting, ensure the integrity of mail-in ballots, and end the use of area drop boxes for ballot depositing.
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