By Peter Burrows 4/17/20 elburropete@gmail.com - silvercityburro.com

The New Mexico Supreme Court last Tuesday unanimously rejected a petition by New Mexico Democrats to hold the upcoming June 2 primary entirely by mail. The Court authorized ballot APPLICATIONS to be sent to all registered voters, but not ballots. The distinction is important, because applications require voter signatures and address verification.

If the Court would have approved the Democrats' request, I have no doubt the next step would have been mail-in ballots for all statewide elections, not just primaries. That would have opened a Pandora's Box of problems, not the least of which would be the opportunity to steal elections. Democrats are quick to claim there is no evidence of voter fraud here in New Mexico, but that is simply not true. For examples, Google the following:

-Espanola vote fraud
-Torres-Small vote fraud
-Public interest legal foundation new mexico voter registration

In general, while both Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of stealing elections, it's the Democrats who are really good at it. They do so with a clear conscience because they believe that government is a force for good, Since Democrats are morally superior people, they are therefore the best people to be in charge of the government. If it takes voter fraud to win elections, it's for the good of the country. (1)

That explains why Democrats always advocate for anything that makes voting easier, and oppose anything that makes voting a verified act by a living citizen, done once. The idea of a special voting ID, such as Mexico requires, is opposed as racist "voter suppression."

True to form, the Coronovirus pandemic has inspired not just New Mexico Democrats, but also Democrats in Washington. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed Federal laws that would require every state to allow mail-in voting, same day registration, 30 days of early voting, and a sworn statement of identity instead of a voter ID. Gosh, what could go wrong?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has joined the parade and wants vote-by-mail for the upcoming presidential election: "A voter gets a ballot with a postage-paid return envelope. They vote, they sign it, and they send it back. It's easy to vote by mail,"

"It's easy to vote by mail." Really? In fact, national vote-by-mail would be enormously difficult and would need years to implement. It isn't as simple as absentee ballot voting, where a ballot is requested by a registered voter. This ProPublica article is a good accounting of the problems:

https://www.propublica.org/article/voting-by-mail-would-reduce-coronavirus-transmission-but-it-has-other-risks

While voting by mail has a number of advantages, such as convenience and higher voter turnout, especially in local elections, whether it saves money is debatable. Printing and mailing costs can be substantial and may be in addition to normal polling place expenses.

What is not debatable is the potential to steal elections. Charles Stewart, who studies election administration at MIT, said "The consensus among people who study fraud carefully is that voting by mail is a much more fertile area for fraud than voting in person." He was referring to absentee ballots. Imagine if all the ballots were mail-in.

J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, said, "Absentee ballot fraud is the most common the most expensive to investigate, and can never be reversed after an election. The status quo was already bad for mail balloting. The proposed emergency fix is worse."

That's because ballots would be mailed to every registered voter, and voter registration records are notoriously inaccurate. Nationwide, the Government Accountability Institute estimates that there are 24 million inaccurate or ineligible voter registrations, including 2 million dead voters and nearly three million registered in more than one state.

As an aside, I have never heard of an initiative, anywhere in the country, by the Democrat Party to clean up the voter registration lists. It's always the Republicans who want accurate voter rolls. Why is that?

You may be surprised to know that in the 2016 Presidential election, 21 percent of the votes were already mail-in votes, and that there are five states that allow voting by mail for all elections, including federal elections. Four of the five states, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Hawaii, were won by Hillary Clinton, and one, Utah, by Donald Trump. The camel's nose is in the tent, folks.

While Presidential elections should be the most difficult to steal thanks to the Electoral College, it only takes a key state or two to do the trick, e.g., Illinois swung the 1960 election to JFK thanks to widespread voter fraud in Chicago, and disputed votes in Florida almost swung the 2000 election to Al Gore. With mail-in voting, it won't take the Democrats long before the swing states of Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio join New York, California and Illinois as permanent Democrat strongholds.

In addition, Democrats want to expand the number of eligible voters, most notably by reducing the voting age to 16. You may not be old enough to purchase a gun, an alcoholic drink, or a cigarette, but you're old enough to vote for a Democrat. They would also allow voting by felons, even if still in prison, and voting by both legal and illegal aliens. Do it all by mail and Democrats will soon control Congress and enough states to be able to change the Constitution in any way they please.

Some of you are thinking, "All that from mail-in voting, Burro?" Well, it's a start and we shouldn't allow it to happen.

(1) There are a number of books about Democrats stealing elections, but none that I could find about Republicans doing the same. On Amazon, you will find the following books: "Stealing Elections," by John Fund; "Who's Counting?" by John Fund and Hans Von Spakovsky; "If it isn't close, they can't steal it" by Hugh, Hewitt; and "Fraud" by Eric Eggers.