I see an issue with the mail-in ballots that can be exploited.

[Baitball Blogger]

I just read that Trump is preparing to declare a win based on in-person voting and will throw legal challenges to the absentee/mail-in votes. I see one way that Republicans can create a fraudulent situation to help his case. It is possible that I don't understand the situation well enough to see if there is already a process in place to avoid the weak point that I discuss below, but I think it's worth bringing it up for a good mind churning:

Okay, first of all, during the Bush v. Gore year, I do believe my vote was stolen by the man who asked for my ballot before putting it through the tabulator. He opened the sleeve just ever slightly, and then tried to run the ballot through the machine but failed to get the ballot to run through the machine, so he dropped it in a side slot. It was never mechanically tabulated on that first run. Several changes have been made in the county to prevent this situation from happening, but I am sharing this experience because, if there is a problem, I think it will come from someone in the room that has access to ballots.

There is one situation where ballots are available to these people: When a person who receives a mail-in ballot, and changes their mind, they will be asked to surrender their mail-in ballot to the precinct workers before they get a new one. At least, this is the process they used in my county when I changed my mind and decided to come in to vote in person. I don't even want to consider the other possible mess that might occur if large numbers of people walk in claiming they never received a mail-in ballot because the USPS is being sabotaged.

So, this is a possible weakness. In my case, I insisted on writing VOID on my mail-in ballot before I handed it in. But I watched as they added it to a box full of other ballots that were handed in, and I wondered how many other people thought to do the same thing? The box was full of ballots, many still in their envelopes. Some of those envelopes were ripped at the top.

So, now I ask, what if you had an unscrupulous person plucking out those ballots that are not spoiled? They could select those envelopes that were not sealed, and scribble someone else's name on the envelope to create the appearance of voter fraud. Just the situation that Trump is trying to prove in court, they can create.

So, my two suggestions is to be aware that this situation occurs and we need to figure out how to be able to keep an eye on two situations:

1) Are the election volunteers collecting mail-in ballots before handing out fresh ballots to people who are changing their minds? This is a good thing. But is every county doing the same thing?

2) Is there a way to void the surrendered mail-in ballots to make sure they can't be used for nefarious purposes?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. That sort of thing would have to be done on an enormous scale

all over the country for it to have any effect at all. Worry more about absentee ballots getting delivered late because of the USPS fuckups. In my state a ballot will be counted if it's postmarked by 11/3 and received by 11/10, but not all states are as forgiving.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. You might be missing my point.

They are not trying to throw the election for Trump, by using these ballots to vote for them. They would be trying to show that the mail-in ballot is untrustworthy by showing that the names on the envelopes are fraudulent. They will gaslight the situation, by instilling doubt.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I don't think I missed the point at all, which is that this would have to be done

on a very large scale, regardless of the reason it is being done. And there would have to be some motive for all those volunteers to deliberately screw up people's ballots.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. "all those volunteers"

Not all of them. Just the ones that have access to the box.