SCOTT DREYER: Yes, Virginia, There Is Such A Thing As “Voter Fraud”

But all things must be done properly and in an orderly way. –I Corinthians 14:40 (NASB)

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.” – Joseph Stalin,

Long fascinated by Europe, in high school I read a book about the Soviet Union. The author had traveled there extensively and explained how, unlike in the West where one can travel freely, in the USSR one could only visit with a group and was monitored virtually 24/7 by a government-sponsored tour guide or hotel staff.

In 1986, while studying in Germany, I had the chance to visit the former USSR for a memorable week and experienced that surveillance first-hand.

The author mentioned how the guides had been carefully trained to handle questions and given stock answers to give, in line with the Communists’ “party line.” The author then mentioned how one cheeky visitor wanted to think up a trick question to see if he could “stump” his guide. That visitor asked: “How much premarital sex is there in the Soviet Union?”

Stunned, the guide stood silent and expressionless for a moment, and the group realized that she had never been told how to answer that one. After a few seconds’ pause, she firmly responded: “There is no premarital sex in the Soviet Union.”

If you believe that guide was telling the truth about a country of some 240 million people, please contact me: I’d like to sell you some lovely beachfront property in Giles County.

That snippet came to mind in 2012, when Virginia first mandated each voter present a photo ID while voting (or else cast a provisional ballot.) My wife and I had left our polling place and saw a neighbor (a self-described “happy atheist”) coming in. She greeted us affably as was her custom, and casually asked if we’d needed to present a photo ID. I told her we had, which I thought was a great idea to reduce potential voter fraud. Suddenly, she lost her smile and her face was twisted in anger. She snapped: “There is no voter fraud in Virginia! If you’d stop watching Fox News you’d know that!”

I wanted to explain to her, I did not watch Fox News because we had neither cable nor satellite TV in our home.

I will not claim any one person or party has a monopoly on voter fraud, but over recent years I have seen this common pattern: The Republican is slightly ahead on election night; a day or so later a few hundred votes are “found” somewhere, maybe in a closet, or maybe the local election officials “overlooked” them on election night; another recount or two, each time with the GOP lead narrowing. Then finally, after a recount places the Democrat on top, all recounts are finished, the media announces the new winner, and life goes on.

Such happened to Republican Dino Rossi running for governor in Washington State in 2004, and to Norm Coleman running for Senate against Al Franken (D) in Minnesota. In that race, convicted felons were allowed to vote illegally and one poll worker “surprisingly” found some uncounted ballots in the trunk of his car well after election day. Franken ended up winning and going to the Senate, until he later resigned in disgrace after his lewd photograph scandal involving a sleeping female reporter on an airplane.

That brings us to today. On election night, President Trump was performing well or even ahead in some key states like Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, etc. I understand it takes time to count millions of votes, and it takes more time to count votes from huge cities than from small towns. We get that.

Still, there are many disturbing stories, reports, and images surfacing. In Detroit, one observer saw people pushing wagons, suitcases, and coolers into a vote tabulation center between 2-4 am, after election night, where no ID was required to enter (See again the importance of photo ID?).

Later, city workers taped cardboard over the windows of the vote tabulation rooms. Why? The city claims observers might see “sensitive voter data,” but such images do not foster trust in “transparency.” In fact, shortly after the images of the card-boarded windows were online, news outlets called Michigan for Biden.

Coincidence? On November 5-6–at the end of the week–Nevada is still getting votes in, now from heavily Democrat Clark County, pushing up Biden’s tally.

This issue of voter fraud and election integrity is crucial, and there are so many stories out there, I do not have time or space here to go into depth. I encourage you to research it yourself.

Our system as a democratic republic works and has worked for most of 244 years for one reason: because most of us U.S. citizens AGREE with the system, and we AGREE to make it work. For most of our history that has meant, win or lose, most of the population agrees to abide by the result.

Of course there is the exception that was the presidential election of 1860–following the election of our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, 11 Southern states seceded from the Union, thus triggering the Civil War.

Reports of voting “irregularities” or outright fraud undermine confidence in the system and the legitimacy of whoever ends up winning. What happens if, God forbid, after years of fraud– or even suspected fraud– a critical mass of the population loses all faith in the system and refuses to acknowledge winners of elections, from either party? What then?

Some are now claiming, “count every ballot.” Wrong. The call should be, “Count every LEGAL ballot.” Generations before us have died for the right to vote. We need to honor that, carefully tabulate all legal votes, and make sure the election results are tabulated in a legal and transparent way.