That's the beauty of mail in voting. It makes it easier to cheat and more difficult to catch the cheater.
What are the political consequences of mail balloting?
Republicans fear mail balloting will increase votes for Democrats. They worry that individuals who are part of groups that typically vote in lower numbers will cast absentee ballots because of the ease of doing so. This includes young people, low-income people, minorities, and those without access to transportation.
Yet one group that benefits from absentee ballots is senior citizens, who often skew GOP. Those who are incapacitated or sick can request mail ballots as can those who cannot drive or lack access to mass transit. Mail ballots represent a way for those individuals to exercise their constitutional rights at election time.
Republicans have won in legislative districts having a large number of mail ballots. In a 2020
California special election for Congress, for example, Republicans captured a seat that previously had been held by Democrats. They did so by getting out the vote and making sure their voters had access to absentee ballots.
A major study of California, Utah, and Washington state conducted by Daniel Thompson, Jesse Yoder, Jennifer Wu, and Andrew Hall of Stanford University for elections between 1996 and 2018 concluded there was
no partisan advantage to either party based on voting by mail.
Does it increase electoral fraud?
If candidates believe there has been voter fraud, they can present evidence regarding a particular race to the election board or file a lawsuit in a local court. Authorities review the evidence and decide if there has been actual fraud. If there is sufficient evidence, local prosecutors can indict the relevant people for mail ballot fraud. It is a criminal offense to forge a name on a mail ballot, impersonate someone else, steal ballots, or deceive someone about their mail ballot.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, there is
no evidence that mail balloting increases electoral fraud as there are several anti-fraud protections built into the process designed to make it difficult to impersonate voters or steal ballots. These provisions include requiring people requesting absentee ballots to be registered voters, mailing ballots to the official address listed on voter registration rolls, requiring voter signatures on the external envelope, and having election authorities make sure the ballot came from the address of an actual voter. If a ballot appears questionable, some states use a signature matching technique to verify the signature of the voter.
Darrell West explains the different vote-by-mail systems and addresses fears over the political consequences of mail voting and potential for fraud.
www.brookings.edu