Title: Prevent Vote Fraud at Your Polling Place
Original CoS Document (slug): prevent-vote-fraud-at-your-polling-place
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Created: 2022-10-24 23:00:31
Updated: 2022-12-19 11:40:21
Published: 2022-10-24 00:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T21:20:16.169355636
Vermont’s mail-in voting system is convenient but opens the door to fraud and manipulation . You may have heard the joke about conducting election fraud, “vote early, vote often!” Election integrity requires that we do just the opposite, “vote on time, vote once.”
Football teams don’t get 5th downs, neither should candidates or ballot measures. Suppose a football game is near the end of the fourth quarter and the teams are tied. The referee knows the rules but decides to allow his favored team one extra down on their final offensive drive. It’s just one more play, it’s not that big of an advantage, right Anyone who’s watched even a handful of sporting events knows that sometimes the outcome of the game can hinge on a single play, especially in a close contest.
By turning in your ballot on Election Day, you are reducing the opportunity for election fraud. How? If a polling place had corrupt elections officials who decided to tally votes before election day, they would be able to tip off their favored team to turn in their ballots, or worse, falsify ballots to obtain the desired result.
Much like the referee in the football game, turning in your ballot early allows for extra time on the clock. Unlike the referee, the extra time on the clock could go to the team that you oppose.
Do scenarios like this really happen?
Search the internet and it won’t take you long to discover allegations of election fraud. Until proven, an allegation isn’t evidence of election fraud. However, turning in your ballot on election day reduces the opportunity for a corrupt government official to perpetrate malfeasance.
What is the timeline of the counting process? Elections officials are allowed to begin verifying the signatures on the ballot envelopes during the two weeks before the election. One week before the election, officials are allowed to open the ballots and scan them into a tally system.
Once the ballots are opened, the ballot is separated from its signature envelope and the auditable trail of that ballot is destroyed. Tallying the ballots may begin on election day. However, the ballots that have arrived early have already been scanned into the tally system, but have not yet been tallied. Ballots that arrive early are at greater risk to be tampered with, scanned multiple times, destroyed, replaced, or sampled.
Suggested voting methods to reduce the chance of election fraud :
Good – Vote your ballot and turn it into a secure ballot drop box before Election Day. Don’t trust the mail to deliver your ballot. Make sure that the ballot drop box is in a well-lit location with 24-hour video monitoring or is collected daily. A ballot drop box at your town’s office would be a good choice.
Better – Do not open your ballot. Wait until Election Day and use the Secretary of State’s website to verify that no one has voted in your name. The link to My Vote website is: https://mvp.vermont.gov/
The website should show that your ballot has been mailed to your address and elections officials have not yet received it. If it shows that your ballot has already been received, you should contact your elections office and notify them of suspected voter fraud. Your unopened ballot is proof that you have not yet voted. After using My Vote to verify that your ballot hasn’t been returned, vote your ballot and return it to a secure ballot drop box or your local elections office.
Best – Do not open your ballot. Wait until Election Day and go to your elections office. Ask them to verify that they haven’t received a ballot from you. Your unopened ballot is proof that they should not have a ballot from you. Once they verify that you have not yet voted, open your ballot, vote it, and turn it in there.
General tips :
1) Use blue ink when voting. It makes it more difficult to make unauthorized copies of your ballot.
2) Vote your entire ballot. Do not leave any sections blank. This prevents anyone else from filling out any incomplete sections of your ballot.
3) If an office has only one candidate running and you do not wish to vote for that candidate, fill in the write-in bubble and write, “none of the above,” or “no vote.”
Take action to promote election integrity.
Your county political party may have an election/voter integrity committee. Committee members often inform state election officials if they discover deceased voters or voters who have moved out of state on the voter rolls. Search for your local political party, contact them or your town office, ask about volunteering for election integrity activity.