Election Fraud Doesn’t Exist Until Liberals Want It to Exist

Something amazing is happening: Liberals have suddenly begun to believe in voter fraud. Almost overnight, years of constant denial and disbelief have melted away amid allegations that a congressional election in North Carolina may have been tainted by absentee ballot fraud.

In North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, Republican Mark Harris beat his Democratic opponent, Dan McCready, by 905 votes out of almost 300,000 cast. McCready conceded defeat, but irregularities in absentee balloting in Bladen and Robeson counties prompted the North Carolina State Board of Elections to refuse to certify the results and instead move to hold an evidentiary hearing to examine evidence of fraud.

Thus far, the investigation is centering on a political operative named Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., who apparently worked for Harris’ campaign. According to witness statements and affidavits, Dowless paid people to collect voters’ absentee ballot requests and the ballots themselves—a practice known as “vote harvesting,” which is illegal in the state. Dowless and others are also being accused of having tampered with those absentee ballots.

If true, this would hardly be the first time that fraudsters have targeted absentee ballots. In fact, absentee voting is particularly vulnerable to fraud. The Heritage Foundations’ election fraud database tracks a growing list of proven examples of election misconduct across the country—1,177 cases so far—and many of its entries involve efforts to manipulate, forge, or change absentee ballots and coerce or intimidate absentee voters.

The allegations in North Carolina’s 9th District are serious and should not be dismissed out of hand. Elections are the core of our representative democracy, and they depend on public trust in the fairness of the process and the validity of the results.

When credible evidence of fraud comes to light, it must be investigated and, if the evidence warrants, prosecuted. To do otherwise invites future malfeasance.

When this or any type of election fraud occurs, it shakes the confidence of all voters, both liberals and conservatives. That makes guaranteeing election integrity a solemn, nonpartisan task.

Everyday Americans seem to agree. For example, according to one recent Pew Research Center poll, 76 percent of Americans think that voter identification requirements should be mandatory—a remarkably high figure in...

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