Voter Fraud Is Real; Disbelieving That It Happens Is Naive

According to Newsweek: 

Besides the United States, there are 36 member states in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Forty-seven percent ban mail-in voting unless the citizen is living abroad, and 30 percent require a photo ID to obtain a mail-in ballot. Fourteen percent of the countries ban mail-in voting even for those living abroad.

https://www.newsweek.com/voting-fraud-real-concern-just-look-around-world-opinion-1522535

France banned mail-in voting in 1975 because of massive fraud in Corsica, where postal ballots were stolen or bought and voters cast multiple votes. Mail-in ballots were used to cast the votes of dead people.

Among the 27 countries in the European Union, 63 percent ban mail-in voting unless living abroad and another 22 percent require a photo ID to obtain a mail-in ballot. Twenty-two percent ban the practice even for those who live abroad.

In 1991, Mexico's election mandated voter photo IDs and banned absentee ballots. The then-governing Institutional Revolutionary Party had long used fraud and intimidation with mail-in ballots in order to win elections. Only in 2006 were absentee ballots again allowed, and then only for those living abroad who requested them at least six months in advance.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3666259

In the early 80's we had a friend who was a professional photographer at Fingerhut in Minneapolis. Being single, he enjoyed traveling and sharing photos from exotic places he'd visited. One of his trips took him to Ecuador and he happened to be in that country on election day. 

He showed us photos of people with their thumbs ink-blackened as a sign that they had voted. It was his understanding that voting was required by law, so people were easily identified as having voted or evaded it. The black thumb prevented people from voting more than once.

Here's an article about 25 countries that still mark voters with ink:
https://tricitytimes-online.com/2020/12/23/25-countries-mark-voters-with-ink/

* * * * 

Here's an abstract detailing the issue of voter fraud in other parts of the world.

Why Do Most Countries Ban Mail-In Ballots?: They Have Seen Massive Vote Fraud Problems

152 Pages Posted: 9 Aug 2020 Last revised: 26 Apr 2021

John R. Lott

Crime Prevention Research Center

Date Written: August 3, 2020

Abstract

Thirty-seven states have so far changed their mail-in voting procedures this year in response to the Coronavirus. Despite frequent claims that President Trump’s warning about vote fraud/voting buying with mail-in ballots is “baselessly” or “without evidence” about mail-in vote fraud, there are numerous examples of vote fraud and vote buying with mail-in ballots in the United States and across the world. Indeed, concerns over vote fraud and vote buying with mail-in ballots causes the vast majority of countries to ban mail-in voting unless the citizen is living abroad.

There are fraud problems with mail-in absentee ballots but the problems with universal mail-in ballots are much more significant. Still most countries ban even absentee ballots for people living in their countries.

Most developed countries ban absentee ballots unless the citizen is living abroad or require Photo-IDs to obtain those ballots. Even higher percentages of European Union or other European countries ban absentee for in country voters. In addition, some countries that allow voting by mail for citizens living the country don’t allow it for everyone. For example, Japan and Poland have limited mail-in voting to those who have special certificates verifying that they are disabled.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3666259

Countries that require a photo ID to vote: UK Italy Chile Spain Malta Brazil Israel Latvia Russia France Mexico Austria Ireland Poland Greece Croatia Finland Estonia Belgium Sweden Bulgaria Portugal Hungary Ecuador Slovenia Slovakia Romania Denmark Germany Lithuania Argentina Columbia Botswana Zimbabwe Luxemburg Netherlands South Africa Czech Republic

(Just to name a few)

People who deny that voter fraud happens are either naive or ______. (Fill in the blank.)

EdNote: I am not a right-wing nut. Why is common sense so uncommon?

Internet Gaming Scams: Look Before You Leap

One of my first published freelance articles in a national publication was called "Look Before You Leap." The theme: how to avoid frauds and scams. Sadly, scammers prey on our natural tendency to trust (until burned), our lack of experience and our naivete.

Words like "no risk offer" and "ironclad guarantee" may sound reliable, but if you are bilked for forty dollars by the one making the scam/promise you are unlikely to hire a lawyer and go to court in Texas or Nevada over it. Telemarketing fraud, advance fee schemes and a whole variety of work-at-home schemes steal peoples' time and money, and erode our confidence.

With the advent of the Internet age, a whole generation has become immersed in this new world, most of us in one way or another building settlements there in various communities from MySpace to Facebook to AOL or whatever. These communities are comprised of people who have various interests, and agendas. Unfortunately, many of the rules in this new territory are undefined and you see a lot of blurring of ethical lines as some people have but one bottom line aim: to make money any way possible.

By now anyone with an email address has received the Nigerian Letter scam, in which someone sends you an email saying they need to smuggle 43 million dollars out of the country and can you help? Because so many have received this email (and it was amazingly effective!) they have changed it into various other countries or situations, always with the same intent, to obtain your bank account number, official letterheads or whatever. As they say, if it is too good to be true, it probably is.

Some ethical lines are less visible. Or like traps in the jungle hidden by leaves and sticks (remember the old Tarzan movies?) you don't have enough experience to see what's going on till it is too late.

Michael Arrington's TechCrunch article titled Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell is a must read if you are going to invest time, or money, in the virtual world of FaceBook gaming. After outlining the problems, he sets out actual examples, here's the first:

A typical scam: users are offered in game currency in exchange for filling out an IQ survey. Four simple questions are asked. The answers are irrelevant. When the user gets to the last question they are told their results will be text messaged to them. They are asked to enter in their mobile phone number, and are texted a pin code to enter on the quiz. Once they’ve done that, they’ve just subscribed to a $9.99/month subscription. Tatto Media is the company at the very end of the line on most mobile scams, and they flow it up through Offerpal, SuperRewards and others to the game developers.

Not every scam is out for your money. Many are simply seeking your friends' email addresses and/or contact information, which they sell to advertisers seeking this information. You are essentially betraying the privacy of your friends.

Zynga may be spending $50 million a year on Facebook advertising alone, fueled partially by lead gen scams. Wonder how Facebook got to profitability way ahead of schedule? It was a surge in this kind of advertising. The money looks clean – it’s from Zynga, Playfish, Playdom and others. But a large portion of it is coming from users who’ve been tricked into one scam or another.

If you disagree with the writer, there's a pretty lively follow up debate there at TechCrunch which is equally informative. Before you buy those new high yield seeds at Farmville you may want to check it out.

Scary Realities

A few years ago, I received an unwelcome email from Ohio University, my Alma Mater. Evidently, a hard drive with information about every student from way back whenever was improperly disposed of. My records, including Social Security number and other personal data, happened to have been on this hard drive.

If I recall correctly, the school did take action. (A) They notified us, the potential identity theft victims, and (B) they fired two IT personnel, as if that would somehow help prevent my future identity theft should this info get into the wrong hands.

I graduated Ohio University in 1974. The incident, three decades later, is a somewhat unnerving reminder of how vulnerable we are. How many people have your personal data? How many schools have you attended, places where you have worked, banks that you have done business with, mortgage lenders, hotels that you have stayed at, etc. The list is probably long.

So today, I received a letter from an investment firm through whom I purchased stock securities in the late 1980’s and early nineties. In February of this year one of their boxes of backup tapes of data was evidently missing. The missing tapes contained… guess what? … “certain personal information, such as your name, address, Social Security number and/or shareholder account information.”

Hmmm.

So, they are offering twelve months of “free credit monitoring.” Great… like then what? In thirteen months I will still be anxious because, frankly, though I do not lose sleep over it, I remain internally unsettled by the previous potential dispersal of my personal information four years ago.

From everything I have read, identity theft is an enormous nightmare to experience. Personally, I do not want to go through it any more than I want to catch the latest staph infection that has no remedy.

It’s all part of the game of progress, and I don’t really know the alternatives. Cash and carry has limitations that put a crimp on my style. I dislike shopping, and all those goods that get delivered to my door with a handful of mouseclicks is so pleasing. But… then again… I sure don’t like the way this letter from Shareholder Services is making me feel.

How does it make you feel? Am I overreacting to imaginary boogeymen, or are these really scary realities?