For weeks now, Democrats have been pushing a proposal to expand voting by mail to unprecedented levels while President Trump sounds the alarm over voter fraud.

2016 Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton kicked off the initiative writing the following on Twitter on April 9:

“72% of all U.S. adults, including 79% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans, supported a requirement for mail-in ballots as a way to protect voters in case of a continued spread of the respiratory disease later this year.”

Former President Barack Obama followed suit the very next day on April 10 tweeting,

“Everyone should have the right to vote safely, and we have the power to make that happen. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue… Let’s not use the tragedy of a pandemic to compromise our democracy. Check the facts of vote by mail.”

Even before that, liberal activists had been pushing the narrative and I remember finding the coordinated effort strange at the height of the coronavirus outbreak when most people were focused on the immediate response.

President Trump responded promptly as the Democrats’ talking points were being distributed tweeting,

“Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason,  doesn’t work out well for Republicans. @foxandfriends”

The President appears to be correct as it has been widely reported that more than 28 million absentee ballots have gone missing over the past four national elections from 2012-2018. That number amounts to roughly 1 in every 5 mail-in ballots. It is a startling discovery that should make us less dependent on voting by mail, not more.

The first problem is obvious as mail-in ballots naturally require no photo ID which greatly increases the risk of someone other than the voter casting their ballot. Additionally, many neighborhoods have a political leaning one way or another so there is a high potential for politically-targeted theft of mail-in ballots.

There have also been countless examples of election officials and volunteers neglecting to process entire boxes of mail-in ballots.

I don’t believe we should disallow senior citizens or disabled Americans from voting by mail if it is how they’ve become accustomed but we should not expand the policy for the aforementioned reasons.

For those who are genuinely interested in protecting public health while also protecting the integrity of our elections, I would present the healthy alternative of curbside voting.