“He claims they found cases where voter signatures on envelopes that contain ballots didn’t match the signatures on requests for mail-in ballots. He referred to some campaign workers who allegedly removed ballots from voters’ mailboxes and filled out the forms themselves. And he referred to a Jan. 22, 2016, letter posted online in which the Texas Secretary of State’s office referred his “allegations of criminal activity in Tarrant County” to the Texas Attorney General’s Office. “This is a well run machine, a well organized machine,” Harris told a standing-room only crowd at a 912 Fort Worth meeting this week.”
As more and more Texans turn to mail-in ballots to cast their votes in presidential elections, concerns continue to grow over how secure the process is.
The ballots — geared to make it possible for overseas residents, people in the military and senior citizens to make their vote count — are now at the heart of a growing controversy about voter fraud, even prompting an “integrity tip hotline,” because they allow people to vote from their homes without any ID or verification of identity.
State officials have been in Tarrant County investigating an issue with mail-in ballots from this year’s primary election, but some say the problem with these ballots goes deeper than that. At issue are concerns about “vote harvesting,” in which people fill out and return other people’s ballots.
“Vote harvesting, a form of voting which is largely unwatched, … [has been] growing in the last few cycles,” said Aaron Harris, a Republican political consultant from North Richland Hills who filed at least one complaint with the state citing election concerns in Tarrant County. “We are getting defeat handed to us in mail-in ballots and we aren’t even paying attention to that.”
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