The Election’s in the Mail?
Scammers are everywhere during the coronavirus, experts are warning. But they’re not just after your bank account or personal information. They’re after your vote.
Scammers are everywhere during the coronavirus, experts are warning. But they’re not just after your bank account or personal information. They’re after your vote.
For the Democratic Party, there’s plenty of upside to a crisis like this one. The lockdown may not thrill most Americans, but for DNC headquarters, it’s an unexpected gift. After years of trying to relax the election process, the coronavirus is giving them the perfect scenario to push for the kind of nationwide system that’s ripe for abuse: mail-in ballots.
In a recent interview, former attorney general Eric Holder didn’t even try to hide his party’s motives. “Coronavirus," he told Time magazine, "gives us an opportunity to revamp our electoral system so that it permanently becomes more inclusive…” Of course, inclusivity is code for doing away with safeguards like voter ID laws and other checks and balances that keep our elections honest. This is the time, he argued, to demand a “sea change” in voting systems. But a “sea change” is what every democracy-loving American should be worried about.
The cast of characters behind the push should tell voters everything they need to know about its intentions. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are all throwing their weight behind a system that would make the 2020 election completely mail-dependent. In states like Texas, the Democratic Party is already filing lawsuits against state election officials to force the idea. The chairman of the GOP there, James Dickey, has vowed to fight the movement, insisting that Republicans “will continue to vigorously oppose any intent by the Democrats to expose voters to increased error and fraud.”
President Trump is equally disturbed by the Democrats’ insistence that we turn the electoral system upside down. “Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to statewide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it," Mr. Trump tweeted on April 8. "Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans.” Obviously, he said, “Absentee Ballots are a great way to vote for the many senior citizens, military, and others who can’t get to the polls on Election Day,” he tweeted. “These ballots are very different from 100% Mail-In Voting, which is "RIPE for FRAUD and shouldn’t be allowed!”
As some experts have pointed out, plenty of things can go wrong when voters have to depend on the postal service. For one, “Mail voting doesn’t work well for everyone. Some Americans live in places with unreliable mail service, may not have a fixed address to receive mail, or change addresses frequently, which can lead to issues regarding getting materials on time.” Then, there’s the matter of ballot harvesting, which gives people the right to collect and deliver other voters’ ballots. The dangers in that, as Californians found out in 2018, are too numerous to count. Once these intermediaries get their hands on someone else’s ballot, they could decide not deliver it or manipulate it in some way before they do. Either way, it’s a huge risk.
FRC Action’s Brent Keilen has been following the debate, especially on the state level, where several primaries have been affected. “It’s literally changing by the day right now,” he warned. And while the presidential primaries are mostly over, the focus now is on the federal races in the states. “We have about 40 states still to go, because so many of these laws have been pushed down the road. And now, we’re seeing states like [Virginia] where Governor [Ralph] Northam (D)… is starting to change — not just their primary election laws to get past COVID-19 situation here and get this into the summer — they’re actually starting to change the fall general election laws as well.”
“We’ve had Democrats at the national level pushing some ideas, such as you mentioned, getting rid of voter ID laws, going to potentially all mail-in ballots as opposed to having [in-person voting] and number of other things.” And while a lot of political experts agree that voter participation would go up with a mail-in ballot system, the question is: Who knows if they’re actually being cast by the actual person who got the ballot? That’s why the safeguards at the polling station are so important.
And it’s not as if showing an ID is a hardship. We all have to show our ID get on an airplane, cash a check, and a whole host of other things. So why shouldn’t you have to show an ID to prove that you’re voting as the person you say you are? The only reason, everyone knows, is to open up the system to abuse. “Obviously, we want to make sure everybody is safe in these elections,” Brent agreed, “and we don’t want it to be hard to vote — but we do want it to be hard to cheat. And we know cheating is a real thing. This is not something that’s made up. We have a lot of actual [data].” Back in 2012, Pew research found that as many as one in eight voter registration were outdated or wrong… And remember, a lot of these races are being decided by very close margins. So it doesn’t take that much fraud to swing some of these states.“
What can you do? Well, for starters, you can pay close attention to what’s happening in your state. There are websites like HonestElections.org and TrueTheVote.org who are devoted to the integrity of the process. We’re a long way off from the November election, but the groundwork for changing the process is being laid now. Make sure you’re informed.
Originally published here.
Caste Aside: India’s Christians Forced to Face Virus
The street was a sea of debris. To any passerby, it would’ve looked like a bomb had exploded. In the shadow of jagged buildings, where entire walls had come tumbling down, the ground was a pile of rubble, bricks, and shattered glass. The riots are over — for now. But in Delhi, where the mosques are still charred and smeared with blood, no one is under any illusions. Even in lockdown, there is persecution around every corner.
For any country, the coronavirus is a major challenge. But for places like India, the crisis is a just another excuse to trample people. Poor families, who were already shunned and marginalized by society, are facing a virtual death sentence — not because of the outbreak, but because the government is using the situation to block them from food and supplies. Since India ordered people inside two weeks ago, families in some villages have been completely cut off from groceries, medicine, and other essentials. "We’ve been locked up here, like prisoners," a pregnant mom nearly cried. "We live near a milk factory, and there is not a drop of milk for my children to drink. We are called dirty, and they say we spread the disease.” But the disease is the least of her worries. Starvation isn’t.
For Christians, the abuse has taken a different form. Open Doors’ David Curry has heard from sources on the ground that the government is ramping up what he calls “cultural persecution.” Christians, he warns, “are being put on the front lines with the most contagious, because they’re considered expendable.” In a country with just one doctor for every 1,457 Indians, the gaps in care are huge. And while Christians are usually the first to volunteer to serve, but in this crisis, the government didn’t give them a choice. “They were sent,” FRC’s Arielle Del Turco pointed out, “because of their faith, and because they hold such a marginalized status in that society.”
What’s worse, David warns, is that “they’re being exposed without proper care.” Like a lot of organizations, his is desperately trying to get masks and other equipment into the hands of the medical workers, but still, he says, “we need to draw attention to the religious undertones of this tragedy.” And in contrast to countries like the United States, where people on the front lines are treated like heroes, India’s doctors, nurses, and helpers are being driven out of their apartments or attacked on the streets. After working long, harrowing shifts in the virus wards, some health workers are coming home to no home at all. “They asked us to vacate without any notice," one young physician said. ”[They] said we were dirty. Most doctors are now on the streets and have nowhere to go.“
Unfortunately, Arielle explained on "Washington Watch,” all of this “just reflects larger societal issues in India where a lot of people are still considered unclean. And that’s just the legacy of a detrimental caste system that’s been really harmful for human rights. And we see Christians [fall] victim [to] this, because they are often among the lowest caste members.” It’s stunning when you consider that India is the world’s largest “democracy.” And although the state isn’t necessarily responsible for all of the increased hostility and violence directed at religious minorities, it’s certainly not doing anything to stop it.
Instead of stepping in to protect their citizens, they’re turning a blind eye to the ticking time bomb of the Hindu nationalist movement — which insists that “to be Indian is to be Hindu.” “Obviously,” Arielle said, “that leaves other religious minorities, including Christians and Muslims, in a marginalized place. And… [it’s] inspiring — not just persecution from the government — but persecution from mob violence.” The reports of pastors being run over in the streets or beaten with chains are almost commonplace. At the very least, the virus has hopefully isolated them from some of the threats, but whatever relief there is will be temporary.
Their hope, like so many others’, is in nations like America, whose leaders have the leverage to pressure India’s government to take the persecution more seriously. “[India] does want to maintain a friendship with the United States,” Arielle agreed, “so hopefully their leadership is going to be a little [more receptive to] what America has to say in terms of their human rights standards. [W]e should be encouraging our allies to share our core values. [And] one of our core values in this country is religious freedom.” The coronavirus doesn’t change that. If anything, it only makes our pleas more urgent.
Originally published here.
Is the Good Book Good Law? Americans Debate.
There are some benefits to being stuck at home, YouVersion is reporting. For one, people have more time to read. And what they’re reading, surveys say, is important. Turns out, the best-selling book in history — the Bible — is also the most popular one right now. Since Palm Sunday, the app found, Bible reading was a whopping 54 percent higher than last year’s holy week. “All of this," a spokesman said, "on the heels of a record-breaking month.”
March 2020, they announced, was the “number one month in Bible app history” — setting new highs for users, verse shares, Bible searches, audio plays, and video plays. All in all, the good news of coronavirus is the Good News!
Now that more people are getting reacquainted with the Bible — or introduced for the very first time — a lot of experts wonder what the impact will be. In a new survey by Pew Research, Americans still seem very divided on what the role of Scripture should be — especially in American policy. Asked whether the Bible should influence U.S. laws, half (49 percent) of the country said “yes,” including 23 percent who thought it should have a “great deal.” But then, there are also people who strongly object to the idea, like atheists, agnostics, or religious “nones.”
Of course, the reality is, the Bible’s morality already informs U.S. law — whether Americans like it or not. Civil government can’t exist in a vacuum. Since the founding of this nation, our framers relied on God’s law to create our own. There’s clearly a deep-rooted history of the Christian religion in America society. It is, as FRC’s David Closson pointed out on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch,” part of our DNA.
That aside, when you break the Pew numbers down, there are some very interesting correlations. Obviously, the split down the middle on the Bible’s role points straight to the worldview divide we see in the country. It’s what we see in every election, every public policy debate. It’s the undercurrent of every conflict we have in our culture today.
But there are also some interesting alliances. Eighty-nine percent of white evangelicals said the Bible should have a great deal or some influence on U.S. lives. That’s nine out of 10. And when you look at black Protestants, it’s 76 percent. In fact, they’re the next highest category of people who believe the Bible should have influence on our culture and our laws. In all honesty, I think the media and liberal politicians try to keep white and black Christians apart. They’re constantly seeding the ground with controversy and driving wedges between them because they have a very similar worldview based on Scripture. And they understand what could happen on social policy if those two groups joined forces.
The other aspect to consider is age. The older Americans are, the more impact they want God’s word to have. On the other side of the ledger, the majority of 18 to 29-year-olds believe it shouldn’t have much at all. That, in my view, is the clearest indication of a public education system that’s been completely hijacked by the Left. Liberal academia has rewritten American history, pushed religion out of schools, and stigmatized self-identifying Christians. And for moms and dads, it ought to be a wake-up call that they’re not going to get any help from the culture raising their kids in the faith.
“It’s up to Christian parents to be the disciple makers in their home,” David agreed, “because if they’re not going to do it, the younger generation is simply not going to learn about the biblical foundations of this country [or], even broader, the biblical foundation of their faith and even the gospel.” This poll suggests that a lot of families aren’t taking that role seriously — and parents need to. Ultimately, we’re going to be held accountable to God for what our children learn. And it’s up to us to make sure that they’re being taught what the Bible says and how it applies to their lives and the culture.
If you need a way to jumpstart that process, join FRC's two-year Bible reading plan. It’s never too late to jump right in. And, if you want to maximize that reading, we can point you in the right direction! Check out the FRC Blog for Ways to Read the Bible, Parts One, Two, and Three.
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
