Each of the seven battleground states could involve recounts, extensive litigation and the discovery of irregularities. And new reports are circulating about possible election interference via money from abroad, namely to the Democratic Party.

Die Weltwoche has reached John Fund, co-author of "Our Broken Elections: How The Left Changed The Way You Vote", to discuss the risks of voter fraud as Americans prepare to go to the polls.

 

Weltwoche: Donald Trump up to this day claims that the last elections were stolen. But he could never deliver the proof for his claim. Is he entirely wrong?

John Fund: A big problem is that it is very difficult to prove voter fraud after ballots are cast. That’s why prevention is so important and why the Trump campaign is doing a much better job of monitoring the 2024 election.

In an election for any U.S. office OTHER than president, it’s possible to conduct a full investigation. But in the 2020 presidential race, all 50 states by law had to certify their results by December 8. Then the Electoral College was set to meet on December 14 to elect the president.

That’s a very short time window in which to collect clear evidence of fraud or irregularities great enough to change the outcome, to file lawsuits, and then to have them decided. The result would then have gone to a Supreme Court highly reluctant to get involved in a presidential race after its disputed role in the Bush-v.-Gore recount in Florida in 2000.

In 2020, Trump exaggerated his claims, failed to address some of the election’s ticking time bombs in court before the election, and took on lawyers unsuited to the task. Those errors, plus the fact that the media and courts often didn’t do their jobs, doomed his effort.

Trump has promised supporters he is better prepared this year to challenge irregularities.

 

Weltwoche: What types of proven voter fraud were there?

Fund: As an example of the kind of irregularities for which some evidence of fraud was found, look at Georgia, which Joe Biden won that year by some 12,000 votes. Independent lawyers there sued citing the following irregularities but a hearing on their case was delayed by the courts until after the winner of Georgia’s electoral votes were determined. In their law suit, they alleged that

92 mail-in ballots were cast before voters requested them

217 voters whose mail-in ballots were “applied for, issued, and received all on the same day”

395 out-of-state voters cast ballots

1,043 people who claimed to live at post-office boxes voted

2,560 ineligible felons voted

10,315 dead people voted

66,247 voters under the age of 18 voted

305,701 voters who requested mail-in ballots after the deadline voted

Weltwoche: Have all states fixed their voting systems, can we expect fair elections? If not, where might we face fraud?

Fund: Most states have removed COVID-based rules that allowed the sloppy counting of ballots and an explosion of mail-votes. Arizona and Georgia, two swing states, have improved their safeguards. Nevada has moved in the other direction. It will mail a mail-in ballot to EVERY active voter on it registration lists, a certain way to create chaos and encourage fraud.

Weltwoche: The National Commission on Federal Election Reform concludes “in close or disputed elections, and there are many, a small amount of fraud could make the margin of difference.” Polls show that in battle ground states the margin of victory might be lower than one percent. Do you expect a period of uncertainty after election day where the loser will challenge the result? Could illegal votes, if proven so, affect the outcome?

Fund: There is a chance that Election Day in the U.S. will turn into Election Month. Right now, in ALL seven battleground states, less than a single percentage point currently separated the major candidates. Each one of those states could involve recounts, extensive litigation and the discovery of irregularities. Main-in ballots, which represented over 40% of ballots in 2020, are notoriously slow to count. The ballot security measures surrounding them are often inadequate. There will be far more scrutiny of these mail-in ballots this year by the Trump team, so some proof may be uncovered.

For those who think Election Night in 2024 will be quick: Recall that in 2020, the Associated Press didn’t declare Joe Biden the winner until the Saturday after the election, four days later.

Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin were called one day after the election.
Nevada and Pennsylvania were called four days after the election.
Georgia was called nine days later.
North Carolina was called ten days later.

 

Weltwoche: In around 15 states no voter ID is required, among them the swing state of Pennsylvani. Does absence of ID not open windows wide for voter fraud?

Fund: Every industrialized nation in the world has a nationwide requirement for voter ID (Britain finally adopted it last year.) The lack of voter ID in some US states is an invitation to commit fraud. Even worse, no nation makes it as easy as the U.S. to vote by mail. Most U.S. states require no proof of either identity or citizenship when voting by mail, a weakness that also invites fraud.

 

Weltwoche: In recent days, a scandal involving suspicious donations to the Harris campaign has made headlines. What is it all about?

Fund: In September alone, Kamala Harris raised a historic $378 million, compared with only $160 million raised by Donald Trump. If she wins, the advantage her campaign and outside supporter groups have in money will be a major factor.

There have long been suspicions that some of the millions raised by progressive groups in the U.S. had foreign origins. U.S. law prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to candidates either directly or indirectly. But they can give to tax-exempt groups that can promote issues and support state ballot initiatives.

Nationally, the scandal of foreign money in U.S. politics blew open last week when House and Senate investigators demanded the Biden-Harris administration provide access to classified intelligence and secret money-laundering reports filed by banks.'

“(We have) been investigating claims that foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China, may be using ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaign,” the investigators wrote.

 

Weltwoche: What is Act Blue?

Fund: Act Blue is a Democratic Party online donation platform that in just the last three months has taken in over 31 million contributions totaling over $1.5 billion.

Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, has accused Act Blue of raising campaign donations by using the names of small donors, including many senior citizens without those donors’ consent or awareness.”

 

Weltwoche: How can this scandal potential influence the outcome of the race?

Fund: Regardless of who wins the White House next month, a major scandal potentially involving foreign influence in money affecting U.S. elections may be about to burst open. The difference is that unlike the allegations that the Donald Trump campaign of 2016 colluded with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, this scandal already looks all too real and has many investigative leads that look promising.

 

Weltwoche: The name of Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss crops up in connection with donations. What role does he play?

Fund: For example, progressives are supporting a state ballot measure in Ohio to change the way political districts are redrawn to account for population changes. It has gotten much of its money from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has received nearly $250 million since 2016 from a Swiss billionaire, Hansjörg Wyss.

 

Weltwoche: How important is Wyss’ money in the current race?

Fund: Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who supervises elections in that state, says “(Democrats have) become dependent on Wyss’s dark money to fund everything from their ballot campaigns to their fake news operations.”

CBS News also reports that Wyss has given the Sixteen Thirty Fund more than $200 million since 2016. The New York Times reports that in addition Wyss has created the Wyss Foundation “partly to shape media coverage to help Democratic causes.”

And the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the leading U.S. publication on the non-profit sector reports that “Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss is the poster boy for foreign donations in support of U.S. policies and politics”.

John Fund is a columnist with National Review magazine and the co-author of "Our Broken Elections: How The Left Changed The Way You Vote".