# A little help fighting fraud allegations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 16, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-help-fighting-fraud-allegations/925727 "2020-11-16T18:50:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![truthseeker3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@truthseeker3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthseeker3)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-help-fighting-fraud-allegations/925727/1 "2020-11-16T18:50:15Z")
I’ve been asked/told the following: (1) Why were so many of the ballot drop boxes made available and not secured? (2) Why does everyone that votes not have to have a picture ID? (3) When and why do some states now allow same day voter registration? (4) Why is it that neither party is enforcing the law that says voter registration rolls or lists have to be cleaned up every five years? (5) In the state of Michigan, everyone was mailed a ballot - not every registered voter, but everyone in the state. Doesn’t that encourage fraud? (6) Why do votes now get counted by machine? Wasn’t it more fair when a democrat and a republican had to be present during the counting? (7) The news media and Democrats claimed that mail-in ballots were the same as absentee ballots - they’re not. How much of that has actual merit and how much is stuff Fox made up? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-help-fighting-fraud-allegations/925727/2 "2020-11-16T19:04:28Z")
> [@truthseeker3](#): > > I’ve been asked/told the following: > (1) Why were so many of the ballot drop boxes made available and not secured? Many boxes were made available (in some jurisdictions) so that it was easy to return ballots. They were all secured. > [@](#): > > (2) Why does everyone that votes not have to have a picture ID? This varies state by state. Generally as long as you are willing to sign that you are the person registered you are allowed to vote. Not every voter has a picture ID, but these laws have generally been held to be valid as long as the ID is available for free (so it’s not a poll tax). You can see which states require what IDs here: [https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx](https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-id.aspx) You may notice that Georgia requires photo ID, as does Wisconsin. > [@](#): > > (3) When and why do some states now allow same day voter registration? I don’t understand the “when” part of this question. They “why” is so that more people can vote. > [@](#): > > (4) Why is it that neither party is enforcing the law that says voter registration rolls or lists have to be cleaned up every five years? Which law are you referring to? Some states require it and others don’t. Generally the number of non-eligible voters that actually vote in a given election is vanishingly small, so the risk of removing a valid voter vastly outweighs the risk of have a non-eligible voter vote. The penalties for fraudulently submitting a ballot for another person are high enough to deter that behavior. > [@](#): > > (5) In the state of Michigan, everyone was mailed a ballot - not every registered voter, but everyone in the state. Doesn’t that encourage fraud? This did not happen. Registered voters (not everybody) were sent an _application_ for a mail-in ballot, not the ballot itself. Whoever told you this was lying to you. > [@](#): > > (6) Why do votes now get counted by machine? Wasn’t it more fair when a democrat and a republican had to be present during the counting? Democrats and Republicans (and non-partisans) still have to be present during the counting. The counting is done by machine because counting 160 million ballots by hand is far less accurate and would take far too long. > [@](#): > > (7) The news media and Democrats claimed that mail-in ballots were the same as absentee ballots - they’re not. Cite? In many states (like mine, Missouri) all ballots are either in-person or absentee. There is no distinction between a mail-in ballot and an absentee ballot. Other states only have vote-by-mail, so the idea that there is some universal distinction between a “mail-in” and an “absentee” ballot is false. > [@](#): > > How much of that has actual merit and how much is stuff Fox made up? As you can see, almost none of what you asked about is true. And the small bits that are true have no bearing on the outcome of this (or any other) election. Hope that helps! ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-help-fighting-fraud-allegations/925727/3 "2020-11-16T19:14:14Z")
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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-help-fighting-fraud-allegations/925727/4 "2020-11-16T19:15:20Z")
These questions have been answered in other threads in P&E. It would be more productive to look at those than rehashing.