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Ari Fleischer warns states risk 'bitter acrimony' in November with new balloting procedures
Published August 05, 2020
A dozen states that are overhauling their balloting and voting procedures for the 2020 election should reconsider doing so, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer argued Wednesday.
"Twelve states will attempt new voting procedures in 2020," Fleischer wrote on Twitter. "All are risking doing harm to the integrity of the election if things go wrong, as they did in the June New York primary, where the surge in mail voting led to 25% of the ballots being rejected in one race. The normal rate is 1%."
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Fleischer went on to note that California, Nevada, Vermont and the District of Columbia are mailing "actual ballots" to all registered voters, a move he said was "fraught with risk, especially if an election is close and ballot harvesting is allowed."
"It took [Washington state] years to do this right," the former press secretary tweeted. "These 4 states are rushing to get it done."
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Nevada, a key swing state, is now facing a Republican lawsuit after Gov. Steve Sisolak signed the resolution into law approving the universal balloting.
Eight other states -- Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Ohio -- will attempt to mail applications for absentee ballots to all registered voters.
"No state previously mailed absentee ballot applications to all voters in a general election ..." Fleischer argued. "It’s what NY tried in the June primary, overwhelming an unprepared system. These 8 states should NOT do this."
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Fleischer's next tweet noted that "Historically, ballots are rejected 3 times as often in the mail compared to in-person. If mail voting surges and states aren’t ready, it will lead to bitter acrimony in Nov."
"The lesson," Fleischer said, is that "these 12 states should not try to accomplish something in 2020 that they can’t successfully do. Reporters should dig deeply into these 12 states to see if they can pull this off. Before it’s too late."
https://www.foxnews.com/media/ari-fleischer-2020-election-mail-in-voting