Ballot Harvesting – How It Defeated the GOP in California

Ballot Harvesting – How It Defeated the GOP in California: Has California come up with a new way to do voter fraud? “Ballot Harvesting” is a pretty new term. Today we”re digging deeper into what exactly ballot harvesting is and how it came about. We”re also looking at the role ballot harvesting plays in voter fraud and more! Tune in now to learn more!

Air Date:Â 12/19/2018

Guest:Â Scott Morefield

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

WallBuilders | American historical events, founding fathers, historical documents, books, videos, CDs, tapes, David Barton’s speaking schedule.
WHAT IS “BALLOT HARVESTING,” AND HOW DID CALIFORNIA DEMS USE IT TO NUKE THE GOP?
Democrats And Their War On The Secret Ballot
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Transcription note: Â As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. You”ve found us at WallBuilders Live where we talk about the day”s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture. But from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, he”s America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders. Tim Barton”s a national speaker and pastor, and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state legislator.

We’ve got a lot of programs available for you at our website. Actually, if you go to WallBuildersLive.com, you can get the archives over the last several weeks and months. And that means you can tap into those Good News Friday programs, Foundations of Freedom Thursday’s, the interviews we have Monday through Wednesday, there’s just a lot of great information there. We encourage you to check that out at WallBuildersLive.com.

And then go to WallBuilders.com where you can get all kinds of great tools and resources, curriculum, books, DVDs, biographies, all kinds of great things at WallBuilders.com which is also a great place for you to go make a donation to WallBuilders Live. You can do that as a one time donation or a monthly donation. We’re a listener supported program, so it”s your donations that make this possible and we greatly appreciate you checking that out there at WallBuilders.com.

Scott Morefield will be with us later in the program. David, Tim, talking about a phrase I knew nothing about and had never heard until a few weeks back – “ballot harvesting” and the impact that it had on the elections this year.

Ballot Harvesting

David:

That’s a fairly new phrase in our terminology, a fairly new phrase in the political landscape. It really is the result of some laws passed, particularly in California, in 2016. It’s something we’re having to adjust to.

It is creating a garden in which you can grow voter fraud. And it’s interesting that so many of the Democrats are very outspoken, “There is no voter fraud. Why do you guys get so fixated on voter integrity and voter I.D., you guys are crazy, there’s no voter fraud.” New York Times, Glenn Thrush, declared that there’s essentially no voter fraud in this country. We see it on MSNBC, all these guys say “no voter fraud”.

I”ve got news for you, just over at Heritage Foundation, one of the guys we had speak at the legislators conference this year, Hans Von Spakovsky, went through and documented over 1,000 convictions of voter fraud.

Rick, back when I was helping run the political party here in Texas, we had a case where that a guy ran for state rep he lost by 300 votes and we found over 800 fraudulent votes in that election–

Rick:

Wow.

David:

–and all sorts of people were prosecuted.

Rick:

Wow.

David:

Yet, these guys say, “Oh, no, there’s no voter fraud, there’s no reason to have voter integrity, ballot security.” Well, there is. So, it’s interesting that when we raise the importance of every vote counting for the way it was intended they say, “Oh you’re trying to suppress the votes of minorities and the poor.” Democrats have got this line down, so it’s really crazy.

California Created a New Way to Do Voter Fraud?

David:

So, what happens is, California may have created a new way to do voter fraud. We really saw it this year in the elections in California. In California, which is largely a very blue state, but there is a county in California, Orange County, that has always been Republican all the way through. All of its congressmen have always been Republican. I think they have four Republican Congressmen in that county. So, it’s always been there. And yet this year every one of those orange county Republicans lost.

And, by the way, there were I think eight or nine contested races in California and Republicans lost every single one of them. But grab this – the Republicans, every one of them won the vote on Election Day. They lost the vote on mail in ballots that came in after the election. So, they win on election day, they lose on mail in ballots.

Rick:

Not just not just one race – multiple races.

David:

Every single race. Every race where Republicans were close, they lost control. And these races, many were decided even a month after the election, they’re still counting these mail in ballots.

Tim:

Well, that doesn”t sound suspicious at all.

Rick:

No, not at all.

David:

Nothing. There’s no pattern of behavior that you can point to that would show any trend. So, what it is is this ballot harvesting kind of thing and it’s– you now see it in a number of states across the country that have gone to this and allows any person in the state to go harvest ballots for someone else. So, I can go throughout the state and say, “Hey, give me your ballot and I’ll deliver it to the to the county clerk for you.” “Oh, okay.” So, I can pick up that and, “I wonder if I want to throw away the ones that I know were were delivered for– nah, I won’t do that because I have integrity.” Yeah, right.

Look What Happens!

David:

So, what happens is all these people are empowered to pick up anybody else’s ballot. To go to nursing homes and pick up ballots, to go anywhere and pick up mail in ballots and then they deliver them. And instead of having a voting officer, or voting judge, or voting official do that, or a law enforcement official, or somebody who is sworn to uphold voter integrity – anybody can do this.

So, Democrats were very active in going and picking up these mail in. And just amazing thing they were really well organized for ballot harvesting and they seemed to win every single election where they did this ballot harvesting thing. It’s just an amazing thing. And they’ve, again, Orange County has always been Republican, for decades its been Republican, until this year. And now under ballot harvesting.

So, this is a new trend. It’s something folks need to be aware of. Other states are moving to get this as part of their initiative in their states. And folks just need to be aware of what ballot harvesting is.

Rick:

Well, Scott Morefield just did a great article on it, actually a couple articles on it. He’s going to be with us to kind of explain it to me a little more and help us to understand it and what can be done about it. Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Moment From American History

This is Tim Barton with another moment from American history. As the American War for Independence began, the president of Yale was the Reverend Naphtali Daggett. When New Haven, the home of Yale, came under attack about a hundred citizens rushed out to meet the British.

The Reverend Daggett galloped by them on horseback, his clearable robes flowing behind him in the wind. He took up a solitary position atop a hill. The 2,500 British soon put the townsfolk to flight but the Reverend Daggett continued to stand alone firing down on the advancing troops.

A British officer confronted him, “What are you doing there you old fool? If I let you go, will you ever fire again on the troops of his majesty?” Nothing more likely was the preacher’s reply. America’s early pastors personally confronted danger and courageously led their communities.

For more information on Pastor Daggett and other colonial Patriots, go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Scott Morefield”s with us. He”s a freelance reporter for The Daily Caller and has a great article about ballot harvesting which I had never heard of until a month ago. Scott, thanks for coming on, man.

Scott Morefield:

You bet. Thanks for having me.

Are We Talking Agriculture or Elections?

Rick:

What in the world is ballot harvesting? I can’t tell if we’re talking agriculture here or elections.

Scott Morefield:

Yeah, sadly it’s elections. So, ballot harvesting is the process whereby third parties collect mail– vote by mail ballots and helpfully deliver those to the polling place. That’s it in a nutshell. Of course, then you”ve got California where they passed a law in 2016 allowing unlimited ballot harvesting which means anybody can “ballot harvest”. Third parties, homeless people on the street, democratic operatives, whoever, and they can collect those ballots and take them on to the polling place. So, that’s what it is in a nutshell.

Rick:

Now, are they are they actually– so, let’s back up. Help me understand. A lot of people just think, “Okay, everybody goes to the polling place to vote.

Scott Morefield:

Right.

Rick:

So, how are they getting these ballots outside. So, just a real quick primer on those that have to vote by absentee, or mail in ballots, you’ve got military ballots, that’s all, basically, voting by mail. It’s a small percentage of the overall vote. But apparently this year it became a much bigger, much more important, part of the vote.

Scott Morefield:

That’s exactly right. So, typically, in most states you can’t vote by mail unless you”re military, or maybe you’re overseas, and you request that, and you have a situation where you need that mail ballot and you request it, and they mail it to you, and that”s a particular instance.

A Whole Can of Worms

Scott Morefield:

So, what’s happening in places like California, and you”ve got it in Colorado, I think Washington, maybe Oregon, some of the blue states, anybody can now, in those states, say, “I want my ballot by mail from now on into perpetuity.” So, what happens is that mail– and several states will just mail that out regardless. But in California you can request a mail in ballot for any reason whatsoever. You can do it and they won’t even ask you why, actually. You can just say, “I want my ballot in my mail, and they’ll deliver it by mail, and you don’t have to show up at a polling place.” Of course, this opens up a whole can of worms.

Rick:

Exactly. So, now you”ve got opportunities for fraud. Granted there’s real situations here and I can understand why you have a need for some sort of absentee balloting.

Scott Morefield:

Right.

Rick:

But tell us how they’re abusing this now that it’s become so easy. Are you able to get the ballots and deliver them to the voter, a third party can do that, or a third party has to collect from a voter that’s already gotten it directly from the election office?

Scott Morefield:

That’s right, that’s Â right. They would come in the mail and then a third party would say, “Okay–“ If you look at my– anybody–I cover that on the page, we’ve got– there’s a lady named, I think it’s Lucy, I can’t remember her name now, but*, I’ve got the video of her helpfully going to somebody”s house and saying, “Hey, I’m here collecting ballots as a service we’re doing to Democratic voters.”

Nothing to Stop Them

Scott Morefield:

So, you go, maybe they go through elderly neighborhoods, or nursing homes, or wherever, and, “Hey, we’re going we’re going to do a public service here.” So, you can imagine the problems because suppose the person that she’s collecting the ballot from is wearing a trump hat. At what point– so, she takes that ballot and what’s to stop her from throwing that in the trash can on her way to the polling place?

Rick:

Right, right.

Scott Morefield:

There”s nothing to stop her from doing that. There’s no chain of custody. They have to sign it, but if you destroy it, what proof is there of that? So, before the law in 2016 that they passed, they passed it after the 2016 election. Before that law you had to be a relative or living in that household before you could deliver that person’s ballot, and that would assume that there’s some stake there in that person. But now anybody can do it. And that opens itself up to a whole host of problems.

Of course, then you’ve got, I don’t know if you heard of the situation in North Carolina in the congressional district there where it’s a controversy for Republicans because in North Carolina unlimited ballot harvesting is actually illegal. So, Democrats are raising a ruckus there because a Republican operative actually collected more ballots than they were supposed to. And the congressional, the congressman, won by like 900 votes. So, they may have to do a whole other election there.

Rick:

Wow.

Scott Morefield:

But they’re really careful not to draw too many distinctions if you read the coverage because you can kind of turn this whole thing into a war on the secret ballot itself. Because the more mail in ballots you have– what they’re trying to do is turn it into a giant American Idol contest, in essence. And the bigger the tent the Democrats can make.

And you’ve got this pull between Democrats who want to let everybody and their pets vote and then Republicans who say, “We’ve got to have some sort of– we want to make sure only legal– only citizens are allowed to vote and that they are actually informed enough to get off their duff and go to the polling place and push a button in privacy.” So, you’ve got that tug and pull between those two sides.

How Do They Know Who Has a Mail In Ballot?

Rick:

Okay, here’s a question that comes to mind. How do they know who has a mail in ballot? Are they able to go to the elections office and get a list of people that requested one?

Scott Morefield:

Yes. Yes.

Rick:

Wow.

Scott Morefield:

And theoretically, there’s just so many opportunities for fraud. But theoretically, you you could research that, yes. And they say, actually, I think in 2014, 70 percent of Californians requested mail in ballots, which is crazy. But the more and more you’ve got that than you do away with the secret ballot because.

What’s to stop a husband from making sure– Democrats are always saying, “Well husbands made their wives vote for Trump.” Well, if you’ve got– if everybody has absentee ballots,, then that very well could be possible. But if you have secret ballots where people have to go to a polling place, he can berate her and he can say all he wants, vote for Trump, or vote for Hillary, or whatever, but in the secrecy of the polling place– and that’s always been a, well, for years and years has been a hallmark of American democracy, a person can vote however they choose. Democrats are taking that away.

Cutting to the Very Heart

Rick:

You’re right, Scott. This cuts to the heart of even just what kind of– you don’t want it to be, I don’t think you want it to be so easy that people won”t have to put any effort into voting.

Scott Morefield:

Exactly. Â

Rick:

The whole Motor Voter thing was a disaster 20 years ago and messed up the rolls.

Scott Morefield:

Oh, yeah.

Rick:

So, yeah, I can understand why the Democrats and the left is definitely all for this because it allows them to get people that don’t even know– the uninformed voters– to just go with whoever they’re telling them to vote for.

Scott Morefield:

Yeah.

Rick:

And also ripe for fraud. And frankly, look, both sides will take advantage of opportunities for fraud. When I say “both sides”, it”s the nature of man, it’s the world of politics and power. So, we should be looking for ways to strengthen our system – not weaken it.

Scott Morefield:

Yes.

Rick:

And Â what a shame. And if I understand it right, Scott, this is like a sea tide in Orange County, specifically, in California. All across the state there, I think in your article, I think Speaker Ryan had mentioned we were down, they’d lost 26 seats initially–

Scott Morefield:

Yes.

Rick

–and then lost every other seat that was still outstanding especially in California.

Making Republicans Endangered In California

Scott Morefield:

Yes, yes. They’re making Republicans an endangered species in California. And what’s interesting if you read the article, I linked to in that from the San Francisco Chronicle. The Republicans kind of give them grudging respect because our side didn’t ballot harvest there, but they did. They were ready and they did. But that’s not the point. Yes, we”ve got the rules and we should play by them as best we can. But the point is that it’s so ripe for fraud, but they don’t care. Â

Rick:

Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Morefield:

And they know that if they can get uninformed voters, the more uninformed voters the better in their view. And then the more cheating the better in their view. That’s my opinion.

Rick:

Yeah.

Scott Morefield:

But the more of that that you can loosen up. And then if Republicans– there’s always Â Republicans who want to try to pull back on that. Hey, then Democrats say, “Oh, that’s suppression.” No, that”s not suppression. That’s insane to call it that, but that’s what they do and that’s how they frame it. And it’s really tough to fight *.

Rick:

It’s called ballot security.

Scott Morefield:

Yeah. Security.

Rick:

That’s what it is. Scott, out of time, man. I’m going to– so, you had a new article on Townhall. I”m going to put that one on our website as well. So, both these articles will be available on WallBuildersLive.com, so folks can read them. Scott, appreciate your time, appreciate you researching this. Look forward to having you again.

Scott Morefield:

Absolutely, Rick, thanks for having me.

Rick:

You bet. Stay with us, folks. We”ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

This Precarious Moment Book

David:

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These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book This Precarious Moment and find out what you can do to make a difference. This Precarious Moment is available at WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

We”re back on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Scott Morefield for joining us and talking us through this ballot harvesting thing.

We’re back with David and Tim now and I guess, guys, one of the most important things to talk about is how do you stop this from happening or curb it? It seems like you just need to get rid of the laws allowing for anyone, like you were saying, David, early in the program, even if they’re not sworn to uphold the law, to not allow that. You ought to have to be an elections officer to participate in this.

The Big Word Here Is “Hopefully”

David:

Well, Scott used a phrase I thought was so good I just wrote it down. He said– you asked him what it is, he defined it, he said, “Ballot harvesting is when they collect your ballot and hopefully deliver your ballot to the voting place.” The big word there is “hopefully”.

Rick:

Right.

David:

They collect your ballot and hopefully they deliver it. Anybody can take your ballot. And if you’re in a nursing home or somewhere else, a retirement center, and people come through and, “Hey, I”m doing a service. I”m collecting ballots, whatever.” Hopefully, now, you in good faith assume they’re going to. Why wouldn”t you make that assumption? We like to believe the best of people. But we have too much experience that says otherwise. Â

So, when you look at it, the states, Scott mentioned that Washington, California, Oregon, do ballot harvesting. Montana also is passing a law to do that. We’ve had instances of it in Texas. North Carolina had an instance Scott alluded to. So, states have started to ban it. Arizona has banned it for anyone except family members.

Now, what’s happened Dems in Arizona came out and said, “Oh, this is– you’re trying to suppress voting by doing this.” And they went to court and fought it all the way through the appeals court and they lost it. So, an anti ballot harvesting law has been passed in Arizona. Other states need to do this. You need to have people who have the integrity and actually the penalty of law if they don’t uphold that integrity. If there’s voter fraud, they need to be nailed because you count on the integrity of the voter to have our republican form of government, this style of government.

So, that’s going on and a number of states where they’re starting to move that forward. That certainly needs to happen in other states as well is we need to really get this ballot harvesting thing stopped because it’s just– it”s crazy to think that anybody can go in and collect ballots and then they will choose whether they’re going to deliver them or not and which ones they choose. As Scott said, if they see a Trump hat on you, what’s the chances the Democrat activist is going to deliver your ballot if you’re wearing a Trump hat? Probably not high.

Rick:

And I do think you have to– the rules– you put good principles in place for everyone. Â Anyone is susceptible to cheating, basically, if the power goes to their head. And that happens in politics. So, we just need good policy across the board here and it’s not a complicated solution – it’s actually kind of simple. But people are going to try to abuse this if they have the opportunity. And there’s always going to be voter fraud to some degree because of the depravity of man.

So, it’s important and incumbent upon our legislator to make sure that the laws are as good as possible and that we have ballot security as good as possible.

Quick break. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live!

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Rick:

We”re back here on WallBuilders Live! Thanks for staying with us. We’re back with David and Tim Barton. Guys, talking about the ballot harvesting thing and what we can do to try to change it or why it even happens in the first place.

The Key

David:

Well, Rick, you made a real significant comment as you were going out of the last segment and you talked about because of the depravity of man’s why we do this. The depravity of man – that’s really key. And for folks that don’t know that Biblical language, it comes out of Jeremiah 17:9 and it says, “The heart is desperately wicked, who could know it?” It basically says that man’s heart will do the wrong thing on a regular basis unless that heart has been changed, giving that heart to God, God intervenes, changes the heart, creates a new heart in us as Scripture says.

Actually, George Barna uses that question as the basis– one of the questions he uses as the basis to determine whether you have a biblical worldview. He’ll just ask you, “Is man inherently good?” And if you say, “Yeah, man is inherently good.” That’s not a biblical worldview. The history of the world shows that man does not do the right thing except on rare occasions. He will do the wrong thing naturally. Doing the right thing, it takes a different culture to do that. Just look across the world and see. Â

Because You Grew Up In America

David:

So, in the case of America, I heard Dennis Prager talk about this one time and he was saying, he said, “I ask college kids”, he said, “How many of you think man is inherently good?” He said, “They all raised their hands.” He said, that’s because you grew up in America. If you’d grown up out of America you would not have raised your hand.”

Tim:

That’s a great point.

Rick:

Yeah.

David:

I thought, that’s exactly right. You’ve grown up in a Christian culture where Christian morals have taught you right and wrong even though you may not be a Christian and you don’t know the biblical morals have helped you restrain your heart, the Ten Commandments. So, that’s created what is a wholesome nation. Which is not the trend among other nations. You just look across the world.

So, that’s what happens with ballot harvesting. Because we have less and less religious influence in America, you can expect corruption to continue to grow, you can expect a corrupt elections to continue to happen, you can expect people to take the Machiavellian view that the end justifies the means – I’ll do anything I can’t help my candidate win.”

Tim:

Which, by the way, we see happen a lot.

David:

We see happen a lot.

Tim:

Not unusual at all.

David:

That’s right. It’s not unusual and that happens in the absence of a biblical thinking. So, that’s why you need these kind of laws. And as Scott pointed out, he said 70 percent of California requested mail in ballots. Are you kidding? That means 70 percent of ballots in California are now more open for corruption. The people who voted may be fine, but those who picked them up and delivered them what guarantee do you have that they were fine? That their intent is fine?

It Doesn”t Pass the Smell Test

David:

Certainly, as Tim pointed out, this doesn’t pass the smell test when every single contested Republican race that came down to the wire they won it on election day and they lost it when the mail in ballots were delivered. And those were picked up and delivered in many cases. Then, in the case of Oregon, Oregon is 100 percent mail in. You cannot go to a voting place in Oregon and vote. You have to vote by mail. So, when you’ve got ballot harvesting going on, you really lose– and to assume that man’s inherently good – that’s just not not the right assumption.

So, Rick, what you hit was really a key indication of whether someone has a biblical worldview or not. And for many Christians, don’t think that people are going to do the right things just because you hope they will. You just need to recognize that the Bible is right – man’s heart is not good unless God has intervened to change that heart. And that’s when you start doing the right things and becoming good is when you believe you’re accountable to God for your behavior and that you’ll answer to him for what you do or for what you don’t do.

Rick:

Well, special thanks to Scott Morefield for helping us figure out what this ballot harvesting is. Certainly something to keep an eye on. It had a devastating impact in certain areas of the country for sure in this election. So, we”ve got some time for legislators to address this all across the country and perhaps even Congress as well.