Commonwealth Policy Center

Some are saying that we shouldn’t worry about absentee voting in an election. But when you remove the in-person voting requirement another barrier to fraud is removed. The threshold for verification decreases. And it’s harder to verify that the actual person voting absentee is the registered voter on the rolls. State Rep. Kevin Bratcher recently shared several examples of absentee voter fraud. Bratcher, who is the Chairman of the House Elections Committee shared the story of absentee ballot fraud by the former mayor of Martin, Kentucky—Ruth Robinson. Robinson targeted residents living in public housing or in properties Robinson owned, threatening them with eviction if they did not sign absentee ballots that were already filled out. Robinson also targeted disabled residents and offered to buy the votes of others. She received a 90-month prison sentence.