Dear editor:
During my law enforcement career, I worked extensively with state and local law enforcement agencies. I reviewed and investigated a number of election fraud complaints and assisted successful prosecutions.
My experience and lessons learned differ from commentary recently published in the Cowboy State Daily dismissing the need for election integrity legislation in Wyoming.
Are the minimal reported voter fraud cases in Wyoming evidence that no additional fraud prevention is needed? For any evidence to have meaning, it must be viewed in context.
In context, the dearth of available fraud statistics lacks relevance. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
For example: not finding the body does not mean a murder did not occur. For many reasons, election fraud cases are under reported and under prioritized. Why?
First, due to their political nature, complaints of voter fraud may be viewed with skepticism, receiving less attention by police agencies.
Second, crime reporting to state/federal databases by local police agencies, often understaffed, is often not a priority, especially for crimes deemed less important.
Third, unlike many fraud schemes where the consequences become apparent, voter fraud is often very difficult to detect and may be extremely labor intensive for agencies, often under-resourced, to investigate.
Loosened election procedural controls, often promoted under the hypothesis of preventing voter suppression, have created serious election fraud opportunities nationwide and an increase in investigations and convictions in other states.
Therefore, for states like Wyoming, preventive action is prudent.
As a certified fraud examiner, I learned that fraud prevention, common to the business world, identifies potential weaknesses in a system to include addressing what might happen without additional protective measures.
Specific controls are designed to prevent fraud, addressing criteria premised in Cressey’s Fraud Triangle which prescribes three elements influencing the fraudster: pressure or motive, rationalization, and opportunity.
In an intensely polarized nation like the US, all three of these elements are on steroids in our electorate and should be taken seriously.
Motives to cheat may include power, money, intense ideology, influence or intense disdain for the opponent.
The ugliness and dishonesty evident most everywhere in US politics exemplifies the supposition that ethics and fair play are readily sacrificed at the altar of victory.
Rationalization is easy. In short, “the ends justify the means."
Opportunity, perhaps the most important element in perpetrating fraud, increases as voting standards and controls are relaxed or deemed unnecessary. In my experience, if the door to fraud is open, the fraudsters will walk through it.
Effective election fraud prevention include:
- Photo ID for registration and in-person voting.
- No drop boxes.
- Many non-photo institutional ID cards are easily replicated.
- Limit mail-in ballot options.
- Maintain accurate voter rolls.
- Employ vote counting mechanisms that provide for long term storage, physical audit and review.
- Computerized digital systems, no matter how sophisticated, could possibly be subject to manipulation.
Confidence and public trust in our election system requires transparent common sense fraud prevention measures that should not be sacrificed for the convenience of easy voting.
Sincerely,
Gary Graff
Atlantic City, Wyoming
