Rep. Greg Walden: Why we shouldn’t vote by mail in 2020
Oregon Rep. Greg Walden has one stern message for Democrats that are calling for mail-in voting in 2020: ‘it is really dangerous for the electoral integrity and the outcome of the election.’
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The coronavirus pandemic is causing some Democrats to make the push for states to vote-by-mail in the 2020 presidential election. They say their efforts are for the safety of voters.
But Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., doesn’t think it’s a good system to mandate on all states.
“I think mandating that every state has to have vote-by-mail with just a few months before the election is really dangerous, frankly, for the electoral integrity and the outcome of the election,” Walden told Fox News.
Since 2000, the people of Oregon have been holding their elections exclusively by mail-in votes. Rep. Walden said it has taken Oregon nearly 20 years to perfect their mail-in voting system to ensure the integrity of elections.
“We also have some real safeguards built in for protection," he said. "Each county has to have a security plan in place for how they're going to do this, I believe every year or every election cycle.”
Walden added that Oregon has “a statewide database that compares your registration” to make sure you're not registered or voting in more than one county. The Beaver State has a database to ensure every vote is counted and to identify fraud.
While this method of voting works for the 4.2 million residents in Oregon, Rep. Walden wants to make it clear that this is not something every state should do immediately.
“I don't think we should mandate vote by mail on every state before this next election,” he said. “Some of these states are nowhere near ready to have a federal mandate imposed on them on [the] election that's coming up. I think [it] would run huge risk of fraud.”
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