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As many states take steps to encourage voting by mail amid the pandemic, President Donald Trump has frequently falsely linked voting by mail to fraud and criticized the practice of “ballot harvesting.”
“Get rid of ballot harvesting, it is rampant with fraud. The USA must have voter I.D., the only way to get an honest count!” he said on Twitter.
Ballot harvesting isn’t an official legal term, but it generally refers to someone collecting absentee ballots on behalf of others and then submitting them. Some voting rights experts see the term “ballot harvesting” as pejorative and prefer the term “ballot collection.” Many states allow at least certain individuals to collect some ballots on behalf of others.
There have been isolated cases of fraud associated with ballot harvesting, including in a North Carolina congressional race in 2018. But Trump is wrong to suggest that such fraud is rampant.
Proponents say that the practice helps elderly voters and voters with disabilities and that it falls under the general category of voter assistance.
The laws on ballot collection vary nationwide. Current battles over the practice are happening as election officials anticipate big increases in voting by mail because of pandemic fears.
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Alex Mahadevan is a senior multimedia reporter at MediaWise. He can be reached at amahadevan@poynter.org or on Twitter at @AlexMahadevan. Follow MediaWise on TikTok.
