The Schrug

Here’s how I would have done it.

1. Find a precinct where the poll workers don’t check IDs before handing out ballots. (This probably applies to the vast majority of precincts in the country.)
2. Obtain a list of all registered voters in that precinct. (This is freely available to all candidates.)
3. Station a volunteer at the voter check-in desk to mark down who has come in to vote. (This is perfectly legal.)
4. An hour or so before the polls close, send the list of who has voted and, by extension, who hasn’t, back to campaign headquarters. (Again, perfectly legal.)
5. Send out a group of new volunteers to the precinct to impersonate the voters who hadn’t shown up yet and vote on their behalf. (Not so legal.)

This scheme can only fail if (a) the poll workers happen to know the no-show voters and recognize my volunteers as imposters, (b) my volunteers have incredibly bad timing and show up at the same time as the people whose identities they are stealing, or (c) the poll workers suddenly decide to check IDs. I imagine the consequences of getting caught could be severe, but based on my experiences watching the polls the risk seems slight.

Given our country’s recent troubles with elections, it is astonishing to me that people anywhere are still allowed to vote without positive identification.

Disclaimer: this blog entry was written while I was volunteering as a poll observer for a political campaign, but the campaign is in no way associated with this post and I have absolutely no reason to suspect that any of the campaigns participating in this election have engaged in any form of vote fraud.