Democrats have introduced ballot-harvesting, junk-mail balloting, and zero voter ID as "reforms" to elections, making everything better, creating "the most secure elections in history," as some have brayed.

Rammed through blue-state legislatures, these reforms have created conditions for extended countings, making Election Day into Election Season.  "Count all the ballots," they yawp, claiming they've "extended" the franchise and made elections "more inclusive."

Who could be against that?

Apparently, just about every voter out there.

According to this I&I/TIPP poll:

The recent midterm elections were once again marked by claims of voter fraud and possible ballot manipulation behind the scenes by partisan actors, including even election officials. So we asked Americans of all political stripes and demographic backgrounds what rules and practices would they support to make our electoral system more fair?

More specifically, in our online I&I/TIPP Poll, taken from Dec. 7-9, we asked 1,094 registered voters to select among three possible reforms or rule changes: "Requiring voters to show a photo I.D. to vote," "Stricter mail-in voting," and "Banning ballot harvesting."

The answers showed an overwhelming sentiment in favor of change.

What they found was a monster majority — Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike — that wants its old voting system back.

[B]y far the strongest response was for "Requiring voters to show a photo I.D. to vote." It garnered 83% support from registered voters, with 60% saying they would support it "strongly" and 22% saying they would support it "somewhat." Just 12% said they would not support a move, with just 6% saying they would oppose it "strongly," about the same as those who said they would oppose it somewhat (7%).

The numbers may not add to 100% due to rounding. But the point is clear. Americans are hungry to have their elections once again based on solid identification of the voters with official I.D.s.

And, by the way, the support was powerfully tri-partisan, with 74% of Democrats, 93% of Republicans, and 84% of independents agreeing a photo I.D. should be required to vote. Hefty majorities of every one of the 21 demographic groups I&I/TIPP routinely follows agreed.

Similar, but slightly smaller majorities favored an end to mass-mail balloting, and ballot-harvesting, with, on that last point, a large chunk of those sampled (28%) apparently not aware of what ballot-harvesting is or where it's going on.

Turns out Democrats are just as concerned about cheatings and riggings as Republicans and independents, and why shouldn't they be?  With Democrats setting the ground rules and cheatings easy, it may be only a matter of time before Republicans begin playing the same game and the only contest left in elections being who can do it better.

They are right to be concerned, as are Republicans, who, since the surprise election of Donald Trump in 2016, have been able to watch in real time the kinds of riggings going on under the rubric of improving the elections.

These aren't improvements; these are open doors to cheating.  Mass mail-in ballots, sent out whether a voter asks for such a ballot or not, and done off dirty voter rolls full of dead people — people who have moved, illegal aliens, and voters registered at Mongolian restaurants, as Jay Valentine noted in his piece here — with corrupt secretaries of state temporarily changing an address letter or two to ensure non-delivery of the mail, are wide-open opportunities for ballot-harvesters.  The latter gather ballots and fill them in based on who's paying them for their "deliveries," and the stuffed ballot boxes, often arriving well later than Election Day, becomes the election result.

The failure to enact voter ID ensures that anyone can claim any identity and cast a ballot — illegals, felons, people with multiple names, people with fake names, people who have registered their dogs to vote, people voting in the name of other people, you name it.  Once the cast ballot is into the tub, it's gone, off to be counted even if it was cast illegitimately, and if the real owner of that name comes in asking to vote, too bad for him.  

Meanwhile, challenging these dirty, filthy, rigged elections, which put third-world hellholes to shame, is a nonstarter — courts won't invalidate filthy elections, nor order new clean elections no matter how many violations have gone on, nor will they accept claims from researchers about dirty voter rolls.  Just ask Kari Lake about that one.

The only way to stop the cheating, then (if we can't get judges with this kind of integrity anymore), is to stop the cheating before it starts.

Democrat voters don't want that going on in some red state any more than Republicans want to see that happening in a blue state.  Voters in purple states, where the margins are tight, especially don't want that going on, either.

That's why we see what we see in the poll.  There is a consensus: the voters want their old system back instead of these funny-money "reforms" dished out to voters, supposedly for their own good.

And with a majority like that, a bipartisan consensus between Republicans and Democrats can form in Congress.  The poll shows that members of both parties want this.

If there are enough Democrats in office who haven't obtained that office through cheating, reforms can be enacted.  If there aren't, well, then that's a statement about the state of our democracy as too far gone to fix.  At a minimum, the majority-GOP House has a winning issue here and many potential allies to ensure its passage.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay license.