“Congresswoman Gabbard is correct: ballot harvesting is a practice that has too often been abused to manipulate ballots and intimidate voters. It is refreshing to see bipartisan recognition of this alarming threat to voting rights. In 2018, harvesters tampered with or destroyed hundreds of ballots and forced a congressional district to redo an election. Ballot harvesting has been implicated in this year’s vote fraud scandal in Paterson, New Jersey. In other cases, people have been convicted of coercing some of our most vulnerable voters into giving up their ballots.
Ballot harvesting has been used to disenfranchise voters on both sides of the aisle. That’s why everyone, left and right, should favor its abolition. Your vote should never be left in someone else’s hands.”
