Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) sounded the alarm over vote-by-mail and the danger it poses to election integrity during a Friday appearance on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily.
Patrick drew a distinction between voting absentee, as has been done for years, and using coronavirus as an excuse to push voting through the mail as the preferred method to casting a ballot in person.
“In my view, the only way Trump loses in November, is if you have a proliferation of voting by mail in state after state, particularly the swing states,” Patrick said in a clip played during the show, adding that Trump’s campaign team is “on top of it.”
“We have to fight this at all costs,” Patrick told host Alex Marlow, saying the vulnerability could give Democrats advantages in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Patrick said he rejects the premise that voting by mail would be “safer” during the coronavirus pandemic and believes many Republicans fall into that rhetorical trap.
“Voting is not about being easier, it is about being fair and accessible. To have enough polling places, to have enough time,” he said, and noted Texas has two weeks of early voting.
“It’s part of who we are as America to show up and vote,” Patrick told Marlow.
He said once voting in person is removed, “it is absolute pandemonium. It’s wide open for fraud, and the left will take advantage of that and they will steal every election until the end of time.”
Patrick noted the life circumstances change for many Americans between elections. They move or die; some get divorced.
“What stops you from voting for” the person who used to live at your address if a ballot is mailed to them, he wondered.
The shenanigans that go on “can tip the scales to those who would steal elections so it has to be stopped,” Patrick said.
The lieutenant governor cited the recent appearance of Greater New York Black Lives Matter President Hawk Newsome on Fox News, who said, “if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it.”
“If they’re willing to burn the country down, tear a statue down, you don’t think they’re going to go steal some ballots out of a mailbox?” Patrick said.
He added that if Americans have been to restaurants, gone out in public, or protested, that should be a sufficient test to be able to vote in person.
Patrick asserted that counties and cities used money sent by the federal government for coronavirus relief to advance vote-by-mail, and argued that is where the priorities of Democrat-run cities lie.
The situation was similar in the swing state of Michigan, where Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson used $4.5 million of CARES Act funds to send absentee ballot applications to all registered voters, causing chaos for local clerks who normally handle that duty.
Former Michigan Secretary of State and current state Sen. Ruth Johnson (R-Holly) found applications were mailed to hundreds of residents ineligible to vote, including non-citizen, underage, and deceased “voters.”
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays. Listen to segments on YouTube. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook, and follow him on Parler.
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