Many readers will remember Ken Block as a two-time candidate for Rhode Island Governor and technology entrepreneur who helped the State of Texas save more than a billion dollars in food stamp fraud …
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Many readers will remember Ken Block as a two-time candidate for Rhode Island Governor and technology entrepreneur who helped the State of Texas save more than a billion dollars in food stamp fraud and inefficiencies.
This Rhode Island resident, an expert in data analytics, was hired in November 2020 by the Trump campaign to find evidence of election fraud. His deep dive into the voting tallies in states where alleged fraud had taken place ultimately resulted in the conclusion that voter fraud did not skewer the results of the presidential election.
His findings are the subject matter of his new book, “Disproven,” which was released in March.
Mr. Block is on the interview circuit right now, with stops at CNN, CBS, Fox 5,C-SPAN, MSNBC, Washington Post, and other media outlets who, no doubt, focus on the purported fraud element of the 2020 race. Block, just as importantly, has delimited in “Disproven” a flawed voting system which threatens national election integrity, and he proposes common sense measures to ameliorate these problems.
Under the Constitution, the implementation of voting is the responsibility of the states. As a result, there is no single voter registration system, with political parties using election laws to gain purchase.
Voter fraud is only unacceptable to them if it does not benefit their party. Each state cherry-picks its process. They differ on when and why one can get a mail ballot, how long before an election early voting can take place, and just who should be on the voter list. Voter rolls are bloated from state to state, without any requirement that states work together to purge duplicate registrations for voters who move between elections.
Social security number comparison is a step in the right direction, but with hackers being a dime a dozen nowadays and who sell social security numbers , another mechanism has to be used.
Mr. Block proposes that the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) should be tasked with creating a computer system and supporting infrastructure to assist states to clean up the bloated rolls. States transmit the social security number of the voters and the EAC crosschecks the number with other jurisidctions and whether any voters are deceased by cross-reference to the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File. Those voting in multiple jurisdictions and “dead” voters should be reported to law enforcement.
Key to reform, however, is to give each voter a DIFFERENT voter number known only to that voter, and that is the number used along with identification. Signature comparison today is a myth, which transmutates poll workers into handwriting “experts.”
Block correctly argues that it is ridiculous that we use social security numbers anyway: “The social security number is the identifier for our financial lives — the most private piece of data we have — and it should not be used for voting purposes, medical purposes or other nonfinancial reasons” (“Disproven,” page 268).
This proposal is central to stop fraud. The Founders didn’t anticipate that about 12% of the population would move each year. The federal government should fund such a transition system for all states to follow.
“Disproven,” with its other proposals for reform, deserves analysis.
With this book, my friend, Ken Block, achieves the Parthenon of public service. He didn’t find widespread fraud in the2020 election, but it could be right around the corner without his reform.