In an apparent attempt to distract from the very threat of foreign intervention by states like Russia to help Donald Trump win in 2020, Attorney General William Barr is making up bullshit about the vulnerability of mail-in ballots. "We've been talking about how, in terms of foreign influence, there are a number of foreign countries that could easily make counterfeit ballots, put names on them, send them in," Barr told The New York Times Magazine. "And it'd be very hard to sort out what's happening."
Absolutely not true, say current and former elections administrators. They tell the Washington Post’s Amy Gardner that it would be virtually impossible for a foreign country to counterfeit ballots. The elections chief of Colorado, Judd Choate says "there is zero chance" of it happening in his state. "It's preposterous to the point of humor," he said. "There isn't an election office in this country that doesn't know how many ballots they've mailed out, how many they've gotten back in, and who they were sent to," Tammy Patrick, a former elections official in Maricopa County, Arizona, said. "It is absolutely not the case that someone could create a multitude of ballots and in some way infuse them or inject them into the system without detection."
"While it's difficult to comment on a hypothetical situation and we can only speak for North Carolina, it's almost inconceivable that a county board of elections wouldn't immediately detect 'counterfeit ballots' arriving at their offices," said North Carolina board of elections spokesperson Patrick Gannon. "The county boards of elections send ballots out to those who request them."
Barr gave no evidence of this ever having happened before, or any evidence of how it could happen. The Department of Justice didn't respond to requests from the Post for clarification "about why Barr said he was concerned such a scheme could easily happen." Because Barr pulled it out of his ass in an attempt to further politicize fears of coronavirus and to cast more doubt, confusion, and anxiety about the election. It's also laying the groundwork for Trump to contest the November election when he loses, particularly if the bulk of the election is conducted by mail because of a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic.
What we do know from Barr's Department of Justice and other intelligence officials is that Russia is right now interfering in our elections, but not with balloting. And that they're doing it to help Trump. That includes the same divisive social media campaign, exploiting the nation's racial divisions—which the Trump administration is helping with right now. It could include operations to infiltrate voting infrastructure and target voters directly with disinformation. And now it includes the attorney general of the United States telling voters that their mail-in ballot might not be safe.