Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that U.S. elections have been falsified through mail-in voting.

“In the United States, previous elections were falsified through postal voting … they bought ballots for $10, filled them out, and threw them into mailboxes without any supervision from observers, and that’s it,” Putin said, according to Reuters.

Putin, who is running for reelection in Russia, did not offer evidence to back his claims, Reuters reported.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    10 months ago

    “In the United States, previous elections were falsified through postal voting … they bought ballots for $10, filled them out, and threw them into mailboxes without any supervision from observers, and that’s it,”

    Problem - That’s not the way vote by mail works.

    1. You register to vote and place a signature on file.

    2. You get your ballot in the mail and vote.

    3. You put the ballot in the mailing envelope and sign the back of the envelope.

    4. When the ballot is returned, they compare the signature on the envelope with the signature on file, if it matches, the ballot is set aside for counting.

    5. If there’s a PROBLEM:

    A) Missing signature
    B) Signature doesn’t match
    C) Ballot damaged or unreadable
    D) Ballot already recorded as present

    The ballot gets returned to the voter for correction, assuming there’s enough time for it to be corrected.

    What Putin describes wouldn’t work, because the fake ballots either wouldn’t have a signature, wouldn’t have a valid signature, or wouldn’t correspond to a registered voter.

    • mateomaui@reddthat.com
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      10 months ago

      All true. Last election I had a hand injury that affected my signature so I took it in person to the county elections office, where they verified it was me by my ID.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Also it’s important to say that as far as swaying US elections goes voter fraud is high cost, high risk, low reward. Disinformation campaigns and voter disenfranchisement are far more effective tactics, you can tell because that’s how Putin influences US elections