Current controversies have cast doubt on the integrity of mail-in ballots, but ballot fraud in the United States is nothing new. It occurred one hundred and sixty years ago in the presidential election of 1864, when absentee ballots were allowed for the first time because of the massive number of Union soldiers in the field and away from their home states.
Although many soldiers were allowed furlough to return to their home states to vote, some were not. Mail-in ballots were introduced as a solution to allow soldiers to vote absentee. Others voted in their camps, and then officials mailed in the ballots. Democrats furiously battled the efforts in court since they knew most Union soldiers would vote for Lincoln. Mail-in ballots became controversial as the program rolled out, and fraud was suspected.
In fact, a county official from upstate New York, Orville Wood, uncovered one…
