El Paso Standard

With communities across the country preparing for a record number of voters to cast their ballots by mail, the heated debate continues over the potential pitfalls of an election in which mail-in votes will play a bigger part in deciding the outcome than ever before.

Adolpho Telles, the former chair of the El Paso County Republican Party, recently told the El Paso Standard that the county has 74,000 registered voters who have not voted in at least 10 years. Of those, 24,000 are over the age of 60.

By simply mailing ballots out to all the registered voters in the county, elections officials would not simply be tempting fraud, but inviting it, he said. Other individuals could take the ballot discarded by someone who has no interest in voting, and fill it out on their behalf.

“Mailing ballots to all these individuals tempts individuals to vote on behalf of the individuals on the rolls that have not voted,” Telles told the El Paso Standard.

In order to protect against that, the county would first need to take on the task of completely checking through the entire roll of registered voters, Telles said. The process could take years, and would never be completed in time for the November election.

“We also have over 10,000 registered voters that are over 100 years old,” Telles told the El Paso Standard. “This alone raises serious questions about registered voters and the integrity of voting if all were sent mail-in voting.”

The potential is very real that many of those on the voter rolls are not even able to vote in the election, he said.

“The people registered to vote that have not voted in 10 years are probably a result of people that have left the county or have passed away,” Telles said.

Given the scope of the problem presented in El Paso County, Telles said he suspects the situation is the same in other counties around the state.