Steve Simon's trust-without-verifying vouching system

In the late 1980s, President Reagan made popular a phrase during his summits with Soviet Gen. Sec. Mickhail Gorbachev known as trust but verify. These days, Steve Simon, Minnesota's DFL Secretary of State, is carrying on a practice I'd title as trust-without-verifying voter registration, aka vouching. According to this Alpha News article, "America First Legal (AFL) obtained data last month showing that 18,898 people used 'vouching' to either update their voter registration or become registered to vote in Minnesota in 2024."

This has voter fraud written all over it. AFL and local counsel Erick Kaardal said "Minnesota’s voter registration rolls contain significant numbers of individuals registered at addresses where they do not actually reside. This is reflected in the disproportionately high rates of undeliverable postal verification cards associated with vouched registrations, the elevated rates at which vouched voters are later placed in challenged status, and failures identified through post-election verification efforts."

What defense against fraud do voters have once ballots have been scanned? At that point, the vote is counted even though the vouchee is invalidated. The people would have a defense against fraud if they went to provisional ballots. That way, the ballot isn't counted until the address is verified. Anything that's built on the honor system isn't a serious system. That's wing-and-a-peayer territory.

OPINION: Vouching as a voting system should be outlawed immediately. At a time when nobody trusts anyone, I can't think of a worse system. Increasing turnout in exchange for distrust isn't a tradeoff worth making for society. It's a wonderful tradeoff, though, for a win-at-all-costs political party like the DFL.