#Mass vote-by-mail really does invite fraud — we need to guard against it

Voting fraud, especially via mail-in ballots, is a cinch to pull off, warns a top Democratic operative, who’s done it repeatedly. Yet voting by mail will be a huge part of the November election. Which is why officials need to plug the holes now.

Fixing ballots “is a real thing” and plenty common, says the insider in Jon Levine’s eye-opener in Sunday’s Post. States, he pleads, need to address major security gaps to protect the November election.

Indeed, as few as 500 or 1,000 votes can be enough “to flip” entire states, notes the source, who (as The Post confirmed) has worked in numerous legislative, mayoral and congressional races across the tri-state area. Among the scams he describes:

• Postmen or others simply discard ballot-stuffed envelopes from areas that lean heavily toward a candidate they oppose.
•  Operatives offer to mail completed ballots for voters, then steam open the envelopes and switch in their own ballots.
•  Insiders “help” the elderly by filling out ballots for them. In some nursing homes, “the nurse is actually paid” to do that.
•  Voters are flat-out bribed.

Thanks to the pandemic, 20 states (including New York) have changed their rules to make it far easier to vote by mail, The Washington Post reports. Even before that, 34 states let anyone vote absentee.

So 83 percent of voters nationwide can vote by mail this fall; nearly 100 million will get applications or ballots automatically, a massive opening for fraudsters.

Meanwhile, the nation’s about as split politically as ever: Last week, Pew reported “a wider gap between Republicans’ and Democrats’ views” of Donald Trump than for any other president “in the modern era of polling.” Each side fears the other won’t accept a loss as legit — spelling national chaos.

This makes steps to secure the voting absolutely vital: Add security features like watermarks to ballots; boost checks on fraud, and penalties on it.

Ensure the duly elected candidate takes office — with voters confident cheating didn’t determine the outcome.