Republicans cry voter fraud (and, by-and-large, it is a RNC phenomenon)! Although one of the Republican agendas over the past 8 years has been aggressively pursuing voter fraud as a major issue facing modern-day politics, there has been scant evidence of voter fraud through numerous investigations. And many cases that have been caught and prosecuted have been shown to be *gasp* mistakes on understanding by immigrants, former inmates, or people who have moved, it looks like not one has really been tied to systematic attempts to fix an election (not counting small local elections, such as sheriff's office). But were STILL aggressively pursued by federal prosecutors, in my opinion, to make a political point (and to what cost and damage to the accused?). And they lost just as many of these cases as they won. There is just so little evidence to support these accusations. But the FEAR of "voter fraud" is a powerful one, and something that is used to fuel doubt and suspicion on the other party.
Assuming that these cases represent, say, 10% of actual instances, or even 1% of actual instances, it would STILL not even register past regular background noise or affect election results.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html
I purposely culled something pre-presidential election so it is removed a bit from the current outcries, but seems particularly germane to the recent conversations.
In the interest of fairness, Democrats lay out the case for intimidation of voters as a RNC tactic, to make it exceedingly difficult for poor and/or minority voters (who by-and-large vote Democratic) to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Which, I think, is also a partisan FEAR tactic to cast aspersions on the RNC and place blame if elections go to the other party.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-acorn15-2008oct1...
"This is an age-old dispute," Lewis said. "The Republicans always claim voter fraud in every election. They cite fraudulent registrations, but they can't say that has resulted in fraudulent votes. And the Democrats claim there is voter intimidation going on all over America. When you look closer, that tends to disappear as well."
At a DC press conference this morning, the GOP trotted out two elder statesmen to do its dirty work – former senators John Danforth and Warren Rudman. Echoing accusations made by McCain and the RNC against the community organizing group ACORN, they falsely warned that voter fraud could throw the election into chaos.
With a straight face Danforth said that 2008 could be like 2000 if we don’t act now. But I’m sorry, wasn’t 2000 when his party strong-armed the recount and disenfranchised thousands of Floridians? But never mind that.
In fact, today’s press conference was just the latest effort by the GOP to justify voter suppression under the guise of so-called election integrity. As in the past, Republicans have latched onto a few colorful but insignificant examples – e.g. a man who was registered to vote 73 times and a 7-year-old child who was registered – to advocate for draconian enforcement measures that disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters, typically minority and low-income voters.
But there are already safeguards in place that prevent people who submit fraudulent voter registrations from actually voting. In fact, there is no evidence of significant voter fraud of any variety anywhere in the nation. At the urging of the GOP, the Justice Department sought evidence of fraud but came up empty-handed.
However, there is evidence for significant vote suppression and disenfranchisement. As the New York Timesreported last week: “Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law.” This is what Danforth and Rudman would have talked about today if they really cared about election integrity.
They also would have talked about the various barriers to voting that members of their party have erected, like rejecting voter registration forms not printed on 80-pound bond paper or requiring names on voter registration forms to exactly match records in existing databases (e.g. Mike R. Neuman would be rejected if listed elsewhere as Michael R. Neuman). Or how about the strict voter ID laws put in place by Republicans? They seem reasonable enough, until you consider that millions of voting-age Americans (perhaps as high as 10%) do not have driver’s licenses.
The logic behind the GOP’s efforts is as simple as it is undemocratic: the fewer people who vote, the better off Republicans candidates will be. When you hear Republicans talk about vote fraud, here’s what they really mean:
Thanks for the post-
Great post and vid. clip.
The GOP is looking at the latest polling numbers and and trends and throwing up in its mouth.
That's a great clip Sensor---it really spells it out. The GOP increases their chances for election victories when fewer people vote. Thus, they will always go after voter registration groups. The fake registrations (unfortunately) will always come with the territory. But this rarely leads to actual voter fraud. The registrations get verified, and the fake ones get weeded out. But it does provide an opportunity for the GOP to confuse people that this is actually voter fraud. Does it happen---yes, but it's a small number. The greater problem, is the chilling effect of the GOP's actions, in that they can use this excuse to enact draconian Jim Crow-like voter ID laws so that less people vote. It also helps them soil the reputation of any voter registration groups so that people will be leery of working with them.
But the GOP's voter fraud claims are bogus. The attorney general scandal came to be, because judges (Republican appointees, no less) refused to prosecute voter fraud cases because there was no evidence. So they were fired. It's all part of the GOP's "permanent majority" delusions.
People like Pink Slip
I don't trust the Dept. of Justice in this matter anyway. All they'd have to do to find clear fraud is compare databases of voters between New York and Florida. Plenty of "snowbirds" end up voting TWICE for such jackassed reasons as "I wanted to make sure my vote was counted". A few reporters have investigated this phenomenon and have found enough evidence to warrant such a sting on the part of the DOJ, but they still won't do it ... since they'd be crossing powerful people. Snowbirds have money.
Look, the fact that gerrymandering is such a problem in the U.S. essentially proves that vote fraud is a staple of this so-called democratic republic. We don't have much democracy at all since many municipalities are governed by a local party machine of either Dem or Repub flavor, and each of those machines act to secure their own power. Dem or Repub, both want to buy voting machines that they can easily tweak to allow them to throw minor challenges to their power. Only a few percent is often enough.
Republicans aren't bitching about voter fraud as it relates to old white people voting in NY and FL.
They're bitching about poor and minorities possible committing voter fraud. Of coarse they make no differentiation between registration fraud and voter fraud. You could register 10 million fake voters in Ohio or Indiana, but you still need to have someone physical show up at the pole on election day 10 million times with a photo ID in hand or in Ohio a valid utility bill, it makes voter fraud nearly impossible.
That's a good point. That alleged "Jimmy Johns" registration form is still not much of an issue since no such Jimmy Johns can show up to vote.
All vote fraud should be pursued vigorously. Voter lists should be cross-referenced for falsehoods. Voter education should be expanded so that even if you're tossed off the rolls for some blind-procedural reason, you will still know you can perform an affidavit vote, hence even in some paperwork screwup, you can't lose your vote.
Considering how purely incompetent the Lucas County BOE is, I can't hope for any of that to happen. The LCBOE was so bad that Blackwell had to slap them down, and rightfully so. What kind of morons are in that place, that they lost ballot boxes and double-counted other boxes?
Here's how fradulent registrations turn into fraudulent votes:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/15/voter-fraud-alert-houseful-of-out-o...
Don't criticize the source - take a look at the data and what was found.
Another way is for students to register to vote where they go to school in addition to where they live. If they live in another state, they could (not saying they do, just that it's possible to) vote in both locations. Snowbirds who live in the north in the summer and the south in the winter can also vote twice.
This isn't a republican or democrat issue - it's an issue for all of us. It shouldn't matter who brings the possibilities to the forefront, we should ALL be opposed to attempts to subvert the fairness of elections.
Why don't we have a national database, keyed by name and SSN, which simply lists ONE active voting location, and ONE flag for the current election cycle? Every local BOE can then check the list at the day of the vote. Even if there's a conflict in locations, the list can then be changed for the new location, and then updated for "one vote recorded for this election cycle". That means if the person tries to vote elsewhere, or someone tries to vote in their name, they are locked out.
If there's some name issue, the SSN pairing should clear up quite a few of those possible conflicts.
The use of a SSN also locks out the non-citizens, which is only rightful. Who can complain about that?
Here's how fradulent registrations turn into fraudulent votes
Did these people end up voting? You can't really call this fraudulent voting. You'll start to get into a weird area of policing someone's intent--especially since these people didn't actually vote.
Snowbirds who live in the north in the summer and the south in the winter can also vote twice.
It's probably pretty common for this scenario to happen. But it's also rare that these people actually vote twice
People like Pink Slip
Of the 9,078,728 votes cast in Ohio’s 2002 and 2004 general elections, a total of four were deemed as ineligible or “fraudulent” and found by the Board of Elections and County Prosecutors to have merit and pursued legal action. .... .00000044%......
The research project was conducted via telephone interviews with either the Director or Deputy Director of each of the state’s 88 county Boards of Elections during the first week of June 2005. For purposes of this report, voter fraud is defined as “an ineligible voter voting or attempting to vote.”
Report - Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio
http://www.cohhio.org/alerts/Election%20Reform%20Report.pdf
lay these terms, "voter fraud" and "voter registration fraud " to rest. Most thinking people can see through the smoke and mirrors. But how many people think now days?
Makes sense to me. How would that get done? You are in the wrong profession, whatever it is! :=)
Apparently nobody remembers this article from the Blade on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 about the voter registration of Mary Poppins, Jeffrey Dahmer and Janet Jackson.
"Defiance County Sheriff David Westrick said that Mr. Staton was working on behalf of a Toledo woman, Georgianne Pitts, to register new voters. She, in turn, was working on behalf of the NAACP National Voter Fund, which was formed by the NAACP in 2000 to register new voters.
Sheriff Westrick said that Pitts, 41, of Toledo, admitted she gave Mr. Staton crack cocaine in lieu of cash for supplying her with completed voter registration forms. The sheriff declined to say how much crack cocaine Pitts supplied Mr. Staton, or to say whether Pitts knew that the forms Mr. Staton gave her were falsified."
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041019/NEWS09/41...
Crack for votes. What a truly Democratic idea.
And I am sure nobody heard about the 2004 Presidential Election results from Milwaukee.
Here is part of the Police Report and a convinent link to the posted Police Report.
"In conclusion, the Task Force investigators having found 129 erroneously entered double votes, led to a decrease of voters in the Milwaukee Election Commission Electors database for the November 2004 General Election."
http://media2.620wtmj.com/breakingnews/ElectionResults_2004_VoterFraudIn...