...Voter fraud simply isn’t a problem in this country. Studies have definitively debunked the voter fraud myth time and again....
By contrast, there is ample evidence that voter ID laws inhibit voting, particularly among minorities and the poor — two major demographic segments that tend to vote Democratic.
And that’s hardly a coincidence. Consider the recent bragging by the Pennsylvania House Republican leader that his state’s voter ID bill “is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.”
This is not simply another gratuitously partisan act by the GOP. This is an attack on the very notion of democracy. The voter ID push, along with intimidation of voter registration groups and purges of voter rolls have only one goal: blocking legitimate but probably Democratic voters from exercising their constitutional rights. It is a poll tax with a new twist.
And the pursuit of this goal ostensibly in the name of voter fraud is an outrageous deception that only works if the press is too timid to call it what it really is.Read it at The Huffington Post
Reporters Know What the 'Voter ID' Push Is Really About. Why Don't They Just Say So?
Dan Froomkin
I spent the first 30 years of my life in Chicago. Voter fraud happens. It happened during the time of the Flintstones and will happen during the time of the Jetsons.
ReplyDeleteDan's a little too partisan on this subject.
"…Voter fraud happens…"
ReplyDelete… at a frequency less likely than being struck by lightning.
What do you suppose the ratio is between the number of votes cast and the number of illegal voters?
The real skill is getting dead people to vote. Then there are special tutors available for filling out ballots. And it doesn't require any lightening at all.
ReplyDelete"…Then there are special tutors available for filling out ballots…"
ReplyDeleteYeah I bet that is really cost-effective.
Right up there with registering Mickey Mouse to vote, then getting someone that looks like him to go to the voting booth. Kind of labor-intensive.
Spending the same amount of money on ads would return many more votes and it wouldn't be a felony.
Again I ask, what percentage of the vote total do you think fraud accounts for?
paul " Again I ask, what percentage of the vote total do you think fraud accounts for?"
ReplyDeleteThe operant term here is "think." Evidence? Not so much.
poll tax for sure. if they want to require a photo id or whatever, the government should foot the bill. not to mention making sure everyone gets to vote, like make it a holiday or something
ReplyDeleteI was biased by the 1960's when my father worked the precinct for the Daley machine. I remember them bragging how they won the election for Kennedy in 1960. Supposedly, Daley delivered Chicago to give enough votes to carry Illinos for JFK. I took one political science course in college and it dealt with Tamany Hall and Chicago style machine politics.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have to admit, I don't see what the big deal is about showing an ID to vote. But I will stipulate that illegal voters are not a problem where I live in my little corner of affluence. I cannot speak to those areas where voters are more dependent on government. My view is skewed by the media interpretation. For the record, I'm a big MNE fan, but just not quite as progressive as Mike and Tom, etal.
Chewitup:
ReplyDeleteHard to tell where one falls on the political spectrum. I come from a Republican family and voted Republican consistently until the 2008 election. I began having doubts about my views around 5 years ago. I'm 65 now.
Somewhere along the line I came across the Political Compass and found myself in the far lower left quadrant.
I got my sister to take the test and she scored as far left-libertarian as I did and she was still a Republican (probably still is).
I don't think most people know where they really fit in -we're more tribal than anything.
Myself, I've always felt like voter fraud would be the most expensive way to get votes on a votes-per-dollar basis.
Plus it's much cheaper per vote to keep people from voting than to get people to vote.
Then compare the US to countries that make voting mandatory instead of erecting barriers to voting.
Chewitup
ReplyDeleteVirtually all of what you are calling voter fraud is voter REGISTRATION fraud. Completely different. Mickey Mouse may have been registered to vote by an ACORN recruit but he most certainly did NOT vote.