When the GOP really needs to scare voters away from the polls, there's one techique they trust just as much as Judge Smails relied on the ol' Billy Baroo -- voter fraud:When the GOP really needs to scare voters away from the polls, there's one techique they trust just as much as Judge Smails relied on the ol' Billy Baroo -- voter fraud:
"There appears to be a coordinated and widespread effort in Virginia to commit voter fraud," said [Virginia state GOP chair Jeff] Frederick, who added the state party is also in possession of affidavit from someone alleging their social security number was fraudulently used to try to register someone else to vote. "These are just two known and documented examples of known voter fraud, and what we believe to be a widespread problem across Virginia."
Frederick is calling on Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) to launch an investigation. Frederick is also urging residents to avoid giving their names or social security numbers to canvassers seeking to register voters.
You hear me, unregistered voters? Don't trust anybody! You're safest by not registering to vote at all!
Frederick, of course, could provide a grand total of zero evidence of his allegation of "widespread" fraud. If this was a high school debate club, he'd be laughed out of the room. But this is the Washington Post we're talking about, so I'm sure Frederick's fable will find a home in the Metro section.
Like just about everything the Virginia Republican party does, it would be comical if it weren't so sad. What's harder to find than actual evidence of voter fraud? Would you believe Bigfoot? Follow me on this one.
From a great Washington Post op-ed:
Allegations of voter fraud -- someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote -- have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting. Scare stories abound on the Internet and on editorial pages, and they quickly become accepted wisdom.
But the notion of widespread voter fraud ... is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. Where fraud exists, of course, it should be prosecuted and punished. (And politicians have been stuffing ballot boxes and buying votes since senators wore togas; Lyndon Johnson won a 1948 Senate race after his partisans famously "found" a box of votes well after the election.) Yet evidence of actual fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy.
Just this spring, we learned the results of Texas Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott's multi-year, multi-million-dollar investigation into "voter fraud" -- 26 cases, just two of which involved people actually casting fraudulent ballots. As TPM's Josh Marshall wrote, "[T]he great majority of the cases in his meager haul were technical violations that non-politicized prosecutor's offices most likely never would have pursued."
Even more relevant to Flip-Flop Frederick's push, almost all of the Texas cases involved people who were black and Hispanic. Guess who Jeff Frederick is trying to scare away from voting for Barack Obama this November?
Is anyone aware of voter caging in Virginia? (This means Republican partisans send a welcoming letter to each newly registered voter in mostly minority or Democratic areas, with instructions not to forward, and then challenge anyone whose letter is returned. This disenfranchises students and others like military personnel who may be away from the listed address.) This happened in Florida in the 2004 election.
Is anyone aware of purging voter rolls in Virginia? (Because some names are common, particularly in minority populations, and may match the names of disqualified voters (like felons, for example), this voter purging also disqualifies many more qualified voters than the actual target person.) This is happening in Colorado and happened in Florida in 2000.
Is anyone aware of voter registrations from Democratic areas not being accepted or disappearing entirely? This is occurring in Florida and New Mexico now.
Virginia will be close, and one can expect, just like in other states that will be close (New Mexico, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, and Nevada), Republican zealots will employ every trick possible to disenfranchise as many as possible from certain parts of the voting population who would disproportionately vote for Obama and other Democratic candidates.
Everyone's vote should count, not just the ones the Republicans zealots and partisans approve of.
Frederick is also urging residents to avoid giving their names or social security numbers to canvassers seeking to register voters.Hmm...I wonder who is thinking of? So how is the Republican voter registration effort going Jeff? I guess he figures it is better for the VA GOP if people just don't vote. He's probably right on that one.
Social Security numbers are required for voter registration forms in Virginia.
People are weird and hesitant to give out social security numbers.
Therefore, the best way to suppress voter registration activity when you're been out registered by the Democrats is to increase the paranoia people have about Social Security numbers. Don't be surprised if we hear stories about Social Security number fraud about once a week for the next 70 days.
Of course, his statements are blatantly contradictory -- saying he's afraid of fraud but discouraging the use of Social Security numbers to reduce the risk of fraud.
Proving that Jeff Frederick is the real fraud here...