Are election problems an "enormous and growing" problem? Or is evidence of actual fraud by individual voters "painfully skimpy"?
It depends on who you ask -- Karl Rove or election experts.
It should come as no surprise, considering we heard false voter fraud claims in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Republicans claimed Democrats wanted to "recount until Gore wins" in Florida, as though the act of recounting would magically conjure up Democratic ballots. Never-substantiated claims of voter fraud in Philadelphia were floated in the media in 2004, though the real problems were long lines that kept (mostly liberal) voters away from the polls in places like Cleveland and Northern Virginia.
But Republicans have continued raising allegations of rampant voter fraud, always short on evidence, to justify new ID requirements that have the harshest impact on (again, mostly liberal) low-income, immigrant, and minority voters.
Refusal to prosecute voter fraud cases was cited in at least two cases in the fired U.S. attorney scandal, both times shown to be a cover story made up after the fact to justify the firings. And Karl Rove has made it something of a personal obsession.
The first cracks in the "voter fraud" dam showed up last week. First, a federal appeals court threw out a conviction gained by a Wisconsin U.S. attorney based on evidence that was, as the judges said, "beyond thin." Then evidence immediately surfaced that Rove had meddled in that same prosecutor's office.
Then today, the floodgates opened:
A federal panel responsible for conducting election research played down the findings of experts who concluded last year that there was little voter fraud around the nation, according to a review of the original report obtained by The New York Times.It all backs up a recent Washington Post op-ed by two elections experts, "The Myth of Voter Fraud":Instead, the panel, the Election Assistance Commission, issued a report that said the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate. The revised version echoes complaints made by Republican politicians, who have long suggested that voter fraud is widespread and justifies the voter identification laws that have been passed in at least two dozen states.
[T]he notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, 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.WashingtonPost.com's Dan Froomkin has done a great job of keeping up with the voter fraud myth, and is never afraid to call BS on either party. His column archive is here.
A couple of years ago, a GOP official tried to question my voting credentials. I have voted legally in the same precinct for over 20 years AND SHE KNEW IT. But she suggested that because I didn't have my maiden name on my drivers' license there was a problem. Many women use their married names without maiden name appearing on licenses. This had never been raised until this woman, who knew I was the district Democratic chair at the time (I didn't run for re-election to that position), decided to challenge me. I checked with my election official and, of course, was told that election worker's claim was a crock. But that didn't keep her from trying to hassle me.
Every layer the GOP adds to the election process gives them more opportunity to mischief. Some elections are determined by one vote per precinct. They'll do whatever they can to deny a citizen the right to vote.
Have your II handy -- and your election day attorney's phone number just as handy. Since that day, I always have my county party's attorney's number with me and cell phone in hand.
...to use elsewhere, it would be stronger with a few references and sources where he said that. Could you pass them along please?
I'm at clearmines@yahoo.com Thanks.