Editor’s note: We’ve spent much of the past week discussing whether voter “integrity” masquerades as voter intimidation, including in our own county. The background is here. The issue is discussed in the New York Times’ Sunday editorial (a publication that at least is careful enough to get the “jump” pages correct from page 1A):
“This is how voter intimidation worked in 1966: White teenagers in Americus, Ga., harassed black citizens in line to vote, and the police refused to intervene. Black plantation workers in Mississippi had to vote in plantation stores, overseen by their bosses. Black voters in Choctaw County, Ala., had to hand their ballots directly to white election officials for inspection,” the Times writes.
“This is how it works today: In an ostensible hunt for voter fraud, a Tea Party group, True the Vote, descends on a largely minority precinct and combs the registration records for the slightest misspelling or address error. It uses this information to challenge voters at the polls, and though almost every challenge is baseless, the arguments and delays frustrate those in line and reduce turnout.
“The thing that’s different from the days of overt discrimination is the phony pretext of combating voter fraud. Voter identity fraud is all but nonexistent, but the assertion that it might exist is used as an excuse to reduce the political rights of minorities, the poor, students, older Americans and other groups that tend to vote Democratic.
“In The Times on Monday, Stephanie Saul described how the plan works. True the Vote grew out of a Tea Party group in Texas, the King Street Patriots, with the assistance of Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by the Koch brothers that works to elect conservative Republicans. It has developed its own software to check voter registration lists against driver’s license and property records. Those kinds of database matches are notoriously unreliable because names and addresses are often slightly different in various databases, but the group uses this technique to challenge more voters.”
The rest of the editorial is here.
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Perhaps We Need Independent Voting Observers, Like They Have In Third World Countries. Isn’t It The U.N. That Provides That? Or Is It The United States Marshalls That Handle These Things?
ID’s are required everywhere today because of fraud. An obvious example that humans aren’t as honest as they want people to believe. Voter ID’s might cut down on the controversy. There’s a lot of info in the internet. One amazing story The Battle of Athens, Tennessee was between WWII Vets and the crooked Sheriff dept. manipulating the vote. In 1946, military veterans returning from World War II found that their home county had been taken over by a crony network of corrupt politicians. The veterans were not the only ones upset by the condition, but they were the people that seized the initiative and solved the problem. Short version: when the police out-gunned the citizens, there was corruption. But, when the citizens out-gunned the police, then the rule of law was restored. Most people dislike those who “break the law in the name of the law”.
How many cases of voter fraud were there in Nevada County last election cycle Bonnie? How many were prosecuted? What were the circumstances? How were they reported? What is the number of voter fraud cases as a % of total voters? What was the number of voter fraud cases as a % of people estimated to lack photo ID?
And do you think it is relevant that the spark that started the controversy was when US combat veteran Tom Gillespie attempted to vote, was told by a Deputy, “Nigger, you can’t vote here today!” and was then shot?
Bonnie,
What fraudulent registrant is going to risk being a criminal to a cast a single vote. I can register as Superman all I want but going in to vote as superman would never happen. Study after study has shown voter fraud is 0.0001% of votes cast. Not worth knocking off 5,000,000 million legal voters off the rolls to secure against 1 in every 15 million votes. It is voter suppression no matter which way we slice it.
Don’t ever trust a political party who wants less people voting.
Steve…Citizens including GIs back from service in World War II clashed with entrenched Democrats to deliver the county from corrupt politicians. Paul Cantrell was running for sheriff again in 1946, Pat Mansfield, Cantrell’s crony, had been sheriff in his absence and had helped Cantrell corrupt the local government. Election Day, August 1, 1946, Athens, McMinn County, Tennessee, two hundred armed deputies loyal to Democrat Cantrell watched the polls, beat GIs, shot Tom Gillespie and interfered with citizens attempting to vote. After deputies absconded with the ballot box, taking it to the local jail, where the local Democratic Party could perform a “proper” ballot count, angry GI’s and the local citizenry gathered, took weapons from the local National Guard Armory. and proceeded to the jail where they started a fire fight.
I know the story Bonnie…I read it somewhere before, although I cannot recall where. And believe me I am well aware that the Democratic Party in the south was no picnic. But I await…..can you please tell me how many cases of voter fraud occurred in Nevada County during the last election cycle?
It’s quite telling that one has to go back 60 years and to the Deep South to find an incidence like this. This was also pre civil-rights and before the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act assures that all votes are counted. Especially in southern states. States that haven’t quite accepted that Abraham Lincoln and the union north won the Civil War.
Steve…You’re talking about Nevada County. I’m not. I’m talking about voter IDs. What’s so frightening about not being able to vote more than once during the election process?
I’m sorry Bonnie, the subject of the post is True the Vote, which is attempting to enforce voter ID requirements. You stated, “ID’s are required everywhere today because of fraud.” I am asking you a very simple question, how many cases of fraud did we have in Nevada County during the last election cycle? Since you clearing are posting historical examples of voter fraud as a means of supporting the need, the burden is on you to answer the question. Or you can just ignore it and prove my point.
Bonnie,
Maybe this will convince you voter ID laws aren’t intended for the purposes that are stated.
http://votingrights.news21.com/
“Despite the push for strict voter ID laws in a charged partisan and racial debate, the most exhaustive study ever of American election fraud reveals the rate is infinitesimal. Since 2000, a time when 146 million Americans were registered to vote, News21 found 10 cases of in-person voter fraud, which only photo ID laws would prevent. That would be about one case for every 15 million eligible voters.”
As the Brennan Center prolaims, getting struck by lightning is more likely to happen than voter fraud. It is a not a problem. The facts are clear it is a Tammney Hall tactic being used by the right to try and steal the election. That’s putting it bluntly, but truthfully.
A perfect example where reason, facts, expertise are ignored.
Bonnie there is further evidence today that the voter fraud the GOP claims exists is basically nonexistent:
http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-look-voter-fraud-little-172327169–election.html
This voter fraud accusation appears to be an underhanded attempt to suppress voters.