Voter Fraud: debunking a manufactured crisis

As the presidential campaign of 2012 heads toward the finish line, Journalist Jane Mayer, of the New Yorker, took a closer look at the issue of voter fraud. Mayer, like other independent journalists, did not find evidence of widespread voter fraud. What Mayer did find was “intensely partisan election lawyers and political operatives, who have spent years stoking fear about election fraud. This cohort—which Roll Call has called the “voter fraud brain trust”—has filed lawsuits, released studies, testified before Congress, and written op-ed columns and books. Since 2011, the effort has spurred legislative initiatives in thirty-seven states to require photo identification to vote.” Read Mayer’s full article in The New Yorker.

Paul Weyrich, Heritage Foundation founder, declaring, "I don't want everybody to vote"

YouTube video

 

Mayer also found and interviewed Hans Anatol von Spakovsky, a son of immigrants himself  - born in Alabama. An attorney, von Spakovsky was a recess appointment to Federal Election Commission (FEC) by former president George. W. Bush, he is a supporter voter ID laws, advises conservative activists groups like “True the Vote” and even wrote a book on the subject, “Who's Counting?” with John Fund. Before being appointed to the FEC von Spakovsky served in the Bush Justice Department where he focused on voter fraud. Democrats in Congress accused von Spakovsky of politicizing his nominally non-partisan office to an unprecedented degree. Source. 

Voter ID advocate Hans Anatol von Spakovsky/Google Images

Republican efforts to suppress the vote, however, date back further than today's Republican Party.  In the 1980’s GOP/conservative operative Paul Weyrich (Deceased) flatly declared, before a meeting of evangelical leaders, "I don't want everybody to vote. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." Weyrich went on to create several conservative think tanks including the American Legislative Exchange Council, which drafted so called “model legislation” on voter ID and is also the founder of the Heritage Foundation, where von Spakovsky is listed as a Senior Legal Fellow.

Supporters of voter ID laws (almost all of whom are Republicans) claim that there is no racial component to the laws they support.  But voter ID opponents, civil and voting rights advocates see it differently, Former President Bill Clinton put it this way, “This is not rocket science…  the “effort to limit the franchise” was the most determined “since we got rid of the poll tax and all the other Jim Crow burdens on voting.”

Vote by Mail America noted, in our August 23, 2012 post, Re-Segregation, “In 1964 U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina joined the GOP. Since that time there has been an unmistakable trajectory of the Republican Party away from the values and principles of President Lincoln as the party morphed into and came to embody the views and politics of the hateful, racist, segregationist Thurmond... Considering the new demographics of America, that America is no longer a majority caucasian nation and with bi-racial populations ever increasing, it is at once peculiar and confounding that the Republican Party would revert backwards and embrace the failed hateful, divisive politics of Strom Thurmond.”

Vote fraud is virtually non-existent

In August of this year the award winning journalists team of News21 issued the findings of their investigation concerning claims of voter fraud. The Minnesota Post reported the findings this way, “In an exhaustive public records search, News21 reporters sent thousands of requests to elections officers in all 50 states, asking for every case of fraudulent activity, including registration fraud, absentee ballot fraud, vote buying, false election counts, campaign fraud, casting an ineligible vote, voting twice, voter impersonation fraud and intimidation. Analysis of the resulting comprehensive News21 election fraud database turned up 10 cases of voter impersonation. With 146 million registered voters in the United States during that time, those 10 cases represent one out of about every 15 million prospective voters... The analysis shows 491 cases of absentee ballot fraud and 400 cases of registration fraud. A required photo ID at the polls would not have prevented these cases." When the paper asked a nonpartisan elections expert, Public Policy Professor David Schultz of Hamline University's School of Business in St. Paul, about voter fraud Schultz said, "Voter fraud at the polls is an insignificant aspect of American elections." Schultz continued, “There is absolutely no evidence that [voter impersonation fraud] has affected the outcome of any election in the United States, at least any recent election in the United States.”
Where News21 took a purely analytical approach, Jane Mayer’s investigation (also finding little evidence of voter fraud)  put names and faces to the long time “alarmist” voter fraud partisans and operatives in the Republican Party.

Jane Mayer was awarded the 2008 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism for her investigative report leading to her book The Dark Side.  Mayer is also the recipient of the Ridenhour Book Prize  and the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism.

by Brent Scott/ Exe. Dir/Vote by Mail America

Michelle Obama votes by mail. Obama leads in early voting. OR/WA begin voting by mail

With exactly three weeks to go before the November 6 election the candidates for President of the United States are pulling out all the stops. First Lady Michelle Obama Twitted: “I couldn't wait for Election Day!” as she voted absentee. Mrs. Obama even included a photo of herself holding the absentee envelope that contained her completed ballot. According to his campaign, the President will cast an in person early vote in Chicago on October 25th. Both the President and Mrs. Obama’s choice in method of voting are a signal to supporters to get out and vote. In both instances Team Obama garnered what political consultants refer to as “earned” (read free) media attention by voting absentee in the case of the First Lady and setting up a photo op for the President when he votes later this month.

 Twitter via Michelle Obama

Early voting favors President Obama and Democrats by 28 percent

A major national news organization, Reuters, is reporting that President “Obama leads Romney by 59 percent to 31 percent among early voters.” In 2008 then Senator Barack Obama banked so many early votes in Colorado, Florida, Iowa and North Carolina that he won each state even though his challenger, Arizona GOP Senator John McCain, won more votes at the polls on the Election Day. Nationwide, more than a million people have already cast their vote in the 2012 election.

Voting by Mail begins in OR and WA

Voters in Oregon and Washington will begin receiving ballots in the mail this week. In 1998 the state of Oregon, by means of a citizen’s initiative called Ballot Measure 60, became the first state to choose to conduct its elections entirely by mail in ballots. Last year Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a bill into law making the Evergreen State only the 2^nd in the US to conduct all elections by mail. Voting by mail saves states and municipalities millions of dollars and provides voters with enough time to carefully study ballot measures. A 2012 study by the Independent Budget Office/IBO of New York found that the city could “… net annual savings of about $5 million after factoring in additional postage costs. The savings would be attained largely from reduced personnel needs.”

Gov. Chris Gregoire at signing ceremony for SB 5124, making Washington entirely by mail. The Bellingham Herald

Democrats catch up to GOPs in the Sunshine state.

In battleground Florida, where Republican Governor Rick Scott has strenuously tried to smother turnout among minority voters, Democrats have cut into absentee voting which is traditionally favored by GOP voters. Bloomberg News reports that “Out of about 275,000 absentee ballots returned to election offices through Oct. 13, 44 percent are from registered Republicans while Democrats account for 40 percent.” In the same report a Romney/Ryan supporter observed, “Those are numbers the party needs to be concerned with and focus on ramping up,” said Kimberly Mitchell, a West Palm Beach commissioner and co-chairwoman for the Romney campaign in Palm Beach County. “When you see your opposition working to compete in an area you’ve always been strong in, you need to focus on it.” Perhaps Democrats are turning to absentee voting in a tactical response to GOP voter suppression efforts. For most of 2011 and 2012 Florida Republicans have made every effort to first limit voter registration and later to purge voter rolls months before the election.

Coming up: Presidential debate analysis. our report on ballot measures across the country and our review of hotly contested House and Senate races.

By Brent Scott/Exe. Dir. of Vote by Mail America