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TechnoratiVoter ID Scam Is the Real Fraud
If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds Indiana's harsh voter ID law, as its justices seem poised to do, hundreds of thousands of black Americans should march in protest. So should hundreds of thousands of Latino Americans. Native Americans, too. Political activists from across the ethnic spectrum should convene the biggest political demonstration since the historic March on Washington in 1963.Where is the Rev. Al Sharpton when a genuinely critical issue comes along? Where's the Rev. Jesse Jackson?
The GOP-led campaign to pass stringent voter ID laws is a greater injustice than the prosecutions of the Jena Six, more significant than the incarceration of Michael Vick, more damaging than the insulting rants of Don Imus. This is a frankly brazen effort to block the votes of thousands of people of color who might have the temerity to vote for Democrats. And it's un-American.
As happened in several states, including Georgia, the then-GOP-dominated Indiana legislature pushed through a rigid law in 2005 requiring state-sponsored photo IDs at the ballot box. While the Republican spin machine has worked mightily to portray this as an effort to curb voter fraud, it is no such thing. There has never - never - been a single case of "voter impersonation" at the ballot box, with a fake voter using an electric bill or phone bill to pretend to be a valid voter.
Earlier this month, radio journalist Warren Olney pressed Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita about the prosecution of voter impersonation cases in Indiana. "Oh, yeah. We suspect it happens all the time," Mr. Rokita said. "Suspect?" Mr. Olney countered.
"Well, are you saying you want to define whether or not there's fraud based on whether or not its prosecuted?" Mr. Rokita answered, adding, "It's a hard type of crime to catch. ... It's hard to catch one in the act."
OK, then. Got that? It's a little like the search for life on other planets. Extraterrestrials are out there, even if none has actually been spotted.
(If Republicans were interested in actual voter fraud, they would have tightened the rules for absentee ballots, since that's where most voter fraud occurs. But because Republican voters tend to favor absentee ballots, many GOP-dominated legislatures have made absentee balloting rules less stringent.)
But there is evidence aplenty of this: There are thousands of law-abiding registered voters across the land who have no government-sponsored ID - no passport, no driver's license - and who will be banned from the ballot box if the highest court upholds this highly partisan law. It is difficult for middle-class citizens to believe, I know. If you live inside the comfortable economic mainstream, where taking airplane trips and renting DVDs is a routine part of life, you can't imagine voters without a state-sponsored photo ID.
But they're out there. Just ask Mary-Jo Criswell, 71. Her ballot was thrown out when she showed up at her Indiana polling place expecting to use the same forms of ID, including a bank card with a photo, that she had used in the past. She has epilepsy, she says, so she has never had a driver's license.
Citizens like Ms. Criswell are Americans, too, and they have every right to vote. It is elitism, pure and simple, to suggest requiring them to obtain a state-sponsored photo ID is a "minor inconvenience." But that's exactly what Justice Anthony M. Kennedy called it during oral arguments, noting that the law is expected to affect only a small percentage of voters.
That's true. The GOP is aiming at a small pool of voters - mostly poor, often elderly, usually black or brown - who lack driver's licenses. As it happens, they tend to support Democrats. With so many elections decided by a margin of a few hundred votes, Republicans figure they can stay in power by blocking just a few Democratic ballots.
But the Republicans could be in for a jolt. The electorate seems much more excited about Democratic candidates this year. The Democratic presidential candidates have topped the Republicans in fundraising, and in early primary states, more Democratic ballots have been cast than Republican ones.
The way things are going, Republicans running for national office could lose by a lot of votes - not a few. So they'll need a new scam to win elections.
Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her column appears Mondays in The Sun. Her e-mail is cynthia@ajc.com.
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
14 Comments so far
Show Allif this woman has epilepsy and cannot attain a drivers license why on earth does she not have a state issued id card? sounds like a really bad example if there are americans living in the area who want to vote there are steps to take step one stop whining about the need for id and go GET ONE seems to easy to remedy? sometimes people who have things to hide are the ones who complan abut rules and laws. Just get ids and go vote end of story
mememe sayz-it's not difficult to use common sense
One should never be surprised at the mendacity of the GOP nor at their appointed mouthpieces on the Supreme Court, what do you expect from a pig but a grunt. This little bit of chicanery follows the paperless electronic voting machines, the minimal number of machines at heavily black or hispanic voting stations and half of them broken. All these and more brought to you by that upstanding and christian party whose presdent speaks to God and gets answers. Me, I think a revolution is required, at least could we get Indiana to secede? Another party in power won't resolve these issues because there is a fear about, a sickness of big talk and timid actions, of a people who have sold their heritage for security it turns out to be a security of a prison, presently an Indiana prison.
Rise up, get off your collective arses and raise cain with our elected officials, pester hell out of them, make them look like fools. One thing is for certain don't expect any help, with some few exceptions, from big and little media they own the GOP.
If the Supreme Court upholds the Indiana voter ID law, citizens might want to do more than march somewhere.
They may need to take a look at exactly which Justices vote to uphold, a look at who appointed them, and get their butts over to the polls in November to be sure they elect a president who does not appoint some more like them in the next eight years.
If, as is possible, it turns out to be Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy making this or any other bad 5-4 decisions against citizens, we may also want to take notice that the five "conservatives" also happen to be the five Catholics and start the campaign for America's real Catholics (priests and parishoners) to editorialize loudly against them in public until they moderate to become better Justices. I've been criticized before as some sort of bigot for noticing we have a bloc of five Catholics on the Court. Actually,
I like the Catholic folks and am counting on them to sooner or later notice that their men on the Court are making decisions that we (and they) should be ashamed of. We'll wait and see who decides what on this case. I'm looking for 5-4 with the above names comprising the five. Maybe it will be that way. Or not. If it is, we need to react. Especially we need American Catholics to react--and I think they're gonna, sooner or later when the string of bad 5-4 decisions is long enough.
Voting is the sacred rite of a democracy. The worst crime in a democracy is not murder, or rape, or child molestation. It is election fraud. Without valid, trusted elections, the rest of the law becomes irrelevant.
the punishment should be the stripping of the offender's citizenship. no passport, no driver's licence, no right to own property, no access to the courts, no SSN, no birth certificate, no civil rights, nothing.
These requirements for ID are odd. the majority of people with and without ID can't be bothered to vote once, is there really a threat of someone bothering to vote twice?
As seen in the fraud-ridden 3rd world elections, it is rarely, if ever the VOTER that commits the fraud, but rather those in charge of the ballot boxes doing the counting that rig the machines (USA) or stuff the boxes (Kenya)
I'm a liberal. I live in Minnesota, a DFL state. I just talked to the county office that is in charge of voter registration. She told me that in Minnesota, you can register on election day at your polling place. All you need
is someone to vouch that you live at an address in the
precinct. Ideally,you should have a state issued photo ID,
with your current address.
Why is every body so paranoid?
"Political activists from across the ethnic spectrum should convene the biggest political demonstration since the historic March on Washington in 1963.Where is the Rev. Al Sharpton when a genuinely critical issue comes along? Where's the Rev. Jesse Jackson?"
Thank you Cynthia. I guess they are too busy scratching for a living to protest, like the oligarchy planned it.
The elitist Republican Party fears democracy.
Its rhetoric praises it, but all its policies are focused on disenfranchising ALL economically deprived individuals; and electronically manipulating the vote of those who do vote.
Corporate elections funded by corporate money tabulated on corporate machines...
(The dems are not far behind in this charade)
If this ID becomes a reality, then a possible way to turn the tables is to make sure that those who would be most affected by their inability, for whatever reason, to be transported to the necessary location and guided through the 'procedure' by caring volunteers. I would suggest that various groups set in motion fund raisers to assist in the monetary end of things. If ALL of those who are eligible to vote do vote the ID card could work in true democratic fashion. This 'required voter ID card' could end up biting the butts of the ones who are intentionally trying to steal this country. Just a thought......
Don't worry. The Republicans have plenty of dirty tricks up their sleeves.
RE: - Does honor mean anything to these win-at-all-costs spiritual midgets and misfits?
As much as universal suffrage does, apparently!
Seems that "voter ID" might have been one of the things the Three Amigos (and 30 CEOs) were talking about during the SPP conference in Montebello because I am hearing the same language from Stephen Harper.
Presently, if one doesn't show up with a voting card (ie moved since the last election) one needs either a driver's licence here or two of the following:
Student card,
Phone bill,
Electricity or gas bill,
Cable bill,
Bank card,
Birth Certificate,
Confirmation Certificate,
Lease,
Health card,
(few other things I can't remember)
RE: - There has never - never - been a single case of "voter impersonation" at the ballot box, with a fake voter using an electric bill or phone bill to pretend to be a valid voter.
True enough. People voting on behalf of the dead are not usually in possession of a recent phone bill with the deceased's name on it.
I understand the plight of those who do not have a US Govt-issued ID. How about expanding the law to include certain documents (such as phone and electricity bill) that have our name and address. We need these documents to get a drivers license ID, so it should be the same thing.
Gotta love how the party identified with that "moral majority" never met a rule it wasn't willing to bust, undermine or sneak around. Does honor mean anything to these win-at-all-costs spiritual midgets and misfits?
Cynthia Tucker,
Cudos and thank you for speaking these words! Hopefully this article will get the African American(and ALL)communities motivated into action.Election fraud is criminal and is the most dire threat to our democracy. I would go as far as to say that it is the foundation for the destruction of our democracy because it will insure another Republican in the whitehouse in '08. A Republican who will be able to complete their 30-year plan to dismantle our democracy,that started with Nixon.
I encourage anyone here today who is reading this article to read 'Armed Madhouse' by Greg Palast. I URGE you to do so., or at least visit his gregpalast.com website. His style is a bit sensational which turned me off at first, but give it some attention. Greg Palast is an tireless investigative reporter who has shown that the election fraud in 04 was so much more extensive than most of us on the left could imagine.
Your statement regarding Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson is correct. While I do have a great deal of respect for the work that both men have done, they do seem to be silent on this HUGE issue.
Once again, Thank you!
Then there is the issue of the voting machines...