Monday, October 10, 2011

The Sixth Myth About Voter Fraud

There's a must read editorial in the Washington Post regarding five myths that Republicans are floating around regarding the need for voter suppression laws.  It includes the usual ones:

  1. Voter fraud is widespread.
  2. Voter ID won't disenfranchise anyone.
  3. Voter suppression is cheap.
  4. You can't fight voter suppression.
  5. Voter fraud laws aren't strong enough.
I would humbly point out a sixth myth.

The sixth myth is that Voter ID laws address the real problem area of voter fraud: The absentee ballot.
Posted by capper at 6:11:00 AM
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3 comments:

  1. Roland MelnickOctober 11, 2011 at 11:18 AM

    I agree that voter ID does little to address the types of fraud that have an actual effect on elections. But it is just as silly to say there will be much, if any, suppression of votes because of it.

    The real fraud exists where unscrupulous people working in voter drives (ACORN comes to mind) sign up homeless folks, non-existent persons or others and have their absentee ballots "conveniently" mailed to an office (ACORN comes to mind) where helpful, friendly folks fill out their ballot for them because your local community organizer knows exactly who you intend to vote for better than you do.

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  2. JBOctober 11, 2011 at 6:41 PM

    Sorry, Roland, ACORN isn't there to kick anymore. So give it up.

    Suppression is not always overt, but often subtle. Go to the DMV, and you find out you need a CERTIFIED birth certificate. Then you have to go back home and contact the state or county of your birth, and send money, to get that certified copy. This is discouraging, especially to people who don't have a lot of time for trips to the DMV, cultural capital to explore how to get that certified copy of the birth certificate, or monetary capital to pay for it. I would call it something more than discouraging, in fact. It is so discouraging that it is disenfranchising.

    And by the way, Roland, you don't need to worry about voter drives, either. Because under the voter suppression bill passed by the Republicans, the Government Accountability Board can no longer deputize people to conduct voter registration drives. Everyone involved in a registration drive will need to be deputized by municipal clerks or the board of election commissioners for a municipality. This means that to conduct a voter registration drive in a rural area, a potential registrar might have to be deputized by 5, 8, even 15 separate bodies (some very small towns have their own boards of election commissioners) in order to register voters from the municipalities in a rural area.

    Now tell me, do you REALLY think that your Aunt Freda shouldn't vote, just because she doesn't drive, and she lives in the Town of Primrose?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 12, 2011 at 9:56 AM

    I think homeless people should be allowed to vote.

    ReplyDelete

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