The Suppress the Vote Card: Fantastical GOP Tales to Gin Up Voter Fraud Hysteria & Bring Back Jim Crow

/

From [HERE] What's the problem with cracking down on voter fraud? And why shouldn't voters be required to show photo ID? If you need ID to cash a check or buy a six-pack, why not to vote? The answer-surprising to many- is straightforward: Not everyone has, or can easily get, a photo ID. If you don't drive, you don't have a driver's license. If you're poor, you probably don't have a credit card. And if you're unbanked and don't need ID to buy liquor, you probably don't have much need for photo ID at all. In fact 25% of african americans have no photo ID. 

You're more likely to spot a flying saucer than a lying voter. But the myth of election fraud has inspired laws that could make it harder for millions to cast their ballots.

Since 2001, nearly 1,000 bills that would tighten voting laws have been introduced in 46 states. 24 voting restrictions have passed in 17 states since 2011. This fall, new laws could affect more than 5 million voters in states representing 179 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. In the past two years, 5 battleground states (Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin) have tightened their voting laws. As of April, 74 restrictive voting laws were on the table in 24 states.

  • Since 2011, 34 states have introduced laws requiring voters to show photo ID, and 9 states have passed photo ID laws, affecting 3.8 million voters.
  • 2.2 million registered voters did not vote in 2008 because they didn't have proper ID.
  • Last year, 12 states introduced laws requiring birth certificates or other proof of citizenship to vote; 3 passed.
  • Only 48 percent of women have a birth certificate with their current legal name on it.
  • Texas' new ID law permits voters to use concealed-handgun licenses as proof of identity, but not state university IDs.
  • 80% of the 75 million eligible voters who did not take part in the 2008 election were not registered to vote.
  • In 2008, more than 1/3 of voters cast ballots before Election Day. In 2011, 5 states passed bills to restrict early voting.
  • States with Election Day registration have 7 to 12 percent greater turnout than states without. Lastyear, ~ states introduced bills that eliminate Election Day registration.
  • 12 percent of minority voters report registering through voter drives, twice the rate of white voters. In 2011, Florida and Texas passed laws making registration drives much harder to organize.

Florida state Sen. Mike Bennett, a supporter of the toughervoter registration law, said, "I don't have a problemmaking it harder. I want people in Florida to want to vote as bad as that person in Africa who walks 200 miles across the desert. This should not be easy."

LOCKING OUT BLACK EX-CONS

  • 4 million Americans who have completed prison sentences are ineligible to vote. 38 percent of disenfranchised voters are African American.
  • 13 percent of African American men cannot vote due to criminal records, a rate 7 times the national average.

IN SEARCH OF STOLEN VOTES = GOP LIARS

  • While defending its precedent -setting photo ID law before the Supreme Court, Indiana was unable to cite a single instance of voter impersonation in its entire history.
  • A 2005 report by the American Center for Voting Rights claimed there were more than 100 cases of voter fraud involving 300,000 votes in 2004. A review of the charges turned up only 185 votes that were even potentially fraudulent.
  • In support of a voter ID law, Kansas Secretary of State (and the legal brains behind a slew of anti-immigration laws) Kris Kobach cited 221 incidents of voter fraud in the state between 1997 and 2010. Yet those casesproduced just 7 convictions- none related to impersonating other voters.
  • Last December, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declared that Wisconsin is "absolutely riddled with voter fraud." in fact, the state's voter fraud rate in 2004 was 0.0002 percent - just 7 votes.
  • In 2008, John McCain said fraudulent registrations collected by ACORN were "one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." The Congressional Research Service found no proof that anyone improperly registered by ACORN tried to vote.

FEDERAL CONVICTIONS FOR ELECTION FRAUD, 2002-05

Voting while ineligible: 18

Voting multiple times: 5

Registration fraud: 3

BETWEEN 2000 AND 2010, THERE WERE:

649 million votes cast in general elections

47,000 UFO sightings

441 Americans killed by lightning

13 credible cases of in-person voter impersonation