The Republican "Voter Fraud" Fraud [Op-Ed]

[Zaune]

The Guardian

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The Republican 'voter fraud' fraud

All over the US, GOP lawmakers have engineered schemes to make voting more difficult. Well, if you can't win elections fairly…

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diane roberts byline
Diane Roberts
guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 October 2011 21.29 GMT
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Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich has advocating reinstituting tests for voters that were outlawed by Civil Rights legislation. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Presidential candidate and angry white man Newt Gingrich seems nostalgic for the good old Jim Crow poll tax days: he has called for people to have to pass an American historical literacy test before they can vote. His colleagues on the anti-democratic right have not gone quite so far, but 38 states, most of them controlled by Republicans, are concocting all kinds of ingenious ways to suppress the vote. A new report from New York University's Brennan Center for Justice says that more than five million people – enough to swing the 2012 presidential election – could find themselves disenfranchised, especially if they're poor or old or students or black or Latino.

Hyper-conservative governors and legislators, working with templates produced by a shady cabal called the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), have pushed through laws to cut the number of voting days, impede groups registering new voters, demand proof of citizenship and otherwise make it more difficult to cast a ballot. Alec, partly funded by the John Birch-er billionaire Koch brothers and affiliated with Liam Fox's Atlantic Bridge, is on a mission to shrink not just government (which it regards as a cancer on capitalism), but democracy itself. Ion Sancho, elections supervisor of Leon County, Florida, and veteran of Florida's 2000 presidential election fiasco, says: "Every state that has a Republican legislature is doing this, from Maine to Florida. It's a national effort."

In the 2008 election, Barack Obama benefited from extended voting hours and early voting days, as well as rules allowing citizens to register and vote on the same day. It's pretty obvious why: students, the elderly, and hourly-wage workers who can't queue for hours without making the boss angry, tend to favor Democrats. Florida – which became a byword for Banana Republicanism and electoral corruption 11 years ago – has been positively zealous in attempts to restrict voting rights on the grounds that easy voting leads to waste, fraud and abuse. One lawmaker pitched a hissy fit, claiming that dead actors (Paul Newman, for one) constantly turn up on voter rolls and that "Mickey Mouse" had registered to vote in Orlando. State senator Mike Bennett wants to make voting "harder"; after all, he said, "people in Africa literally walk 200 or 300 miles so they can have the opportunity to do what we do, and we want to make it more convenient? How much more convenient do you want to make it?"

Florida Republicans addressed the problem of "convenience" earlier this year by cutting early voting days from 14 to eight, cutting budgets for expanded polling places and eliminating Sunday voting: African American (and some Latino) churches had successfully run a post-sermon"Souls to the Polls" operation, getting out the vote in 2004, 2006 and 2008. Florida has also attacked civic-minded people trying to register new voters. Jill Ciccarelli, a teacher at New Smyrna Beach High School, wanted to foster a sense of citizenship amongst her pupils, so she helped the ones who were old enough register. She didn't know she was breaking the law. Now, all individuals or groups must file a "third party registration organisation" form with the state, and instead of having ten days to deliver the paperwork,they must now do it in 48 hours. Failure to comply could draw felony charges and thousands of dollars in fines.

The nonpartisan League of Women Voters, promoters of civic responsibility since 1920, has now abandoned its Florida voter drives: LWV is suing the state, saying that Florida's clampdown on the franchise violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Florida's response? Governor Rick Scott, a Republican elected in 2010 and steeped in Koch-flavored Tea, wants to largely exempt Florida – a former slave state with as rich a racist history as Alabama or Mississippi – from the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Florida's not out front on this: many states, including those fat with electoral college votes such as Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee and Ohio, have passed harsh restrictions on who can vote and how. More than a dozen states demand that people show an approved photo ID card. Surely, the middle-class reasoning goes, every red-blooded American has a driving license? But hundreds of thousands – many elderly, disabled or just plain poor – do not. Representative Terri Sewell, a member of Congress from Alabama, told the New York Times that her wheelchair-bound father had used his United States social security card as proof of identity when voting. Now that's been outlawed.

In Texas, student ID cards are no longer be valid for voting; neither are ID cards issued by the federal Veterans Administration. All those students and war vets need to do is go buy a gun: concealed weapons permits are acceptable at the polls.

Republicans all sing from the same hymnal on this one: voting must be tightly controlled to prevent fraud. Never mind that there is no fraud. Indeed, the Brennan Center found that voter fraud is so "exceedingly rare" that "one is more likely to be struck by lightning than to commit voter fraud." Mickey Mouse was not allowed to register. Paul Newman did not vote from beyond the grave. Hordes of undocumented Mexicans have not stuffed ballot boxes (though a great many new, legal Latino voters have registered in Florida, Texas and other large states).

But why let the facts get in the way of rigging an election? Some conservative sages have let the veil slip long enough for us to see what's really going on. Former Arkansas governor-turned-paid-Murdoch-mediaite Mike Huckabee likes to say that if people have friends who don't plan to vote the rightwing line, "Let the air out of their tires on election day. Tell them the election has been moved to a different date."

Huckabee protests he's just joking. But Matthew Vadum, a Fox News favorite and part of the paranoid right's brain trust, isn't being remotely funny when he says "registering the poor to vote is un-American." Nor was American Legislative Exchange Council co-founder Paul Weyrich back in the 1980s, when he said, "I don't want everybody to vote. Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

Obviously, democracy is no fun if just anyone can play.

There are several links to sources in the original article.

And I'm posting this without further comment, because my sentiments on this would get me banned and reported to the FBI.

[Darth Fanboy]

Making voting more convenient means less productivity lost which is good for businesses!

Thus showing how the GOP legislatures are anti business and thus, socialists.

[Tasoth]

At the risk of sounding like an idiot and advocating getting people fired, if they clamp down on the days to vote and hours of operation to make it hard for those who can't wait in a line to vote, then they should simply skip out of work. A large enough movement of people doing that, could, in theory, grind a lot of businesses to a halt. But then again, this would most likely end up in a large volume of newly unemployed people.

[SpaceMarine93]

OMG, I KNEW IT! They are Fascists!

[Broomstick]

Florida's not out front on this: many states, including those fat with electoral college votes such as Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee and Ohio, have passed harsh restrictions on who can vote and how. More than a dozen states demand that people show an approved photo ID card. Surely, the middle-class reasoning goes, every red-blooded American has a driving license? But hundreds of thousands – many elderly, disabled or just plain poor – do not. Representative Terri Sewell, a member of Congress from Alabama, told the New York Times that her wheelchair-bound father had used his United States social security card as proof of identity when voting. Now that's been outlawed.

I would just like to point something out here - you do NOT need a driver's license to use as a photo ID. You can obtain a state-issued photo ID card, pretty much exactly the same as a driver's license except it doesn't grant the ability to drive, in every state of the union. Yes, you do have to go to the department of motor vehicles to request one, but if you can get said disabled person to the polling place you should be able to get to a DMV office, all of which are handicapped accessible by law.

Now, that still leaves the problem of obtaining proper proof of identity to obtain said card, and hours that the DMV office is open, and getting the person to the DMV as obstacles. But "government-issues photo ID" is obtainable by those unable to drive. That is, of course, part of the justification of such laws - that qualifying ID's are obtainable. They just ignore the problems of getting to the DMV, getting proof of identity, any fees tacked on to obtaining said ID...

[Edi]

Never mind the active efforts to shut down as many DMV offices in places that are easily reachable by those voters liable to lean Democrat. The GOP is actively trying to suppress as much of the vote as they can and they make no secret of it.

[Flagg]

When Texas disallows the use of photo ID issued by state universities and colleges but allows the use of concealed carry permits, you know it's for the sole purpose of suppressing Democratic voters.

[Sephirius]

When Texas disallows the use of photo ID issued by state universities and colleges but allows the use of concealed carry permits, you know it's for the sole purpose of suppressing Democratic voters.

The irony is it's probably easier (and less painful) to get a CCW anyway than any of the 'alternative' IDs. And it's more useful!

[Wing Commander MAD]

Florida's not out front on this: many states, including those fat with electoral college votes such as Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee and Ohio, have passed harsh restrictions on who can vote and how. More than a dozen states demand that people show an approved photo ID card. Surely, the middle-class reasoning goes, every red-blooded American has a driving license? But hundreds of thousands – many elderly, disabled or just plain poor – do not. Representative Terri Sewell, a member of Congress from Alabama, told the New York Times that her wheelchair-bound father had used his United States social security card as proof of identity when voting. Now that's been outlawed.

I would just like to point something out here - you do NOT need a driver's license to use as a photo ID. You can obtain a state-issued photo ID card, pretty much exactly the same as a driver's license except it doesn't grant the ability to drive, in every state of the union. Yes, you do have to go to the department of motor vehicles to request one, but if you can get said disabled person to the polling place you should be able to get to a DMV office, all of which are handicapped accessible by law.

Now, that still leaves the problem of obtaining proper proof of identity to obtain said card, and hours that the DMV office is open, and getting the person to the DMV as obstacles. But "government-issues photo ID" is obtainable by those unable to drive. That is, of course, part of the justification of such laws - that qualifying ID's are obtainable. They just ignore the problems of getting to the DMV, getting proof of identity, any fees tacked on to obtaining said ID...

The fee isn't great in PA for a photo I.D., I got one when I took my SATs for $10.00.

Honestly, I have mixed feelings on these proposed laws to require showing photo I.D.'s for voting. On the one hand, you have the afore mentioned difficulties of getting said I.D. card. On the other hand, the current system at least where I live is a little stupid. You basically walk in give your name to one of the poll workers and confirm your place of residence and DoB, then give your signiture. Mind you this is at the township level in a relatively small community, I haven't the slightest idea how larger places in PA, such as Philly or Pittsburgh with their higher population densities, handle it.

Personally, I like the idea of having to provide a state issued I.D. card for exercising a basic right like voting. If you have to have an I.D. to vote, then in my mind since poll taxes were deemed unconstitutional the I.D. card should be something that you recieve as a part of the voter registration process in the state at no charge. This in turn would guarantee a larger portion of the populace have a valid and easily acquired photo I.D. that they can then use for all the other various tasks that require an I.D. card. More people having access to a viable form of identification is I think a desirable goal in and of itself. Mind you a free photo I.D valid anywhere in the U.S. is something we should have on a national level, but I digress.

[Zaune]

OMG, I KNEW IT! They are Fascists!

you know, I was going to correct you on this point and mildly rebuke you for hyperbole, except I brought up Wikipedia's entry on fascism in order to have some facts on my side.

Yeah. Thinking we ought to give him a pass on this one.

[Broomstick]

When Texas disallows the use of photo ID issued by state universities and colleges but allows the use of concealed carry permits, you know it's for the sole purpose of suppressing Democratic voters.

I don't know about Texas, but I know in Indiana you'll pretty much have to get either a driver's license or a state ID in order to get a concealed carry permit, so in practice anyone with a CCP will already have ID deemed acceptable for voting.

And yes, I know there have been closures of DMV's and such - as stated that's still an obstacle. What I objected to in the article was the implication that if you couldn't get a driver's license in the US you couldn't vote. That is not true. However, you still have to get that alternative ID, which is just as much a pain in the ass.

[SirNitram]

This isn't new. This is just finally widespread enough and sadistic enough(Apparently, a little old lady couldn't get her voting ID for the logical reason she can't stand up for multiple hours.) that the news is taking notice.

It dovetails into the GOP 'government can't work' strategy. You suppress as much as possible of the opposition.. From disappointment, to ineffectiveness, to supression and caging tactic.. To turn off voters. Then whip their own base into a frenzy with some wedge issues. Viola. GOP victory.

[Mayabird]

Or instead of voting booths with their rigged machines and trickery and all that crap, just do what they do in Washington and Oregon and mail all the registered voters the damn ballots a couple weeks beforehand so they can mail it back (Oregon, has to be in by Election Day, and Washington has to be postmarked by Election Day). It's a system that works very well with neither inconvenience or bullshit involved and has high voter participation.

I miss Washington so much.

EDIT: before anyone starts getting on me for posting something irrelevant, my belief is that the 'normal' voting system outside the wonderful Pacific Northwest is inherently flawed. In much of the country, like the South, the system was rigged from the beginning to screw as many people out of a vote as possible and the same apparatus with some band aids slapped on to 'fix' it is still going, so of course it can be used for its real purpose again, and easily too. This kind of crap can't happen with a mail-in system. Hence why it should be adopted.

[Terralthra]

Mayabird - how are you planning on enfranchising the homeless?

[Sute]

Mayabird - how are you planning on enfranchising the homeless?

I'm not Mayabird, but the homeless can use homeless shelters for their physical addresses, and have their ballots sent there. Or they can use a P.O. Box, have it sent to a friend's home, etc... Voila, enfranchised homeless.

[Simon_Jester]

You could always have ordinary voting booths for them, too- you wouldn't need to colossally many.

And it's not as if the homeless wouldn't have problems registering to vote in an area anyway, or getting photo ID, with no fixed address.

[Lord Zentei]

Presidential candidate and angry white man Newt Gingrich seems nostalgic for the good old Jim Crow poll tax days: he has called for people to have to pass an American historical literacy test before they can vote. His colleagues on the anti-democratic right have not gone quite so far, but 38 states, most of them controlled by Republicans, are concocting all kinds of ingenious ways to suppress the vote. A new report from New York University's Brennan Center for Justice says that more than five million people – enough to swing the 2012 presidential election – could find themselves disenfranchised, especially if they're poor or old or students or black or Latino.

Perversely, I thought of the not-quite-recent Religious Knowledge quiz where atheists outperformed the evangelicals. I can't help but wonder how well the redneck crowd would do on a quiz on American history...

[Sute]

And it's not as if the homeless wouldn't have problems registering to vote in an area anyway, or getting photo ID, with no fixed address.

I don't know about Oregon, but in Washington voters don't have to have a traditional residence so long as they meet the other requirements. It's in our state constitution. They can use homeless shelters, parks, motor homes, or even intersections as the address that determines the precinct in which they vote.

[Lord Zentei]

OMG, I KNEW IT! They are Fascists!

you know, I was going to correct you on this point and mildly rebuke you for hyperbole, except I brought up Wikipedia's entry on fascism in order to have some facts on my side.

Yeah. Thinking we ought to give him a pass on this one.

Ahem. From Wikipedia:

Fascism opposes class-based identity and society, it is thus both anti-bourgeois and anti-proletarian; and individualist based identity and society.[12] It is opposed to many ideologies, including conservatism, liberalism, and two major forms of socialism: communism and social democracy.[13] It opposes a variety of economic, political and social systems, it is opposed to democracy, parliamentary systems, is anti-clerical, and holds a distinctive opposition to capitalism.[14]. It rejects egalitarianism, materialism, and rationalism in favour of action, discipline, hierarchy, spirit and will.[15]

In economics, fascists oppose economic liberalism (as a bourgeois movement) and Marxism (as a proletarian movement) for being class-based movements.[16] Fascists present their ideology as that of an economically trans-class movement that advocates resolving economic class conflict to secure national solidarity.[17] Fascists advocate: a state-directed, regulated economy that is dedicated to the nation; the use and primacy of regulated private property and private enterprise contingent upon service to the nation or state; the use of state enterprise where private enterprise is failing or is inefficient; and autarky.[3] They are hostile to finance capitalism, plutocracy, the "power of money", and internationalist economics.[3]

That doesn't sound like the Republicans at all.

[D.Turtle]

Mayabird - how are you planning on enfranchising the homeless?

The way its done here in Baden-Württemberg (Germany) is that you can also simply go to the city office and do your early voting there instead of mailing in the ballot early.

[Scottish Ninja]

Or instead of voting booths with their rigged machines and trickery and all that crap, just do what they do in Washington and Oregon and mail all the registered voters the damn ballots a couple weeks beforehand so they can mail it back (Oregon, has to be in by Election Day, and Washington has to be postmarked by Election Day). It's a system that works very well with neither inconvenience or bullshit involved and has high voter participation.

I miss Washington so much.

EDIT: before anyone starts getting on me for posting something irrelevant, my belief is that the 'normal' voting system outside the wonderful Pacific Northwest is inherently flawed. In much of the country, like the South, the system was rigged from the beginning to screw as many people out of a vote as possible and the same apparatus with some band aids slapped on to 'fix' it is still going, so of course it can be used for its real purpose again, and easily too. This kind of crap can't happen with a mail-in system. Hence why it should be adopted.

Ahahaha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

You’re a new voter in Idaho and mail in your absentee ballot. Save the stamp and throw it away—because elections officials will: you have to personally appear with your ID. Idaho isn’t alone with that new voter Block-the-Vote trick. Missouri—did you notarize your ballot? In Kentucky, did you sign it twice? In Colorado, did you use the official envelope? With partisan officials ready to rip up your ballot over signatures, postage sums, envelope sizes, challenging a circle versus ‘X’ and other pickypicky gotcha stuff, mailing in your ballot today is a kind of electoral Russian Roulette. About one in ten absentee ballots get chucked in the dumpster. You’re still mailing in your ballot??? Like, hello!
...
Millions of voters, not trusting elections officials to operate voting machines without tampering, mailed in their ballots to those same officials on the faith that they would be tallied. Who knew that their signature, envelope, address, or pencil lead thickness could be reason enough for their votes to be trashed?
...
Precinct-by-precinct arithmetic disclosed that absentee voters in strong Kerry precincts were 265% more likely to have their votes tossed than those in Bush precincts. Behind this statistic is (Surprise!) Jim Crow Racism. Black voters' absentee ballots were rejected at a rate 316% higher than whites'.
...
In the US in 2004, from official reports, half a million (526,426) absentee ballots were received but not counted--and those are just the ones they acknowledge receiving!

From Steal Back Your Vote.

The most important bit there is this: if you don't trust elections officials to run the machines honestly, why would you trust them to count mail-in ballots accurately - especially if you never see or hear from that ballot ever again after you drop it in the mailbox? How do you know what happened to it?

There's no reason why mail-in ballots can't work as well as anything else, but they are most definitely not a cure-all for electoral woes in America.

[Phantasee]

Wait, I thought it was supposed to be a secret ballot. They expect you to sign it?

And how do they know the rate of rejection for black and white voters if it's a secret ballot?

[Scottish Ninja]

Wait, I thought it was supposed to be a secret ballot. They expect you to sign it?

And how do they know the rate of rejection for black and white voters if it's a secret ballot?

The mailing envelope itself has to be signed; the actual ballot is usually inside an unsigned secrecy envelope in the mailing envelope, though I'm not really familiar with the intricacies of absentee balloting in some of the states that are mentioned (or any for that matter).

[Civil War Man]

The mailing envelope itself has to be signed; the actual ballot is usually inside an unsigned secrecy envelope in the mailing envelope, though I'm not really familiar with the intricacies of absentee balloting in some of the states that are mentioned (or any for that matter).

I can confirm something like this where I live. Rhode Island uses paper ballots both at the polls and for absentee votes. The ballots themselves are unsigned, but there are several envelopes for absentee ballots, which include an official envelope that must be signed by both the voter and a witness (the witness pretty much being someone to take the fall if, for example, someone is caught filling out absentee ballots for vegetables in a nursing home and forging the signatures).

At the polls themselves, you're just given some poster paper to cover your ballot so no one can see how you voted when it comes time to carry it from the booth to the scanner that counts them.

[Silver Jedi]

Relevant anecdote: I recently had to get a new State ID in Texas. I knew the line was going to be long, since I live in San Antonio, and our humble little village of 2 million has a whopping 4 dps locations to choose from. I found the closest location to me, showed up when they opened at 8am, and there was a line out the door and around the building. The line had wrapped around the building almost twice before they opened the doors and let people crowd into the vestibule. According to the people in line (as well as everyone else I know) a line that size was in no way out of the ordinary.

I waited in line as long as I could, but I had to leave to get to work at 9. The next day, I tried again, this time at a different dps location. I only arrived 45 min early, but I was able to get a "good" spot in the line. After about 2 hours of waiting in line I was able to get a number and was given the forms to fill out. Another hour after that my number was called, and I finally got to give them my $16. If you include lost wages from the time I had to take off work, it cost me about $50 to get my state issued ID.

While this process is by no means impossible, it is certainly a non-trivial issue for a lot of voters.