Comments on: WHAT’S A LITTLE VOTER FRAUD AMONG FRIENDS?

By: Henry Bemis

Henry Bemis — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:30:59 +0000

Why not make it simple? anyone can vote anywhere,after you cast your vote dip your finger in unremoveable ink,problem solved, purple finger? you allready voted,go home

By: The Perils of Voter ID « THE CONSERVATIVE ALTERNATIVE

The Perils of Voter ID « THE CONSERVATIVE ALTERNATIVE — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:24:03 +0000

[...] The Perils of Voter ID November 15, 2007 — Spag/The CA Right Wing Nuthouse ponders the necessity of requiring proof of identity before voting and the arguments against it: [...]

By: Bill Arnold

Bill Arnold — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 18:11:54 +0000

The difference to my mind is that fraud consisting of people voting more times that they are supposed to (once if citizen, and generally zero if non-citizen) is hard to achieve in a significant way - voters must be moved from polling place to polling place, and the fraud can leak since so many people are involved.

Voter suppression, on the other hand, is very easy to achieve in a significant way, easily amounting to single-digit percentages, and there is usually no downside since it can be hard to prove and/or have the appearance of legality. Variations in turnout from election to election can be a large number of votes, and substantial suppression can be hidden in these variations.
Post-voting vote fraud by election officials is also supposedly easy to achieve.

As it happens, my only experience with the first sort of election fraud was Republican. As related by my mom, who was working a polling station, as a registered Democrat sitting next to a registered Republican: A small group of Satmar Hasids

The leader told them all to vote row A (Republican in the voting machines used). A young man mentioned that they had been in Brooklyn in the morning and were headed to a town upstate. The two poll workers rolled their eyes. They could do nothing - there was no admission of multiple voting.

I don’t know if this sort of fraud was significant in this particular election. (Probably not.)

By: Gary P.

Gary P. — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:40:15 +0000

Gary D., if you’re going to be taken seriously, you’re going to need to account for both sides of the coin! The minions are going to remember how we complained about the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004! Pretty soon, people will start to realize that when we say “vote fraud”, we mean anyone voting an anti-progressive agenda, and that “hate speech” is saying anything progressives don’t agree with!

Help me help you bro!

By: Michael D. Giles

Michael D. Giles — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:27:43 +0000

What is the basis of the assumption on R.F. Kenedy’s part that the minority voters are “intimidated” or otherwise “prevented” from voting? It is forty plus years after the Civil Rights Era; why should the sight of a poll watcher bring back any sort of “memories” to anyone under retirement age? Or the sight of a policeman worry anyone who doesn’t have outstanding warrants? The idea that (at least) blacks don’t vote because of a nameless dread of the “bad old days” is assinine - and insulting.

By: SlimGuy

SlimGuy — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:46:17 +0000

Every study of numerous ones made show voter fraud seems to occur at a rate of a dozen people per million or less.

If that figure were true, just based on the early 90’s fraud mentioned upthread above you from the number of proven fraudulent voters in Miami that year our population would have to be 3 or 4 times the population of China.

And that is even if you take the incredulous stance that voter fraud across the entire US was contained to Miami.

In short no sale fool.

By: longwalker

longwalker — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:34:02 +0000

When I was a kid, I was a runner on Election Day for the Democratic Party. This was the Bronx Democratic Party, proud to be known as a “political machine.” I learned all about the ways to commit voter fraud and how to spot possible fraudulent voters.

Voter fraud was so common that it was routinely shown in movies.

If you can get it, see “the Great McGinty” with Brian Donleavy. The opening shows McGinty, a “homeless person,” voting under many different names for the orgnization. He votes so many times that the organization offers him a permanent position and he finally becomes governor.

One of the early Technicolor musicals had a scene in New York City where the Democrats were voting Irish immigrants right off the boat.

It was a common practice for the Democrats to put twenty or thirty “shoulderstrikers” on a horse drawn wagon and go from polling place to polling place, voting as they went.

By: mikeca

mikeca — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:53:57 +0000

The simplest way to commit voter fraud is with absentee ballots. Do any of these voter ID laws require that the people requesting absentee ballots present valid ID? Do these voter ID laws ensure that the people who filled out the absentee ballots are really the registered voter? Do any of these voter ID laws ensure that people voting by absentee ballot actually are real people?

By: teqjack

teqjack — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:03:39 +0000

It is also noted that the State will provide a photo ID “free.” Sorta. Need a birth certificate or naturalization papers… Where I live, a copy of your birth certificate costs at least $10, while a state-issued photo ID (oddly, issued by the Department of Elderly Affairs, not the DMV or DOT) is $2.

By: busboy33

busboy33 — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:46:45 +0000

“In truth, voter ID laws are highly discriminatory. The problem for Drum and other Democrats is that they discriminate against people who want to cheat the system and commit voter fraud.”

No . . . they discriminate against people that don’t have photo ID. Voter fraud is a crime. Crimes don’t “discriminate”. If the Voter ID laws stop lawful, honest citizens from voting, then they “discriminate” against those people.