Friday, September 28, 2012

Election Expert Richard Hasen on Voter Fraud and Disenfranchisement

Bill Moyers: Election Expert Richard Hasen on Voter Fraud and Disenfranchisement

voter fraud

Feeney: What is the most common type of election-related fraud? 
Hasen: We see many more cases of fraud related to election officials or absentee balloting than impersonation fraud. For my book The Voting Wars, I could not find a single case in the last generation where it's even remotely possible that impersonation fraud without the collusion of election officials was responsible for changing an election. [Emphasis mine.]
We see many more cases of fraud related to election officials or absentee balloting than impersonation fraud. Election officials are often political appointments, or they're elected on partisan grounds. We are alone among mature democracies in having such a partisan, hyper-localized system for running our elections, as opposed to a non-partisan national agency in which the people who run elections have their allegiance to the integrity of the process and not to a particular political party.
This is why I get so pissed off when hand-wringing conservatives bleat so plaintively, "Why, oh why, is it controversial to impose draconian ID laws on registered voters?" Because, Mr. "I-Have-A-Driver's-License-Why-Doesn't-Everyone-Else?", the real problem is election fraud, not in-person voter fraud. WE SHOULD SOLVE REAL PROBLEMS FIRST. Any effort to have time and resources wasted on a fake problem, when there is rampant abuse by the partisan officials running the elections that needs to be addressed immediately, is tantamount to criminal.

Don't pretend like you mean well. You don't, and it's transparent you don't. Voter ID laws sound reasonable, absent of context, but are not. When you ignore the real problem to take on a fake problem, all you're doing is proving you're part of the problem. Stop it.


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