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Are You Sure There’s No Voter Fraud?
Commentary Magazine ^ | 8-27-13 | Jonathon Tobin

Posted on 08/28/2013 3:58:52 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

As I wrote earlier this month, the decision of Attorney General Eric Holder to sue to stop Texas’s voter ID law has little to do with an attempt to prevent actual discrimination. The outcry from the administration on the voter ID issue as well as the manufactured outrage about the Supreme Court’s decision upholding but modifying the Voting Rights Act is predicated on the false idea that these measures are a new version of discriminatory Jim Crow laws. Given the night-and-day difference between the world of Jim Crow that drew Americans to the 1963 March on Washington and the America of 2013, this is an obvious effort to both revive flagging interest in civil-rights organizations and to brand President Obama’s critics as racists. But opponents of voter ID do have one seemingly rational argument: the problem that voter ID laws seek to solve—preserving the integrity of the vote—is imaginary. To that end, they have told us ad nauseum that voter fraud does not exist in the United States.

The assumption that voter fraud is nonexistent requires us to not only ignore most of American political history; it also obligates us to forget everything we know about human nature. Given that photo ID is now required for virtually every sort of transaction or service, most Americans rightly see it as a commonsense measure. But discussions about shady elections don’t require us to explore the distant past. Examples abound in our own day that place the desire to tighten up new rules that more or less allow anyone to show up on Election Day without proof of their identity or having previously registered, or to vote early or get an absentee ballot in a different context than Holder’s specious arguments about Jim Crow. One such comes from the bankrupt city of Detroit, where the August 6 primary is still unresolved due to the fact that more than 20,000 write-in votes are currently in dispute and may or may not be counted depending on the decisions of the courts. Fraud has not yet been proved and may not be directly related to false identity, but this latest instance of electoral hijinks illustrates what happens when results are called into question by shady practices.

The struggle to be the top official in an insolvent city whose government has been taken over the state is not the most compelling political fight of the year. But regardless of the office’s value, those who voted deserve to have their ballots counted. Indeed, though few if any Americans are denied the right to vote today the way many were prevented from going to the polls under Jim Crow, a crooked election is, in effect, one that denies the franchise to everyone.

Regardless of whether those who showed up to cast write-ins did so legally or of the political motivations of those who threw those ballots out due to technicalities, the nationwide drive to police elections is based in fact, not prejudice. In an era when safeguards against fraud have been thrown out willy-nilly in order to make it easier to vote via early voting, liberal granting of absentee ballots, and same-day registration, it has become almost impossible to guarantee the integrity of the results. To think that politicians and parties do not try to take advantage of this situation is hopelessly naïve. Reforming this situation requires states to make sure that those who vote are who they say they are and that regulations that prevent safeguards from being put in place are re-written to ensure the integrity of the process.

No matter who gets the dubious honor of running Detroit, voters there have a right to know their votes are counted and not being cancelled out by fraud of any kind. The same is true in Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and every other state that has attempted to deal with this mess. Instead of crying racism, those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that voting rights are protected should be seeking to uphold the obligation of the state to stop cheating.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: civilrights; detroit; electionfraud; elections; holder; votefraud; voterfraud; voterid
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To: Biggirl

Has your home or Did the police catch the perp? A crime was obviously committed and yet even though there is no doubt it happened, in most cases the police are powerless to catch anyone. So, how in hell can anyone expect a secretive crime like illegal voting to be caught? Bevcause it is almost impossible to know it happened, does that mean it doesnt?


41 posted on 08/28/2013 5:57:53 AM PDT by weezel
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To: cripplecreek

Had Romney won, the economy would be turned around by NOW.


42 posted on 08/28/2013 6:02:17 AM PDT by weezel
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To: weezel

Should have read, has your home or car even been broken into.


43 posted on 08/28/2013 6:04:10 AM PDT by weezel
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To: weezel
Had Romney won, the economy would be turned around by NOW.

And they say useful idiots only exist on the left.
44 posted on 08/28/2013 6:05:10 AM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: IrishBrigade
"...please provide proof of that...it does little good to toss about unsubstantiated claims, regardless of political persuasion..."

Apply common sense:
1. Voter Fraud is easy to do.
2. There is a strong motive to do it.
3. If you do it, you do not leave an evidence trail, and there is virtually no chance of getting caught.
4. If you are caught, there is virtually no chance of accountability.
5. Community Organizer groups like ACORN exist for this kind of fraud.

45 posted on 08/28/2013 6:35:11 AM PDT by UnwashedPeasant
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To: firebrand

“There is no voter fraud” has become a ubiquitous Dem talking point. There is, and it has been documented, and people have been convicted. You have to carry this proof around with you to fend off the liars and the deceived.


To twist an old saying: All leftists lie some of the time, but some leftists lie ALL of the time.

And I agree — I’m seeing the “There is no voter fraud” lie repeated every time the ongoing fraud is brought up in discourse...


46 posted on 08/28/2013 6:35:28 AM PDT by Peet (Come back with a warrant.)
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To: econjack
This is not an issue of “the distant past”. It is an issue of today. A poll worker here in Cincinnati made no effort to hide the fact that she voted six times in the last Presidential election, voting for Obama. To this city’s credit, she is now serving a jail term. Such is not the case in Lake Country, Indiana where not only do people vote multiple times, some of them are actually dead. If the DOJ fails to enforce voting ID and other safeguards, this Republic is finished.

There, fixed it.

47 posted on 08/28/2013 6:46:28 AM PDT by 3boysdad (The very elect.)
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To: 3boysdad

I don’t see how, but I hope you’re wrong...


48 posted on 08/28/2013 7:09:41 AM PDT by econjack (I'm not bossy...I just know what you should be doing.)
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To: subterfuge; Orangedog; IrishBrigade

This is the type of action that encouraged Indiana to pass voter ID

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1735385/posts

One election cycle over 100% voter turn out in the same district.
State police followed the buses coming in from Gary to visit various polling station. Finally our state government said no more.
Two opposing D in Gary in primary ratted on each other. Both were convicted. And then 0 pulled the petition fraud in St Joseph county. (Notre Dame). Compare their not being able to get enough signature on the ballot to how the county voted in the fall. Unfreaking-believable!


49 posted on 08/28/2013 9:29:21 AM PDT by hoosiermama (Obama: "Born in Kenya" Lying now or then)
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To: Orangedog

I never said Romney or McCain were decent candidates. The fact is that there is vote fraud. A lot of it. All you are saying is that republicans have to put up a real conservative to overcome the fraud.

Please. No lectures about Gore from 2004.


50 posted on 08/28/2013 10:32:38 AM PDT by subterfuge (CBS NBC ABC FOX AP-- all no different than Pravda.)
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To: subterfuge

Oh please. Election fraud is a competitive sport in both wings of the big government party. Trying to pretend one is better than the other is like looking for the hooker with the fewest herpes sores.


51 posted on 08/28/2013 10:59:11 AM PDT by Orangedog (An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
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To: cripplecreek
It was a combination of both. Romney sucked and there was major fraud.

Primary raiding is a big factor in sticking us with a sucky candidate, voter fraud in the general election is the coup de grace.

52 posted on 08/28/2013 2:49:33 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: Charles Martel

In Michigan you can only vote for 1 party in the primary. That’s fine if the democrats also have primary races with more than one candidate but last year the two big democrat races (Obama and Stabenow) were uncontested by democrats leaving their voters free to play.


53 posted on 08/28/2013 2:56:07 PM PDT by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: ArtDodger

The pubs couldn’t even bother to find ONE non-obama person in the whole area to say that voting rights were violated... We have a bigger problem that just the guy in office...


Anyone still interested in rescuing the GOP? Screw em! We need a Conservative Party!


54 posted on 08/28/2013 3:01:36 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Biggirl; Impy; InterceptPoint; Just A Nobody; theothercheek; AJFavish; David; Red Steel; ...
Voter fraud is why Obama got back in 2012.

There's a pretty good chance that your conclusion is correct. Fraud and cheating is about the only way you can explain the significant discrepancies (all in Obama's favor) between the immediate pre-election polling results and predictions, on the one hand, and the reported vote totals on the other - in just about every swing state!

Voter ID, though a good step, is not a panacea for all election fraud and cheating. The most pernicious method of cheating, which voter ID laws do not address, is hacking into computerized voting devices - such as optical scanners and touch screen systems - to alter vote totals. It would be more honest to go to back to paper ballots, provided they are handled in a secure manner; better to put an emphasis on integrity in the vote count rather than speed.

Any candidate or party running against the left in a jurisdiction using computer-based voting equipment had better take notice of this high tech cheating and organize a "geek squad" to advise on an agenda to clamp down on the (usually Democrat) sleazebags who perpetrate this kind of crime.

55 posted on 08/28/2013 8:14:28 PM PDT by justiceseeker93
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To: justiceseeker93

Not voting in advance would be the best weapon conservatives could have. Not knowing how much to fudge far in advance makes fudging harder, even if the fudging only consists of busing in ne’er-do-wells.


56 posted on 08/28/2013 8:35:20 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
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To: justiceseeker93

We need Voter ID AND a paper trail.
Of course, if the people counting the votes are corrupt, nothing will be enough. We can just make the fence as high as possible.


57 posted on 08/29/2013 5:47:52 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: justiceseeker93
I still don't buy this. In OH,for example, we were very encouraged by the absentee/early vote numbers, which showed Republicans mostly up over 08 and Dems way down. But the vast majority were "independents" who were not independents at all but who were declassified Dems because they didn't vote in the 2010 election. I refused to accept this, even though a long-time GOP operative who knows OH insisted that the early/absentee votes weren't telling the whole story.

Those numbers pretty well worked out. They were pretty accurate. There was some fraud, but nowhere close to enough to swing OH. Rather, GOP regulars stayed home at too high of a rate. I have no idea why, but they doomed us to more Obama.

58 posted on 08/29/2013 6:37:18 AM PDT by LS ('Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually.' Hendrix)
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To: Orangedog

Stop. You’re embarrassing yourself.


59 posted on 08/29/2013 6:42:51 PM PDT by subterfuge (CBS NBC ABC FOX AP-- all no different than Pravda.)
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To: subterfuge

Get a grip. We’re talking about a class of humans who are proven compulsive liars where a pat on the back usually involves a knife. Your particular team is no better or worse than the other when it comes to playing dirty.


60 posted on 08/30/2013 3:56:42 AM PDT by Orangedog (An optimist is someone who tells you to 'cheer up' when things are going his way)
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