Drake, 50 Cent, other Recording Artists are Registered to Vote with Same Houston-Area Address

Here's a story that shows a political prank can turn into a good case for the need for voter identification when registering to vote. It involves five recording artists and a house in Katy, Texas.

Katy is a city west of Houston, in the Houston metro area. Katy's population at the time of the 2020 census was 21,894. The point is that it is a small city, most often thought of as a suburb of Houston. There is a story out today that recording artists Drake, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, and The Game are all registered to vote with the same address in Katy.

The house is described as "a beige, $300,000 house in a modest new development in Katy." The homeowner had no idea why the men were registered to vote at that address. Neighbors said they had not seen the performers.

None of the five men voted in the last election so there is no need to be concerned about voter fraud. They wouldn't be able to cast a vote without an approved ID in Texas.

Randall Erben, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a former assistant secretary of state in Texas, explained that this case is gaining publicity because of the famous names involved.

State law is serious, though, and there are penalties for submitting false or fraudulent registration forms. The crime, then, is high risk and low reward, says Erben.

“These people are either committing high misdemeanors or felonies,” Erben said of whoever registered the celebrities to vote. “This is not fooling around.”
“You have a lot of protections against sending in a forged or false voter registration application,” he said.

In other words, whoever thought this was a good idea wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. It looks like the same person filled out all five voter registration forms.

Following a records request, the Chronicle obtained the musicians’ voter registration applications, which showed identical dates of registration and common handwriting. Mark Songer, a former FBI agent and forensic document examiner for Robson Forensic, confirmed the similarities in penmanship.
“I would certainly say that all five of the voter registration application forms more than likely share a common author,” said Songer, who was trained to examine documents while at the bureau.

A person submitting a false or forged voter application commits a third-degree felony. Acting as someone's agent unlawfully is a Class B misdemeanor.

Whoever signed the registrations had to acknowledge the legal risks of doing so fraudulently.

What is this federal loophole that allows people to register to vote without an ID? It is the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Eligible voters without a driver's license or a Social Security number are able to take advantage of it. There are some people who are eligible to vote but don't have either. It might be someone born outside the United States who never applied for a Social Security number.

When they go to vote, they have to show some other form of identity, like a utility bill. For example, Drake wouldn't be able to do that.

Don't worry. This doesn't pose a threat to the singers' actual voter registrations if they are registered in Texas.

This story, odd as it is, is a good example of the need to close the federal loophole that allows voter registration applications to be presented without identification. It invites shenanigans and creates extra work for election officials.

Several years ago, before Wisconsin had a voter ID law, I removed my son from the list of registered voters (he had moved out of state) with no questions asked or ID required. Back then it was just about as easy to register to vote.

Voter ID started with the 2016 elections in Wisconsin. If you look up the total Wisconsin votes for president in 2012 and 2016 you will find that there were about 90,000 fewer votes in 2016.

Here’s my post just prior to the 2020 election

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3891662/posts#13

To continue with the numbers, there were 450,000 more votes for president in 2020 than there were in 2016. So, it looks like, as I posted prior to the 2020 election, the Democrats were up to the task.

By the way mail in votes in Wisconsin are NOT secret votes. All that gets mailed in is a single envelope with your full name and address on the outside with your ballot enclosed. Whoever opens the envelope sees your name and how you voted. and then they can act accordingly: Toss it in the burn bag and replace it with the ready made phony.

Every election cycle my daughter, husband, and 2 small kids get 5 VOTER REGISTRATION cards at their apartment near Dallas. Obviously only 2 adults live at the apartment. From the names and other mail they get, the other 3 appear to be from people who had lived there earlier.

The article is correct, it would be very difficult to vote for the other 3, but then this is Texas.

But how about other states with universal mail-in voting. In those states it would be 5 VOTER BALLOTS also. Then one simply fills them out and sends it in.

Oh yeah, one could require signature checks, but that simply is NOT DONE, based on articles that I read.

So we’re back to the honor system. We are supposed to ‘trust’ people to vote legally in a country where they can walk out of stores without paying for merchandise.

Go figure.

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