Voter fraud: a rarity only in the fantasies of the far left

[kentonio]

You're right. You know, murder's pretty rare, robbery's rare, all these crimes are rare. So there's no point in enforcing the law, right? Because it's broken so rarely? We all know it's just a waste of money, because nothing will happen if the law isn't enforced. Like Tammany Hall, which never happened. Or Jim Crow, which never happened.

Let's imagine a little town in Iowa called Bumfck, population 400. In Bumfcks long and glorious history it has never experienced a murder, a rape, a robbery or a violent crime of any description. One day the mayor of Bumfck announces that despite the town already being in financial peril, they have decided to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an assault vehicle, body armour and machine guns for ol' Sheriff Buttkiss because there's always a chance that in the future the town could be invaded by Mexican drug cartels.

Does that seem like a sensible use of taxpayer money to you?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

So we can assume that theres no fraud, no voter suppression, no lowering of turnout and in fact no effects full stop? So the GOP want to spend millions of dollars of taxpayer money to achieve... nothing?

Au Contraire, the effects were not nothing... to the contrary voter turnout and in particular for minorities was in fact higher than previous elections pre voter registration verification. Thus the action had a positive effect on the democratic process both from a reliability and representational perspective.

As for this issue being a GOP issue not really. The issue is a matter of states having the ability to police their own elections as is duly authorized them.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Let's imagine a little town in Iowa called Bumfck, population 400. In Bumfcks long and glorious history it has never experienced a murder, a rape, a robbery or a violent crime of any description. One day the duly elected reresentatives of Bumfck announces that despite the towns long standing history of being capable of making financial decisions with respect to the towns safety (not to mention loegal authority to do so), a federal governmental body decided to intrude into the towns most recent decision to purchase assault vehicles machine guns etc. by stating that many people would be offended and feel threatened by the presence of an assualt vehicle and thus their ability to freely associate would be infringed. The federal government continued making these claims despite the fact that all pilot programs showed that all objective means of showing freedom of association were increased after similar pilot programs at other small towns.


The town proceeded to go with their legally approved actions only to find that tourism trade jumped substantially as more people flocked to the area. Rather than being frightened away, it created a windfall of revenue for the citizenry.

I love these little exercises.

[The Mad Monk]

Romney camp asks Va. to probe voter forms



Mitt Romney's campaign is asking Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to investigate mailings from the Voter Participation Center.

By: Wesley P. Hester | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: July 25, 2012 Updated: July 25, 2012 - 12:00 AM


Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign is asking Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to launch an investigation into voter-registration forms that are being sent to Virginia residents and addressed to deceased relatives, children, family pets and others ineligible to vote.

The errant mailings from the Washington-based nonprofit group Voter Participation Center have befuddled many Virginia residents, leading to hundreds of complaints.

The organization has been mass-mailing the forms — pre-populated with key information such as names and addresses — to primarily Democratic-leaning voting blocs such as young adults, unmarried women, African-Americans and Latinos.

In a letter to Cuccinelli's office and the State Board of Elections, Kathryn Bieber, an attorney for the Romney campaign, calls for an investigation into the matter by law-enforcement officials, claiming that the mailings appear to violate "at least one and maybe several Virginia laws aimed at ensuring a fair election."

Bieber refers to the mailings as "tactics that amount to, or at the very least induce, voter registration fraud," and says the issue "presents a very significant risk to the proper administration of the upcoming general election."

Citing a Sunday Richmond Times-Dispatch story that brought the mailings to light, the letter also asks the State Board of Elections to require registrars to reject all pre-populated voter registration applications from the group and review the eligibility of all Virginians who have registered in the past two months.

"This is the only way for voters and other interested parties to regain confidence in the voter registration and electoral process that has been abused by the Voter Participation Center," the letter says.

Page Gardner, president and CEO of the Voter Participation Center, said the organization mailed nearly 200,000 third-party registration forms to Virginia addresses in June, which resulted in 15,026 new voters being registered as of July 18.

On Monday, the Voter Participation Center responded to the Sunday Times-Dispatch story, stating in a letter on its website that "imperfections in the VPC vendors' lists — while regrettable and unfortunate — should not be the reason or the excuse to call an entire process that is working into question."

Justin Riemer, the State Board of Elections' deputy secretary, said forms have been sent by the group to deceased infants, out-of-state family members, and non-U.S. citizens, among others.

In a letter this month, the State Board of Elections asked the group to cease pre-populating their forms and raised questions about how the group was obtaining lists of registered voters, citing the errant forms.

Riemer noted that pre-populating the forms violates rules set forth in the state code and the Virginia Constitution requiring that voters fill out their own forms.

The State Board of Elections had not received the letter from the Romney campaign Tuesday afternoon and declined to comment on the specifics.

No comment was immediately available from Cuccinelli's office.

Asked for comment on the Romney campaign's letter, the Voter Participation Center issued a statement noting that their forms are official applications, not registration cards.

"Furthermore, they were approved before we sent them out by the State Board of Elections and are the same applications that anyone can access at a local government office or on the internet," the statement read. "Our process is legal and working."

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2012/jul/25/tdmain01-romney-camp-asks-va-to-probe-voter-forms-ar-2081517/

[kentonio]

Au Contraire, the effects were not nothing... to the contrary voter turnout and in particular for minorities was in fact higher than previous elections pre voter registration verification. Thus the action had a positive effect on the democratic process both from a reliability and representational perspective.

So you're saying that the GOP is deeply invested in trying to raise the number of blacks and latinos who vote?

As for this issue being a GOP issue not really. The issue is a matter of states having the ability to police their own elections as is duly authorized them.

..and completely coincidentally the states who wish to do this all happen to be under GOP control?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

So you're saying that the GOP is deeply invested in trying to raise the number of blacks and latinos who vote?

NO an ancillary benfit to be sure.

..and completely coincidentally the states who wish to do this all happen to be under GOP control?

No completly conincidental with the elected representatives platforms and campaigns. Why do you wish to defeat the will of the people via the voice of their elected representatives, particularly when this is not a tyranny of the majority issue considering the minority are benefitting?

[DinoDoc]

..and completely coincidentally the states who wish to do this all happen to be under GOP control?

Rhode Island must cause consternation among people suffering under this delusion.

Incidentally, here's another example to go along with the Georgia one Ogie provided.

[MrFun]

Oh my god we covered this but the liberals closed their eyes, put their fingers in their ears, and said LALALALALA!

Voter fraud? Philadelphia. Nuff said.

I hope you get your right to vote taken away so that you will wake up and realize all this voter ID bull**** is not really about fighting voter fraud. It's about taking away the rights of those who are legal voters.

Critical thinking skills - get some.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Its Philly he has a better chance of being beaten down at the polling place then being disenfranchised.

[kentonio]

No completly conincidental with the elected representatives platforms and campaigns. Why do you wish to defeat the will of the people via the voice of their elected representatives, particularly when this is not a tyranny of the majority issue considering the minority are benefitting?

So your honestly held belief is that the Democrats are so strongly against this because they hate your freedom?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Are you a Democrat? I was addressing you, not Democrats.

[kentonio]

So the fact that the Democrats oppose this tooth and nail pretty much across the entire party is something we should just ignore, because obviously the party in power don't represent any proportion of the will of the American people?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I routinely ignore Democrats. Why on the other hand do you hate the democratic process?

[Al B. Sure!]

I hope you get your right to vote taken away so that you will wake up and realize all this voter ID bull**** is not really about fighting voter fraud. It's about taking away the rights of those who are legal voters.

Critical thinking skills - get some.

I have a photo ID. If mine expired or I didn't have one, I'd get a new one. It's free so that won't be a problem, plus it's useful for a boatload of stuff unrelated to voting.

Not seeing how my rights would be abridged ever.

[Al B. Sure!]

Now, on the other hand, having rampant voting fraud (which happens in Philly; that's a FACT), does abridge my rights by limiting the power of my vote. Though to be honest, my vote doesn't carry any weight anyway on local, house of representatives, and presidential elections. I think only on gubernatorial and senate elections does it count, right?