Voter Fraud Not the Problem. Opponents of Low-Income Voters Are [View All]

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/08/09/voter-fraud-not-the-problem-opponents-of-low-income-voters-are/

Voter Fraud Not the Problem. Opponents of Low-Income Voters Are

Legislation & Politics

Aug 9

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Voter Fraud Not the Problem. Opponents of Low-Income Voters Are

The speed with which Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country are rushing to pass voter ID laws makes it appear as though voter fraud is rampant. But that’s not the case, according to election experts.

Take a look at what Richard Hasen, a distinguished professor at Loyola Marymount University’s law school, writes on Slate:

Beyond a few isolated instances and anecdotes, there is precious little evidence of the kind of voter fraud a state voter ID card requirement would deter. I am aware of no studies finding evidence of any kind of systematic or serious problems with voters casting ballots in someone else’s name, or with voters registering and actually voting using fictitious names.

So what’s up? Democrats say people living in poverty will have a more difficult time securing voter identification. Low-income people tend to drive less (and so won’t have a driver’s license, which is the most common form of ID), and they may not have the money to secure certified copies of documents, such as birth certificates, necessary to obtain a state-issued voter identification. Low-income people also happen to be more likely to vote Democratic.

Wendy Weiser, a law professor at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law and a lawyer in several suits opposing new registration regulations, told The New York Times:

I do believe there is a national trend of using the straw man of voter fraud as a way to impose restrictive regulations on voting and voter registration.

In Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia and Washington State, election activists are going to court to stop voter ID laws. Here’s a rundown.

Ohio: The Republican-led state Legislature in January passed a bill requiring paid voter registration workers to individually submit registration cards to the state, rather than allowing the organizations overseeing the drives to submit them in bulk. Religious, community and other activists have gone to court to have the law struck down. The law is doubly offensive to activists because of an apparent conflict of interest. The official who enforces this law, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, also is the Republican candidate for governor, a race that will be affected by the law.

A nonpartisan study last year by the League of Women Voters found the Ohio law is not even needed. Of more than 9 million votes cast in Ohio in 2002 and 2004, only four ballots were fraudulent, according to statistics provided by officials from the state’s 88 county boards of elections.