What’s Behind the GOP Witch Hunt for Voter Fraud

[Jefferson23]

At some point during the Florida 2000 recount debacle partisans realized anew that razor-thin margins can be turned by manipulation of voting rules.

By Michael Waldman | March 30, 2016


After John Ashcroft became US Attorney General in 2001, he set his sights on combating voter fraud for the Justice Department, making it a “high priority.” But dozens of probes produced little evidence of fraud. (MARCEL ANTONISSE/AFP/Getty Images)

The following is adapted from Michael Waldman’s new book, The Fight to Vote.

In 2016 American democracy is under significant pressure, facing trends it has not seen in decades. The cracks first began to show in the antic days of the Florida recount in Bush v. Gore. The recount fiasco surely was an extraordinary occurrence, the only time since 1876 that a presidential election had drawn so close (and the only time since 1888 that the winner of the popular vote would lose the Electoral College). But it also revealed something much more mundane. Florida’s election system had rotted as if touched by the state’s humidity: at every level it was rife with error and prone to abuse. There was much work to be done in the decade after Florida. But that’s not what happened.

Instead conservative activists focused on one thing that hadn’t occurred: voter fraud, specifically voter impersonation at the polls. The remedies sought for this phantom threat have a very tangible consequence: they make it harder to vote, in ways that especially affect Democrats.

Of course American history offers ample evidence of election fraud — that is, misconduct organized by party officials or other political operatives designed to sway results. In the 19th Century they might have stuffed a ballot box; in the 20th Century there might have been an attempt to manipulate absentee ballots (for example, by filling them out for patients at a nursing home). Purportedly independent political committees with names that obscure funding sources also pose the risk of illegality. But voter fraud — especially impersonation at the polling place — remains exceedingly rare. After all, the candidate who benefits gains little from one more vote, but the costs to the voter, if caught, are high.

In Wisconsin, where a single improper vote can bring a $10,000 fine and three years in prison, a federal judge tartly noted that “a person would have to be insane to commit voter impersonation fraud.” As for the fear that noncitizens and undocumented immigrants are voting in droves, that too poses a logical problem; few individuals would trek from home, find their way across the border, evade capture, then march into a government office and declare their name and address.

in full: http://billmoyers.com/story/whats-behind-the-gop-witch-hunt-for-voter-fraud/

[Trust Buster]

1. The demographics are skewing away from the Republicans so they choose disqualification.

[Jefferson23]

2. Yes, and deeply so. n/t

[Wilms]

3. The Voter-Fraud Myth: The man who has stoked fear about impostors at the polls.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/29/the-voter-fraud-myth

[Jefferson23]

4. Thanks, Wilms..I appreciate links that remind us who is responsible.

[Wilms]

5. Heh. I was thanking you for reminding ME!

[Jefferson23]

8. Then that's a win win.

[Gothmog]

6. The GOP is trying to steal future elections

[Jefferson23]

7. They're so calculating. n/t

[yurbud]

9. Why don't Dem "leaders" fight this agressively?

To call their pushback token would be giving them too much effort.

[bemildred]

10. They don't want to carry out the policies they purport to support, see?

So the gridlock is welcome. No Republicans, no gridlock.

They would have to explain why the country is run is such a feckless manner.

[yurbud]

11. yep. I just wanted someone else to say it. Obama governed like GOP ran congress even when they

didn't.

Working Families Party made an unusual request of Governor Cuomo before they endorsed him: he had to campaign for a Democratic majority in the state legislature (which he didn't do).

The GOP is like the corpse at WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S and the Democrats keep dragging it around and pretending it's twisting their arms.

[Jefferson23]

12. Neoliberals, their time may be coming to a close..perhaps not as soon as we would like but we'll

get there.

[yurbud]

13. They're racing the GOP to implode the Democratic Party first

[yurbud]

14. Even if Hillary gets nomination and wins presidency, it will last hurrah for corporate Dems

and she will be more bedeviled by the progressive base than Bernie would by corporate Dems in Congress if he won.

[Jefferson23]

16. Yes, depending on what she does with her time in office should she win. n/t

[yurbud]

17. the chances of her veering left seem much lower than they were for Obama

[Jefferson23]

19. I think we'll know more depending on if she feels she needs Sanders supporters if she

wins the nomination. Depends on what the Senate will look like too, there are a number
of factors, but too soon to tell right now. Overall, I would agree with you..the chances
are not great.

[Jefferson23]

15. On that I disagree..somewhat. Ours may not be as hostile, but I would agree reform

may not work for our party from within..so we'll see.

One of the great things about Sanders campaign is they were totally freaked
out and surprised at the amount of money he can raise with small donations...hopefully they'll see
the light.

[yurbud]

18. I hope the light the corporatistas see is the exit sign

[Jefferson23]

20. That will depend in part on us and what we continue to demand.

I am very hopeful we can begin to turn this around but yea, they need to go.

[bemildred]

21. I became acquainted with the situation in the Jerry Ford administration.

Out first appointed President. It got worse after that.

[yurbud]

22. I didn't realize it went back that far

[bemildred]

23. It goes back to Reconstruction.

"Indispensible Enemies" -- Walter Karp

And "The Politics of War" by the same author, for earlier parts of the history.

He made so many things make sense.