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Droopster, the Republicans in several Republican-lead states are trying to pass voter ID laws that, it is said, would disproportionately affect minorities, who are assumed would lean Democratic.

I've heard it countered that there is no evidence that voter fraud of the kind a picture ID requirement might fight, is actually a problem. I've heard of something like a dozen cases of actual, in-person fraudulent voting across the entire country over something like the last 10 or 15 years.

Can you shows us evidence that this is wrong? What evidence is there that these voter ID laws are conceived to fight a problem for which there is good evidence that it's real?

Missouri Senatorial Candidate Todd Akin, of 'legitimate rape' fame, spoke in an interview of the need to impose stricter voter I.D. requirements. The interviewer pointed out that the only incidence of voter fraud documented in Missouri had taken place in 1936.

Akin's response? Voter I.D. laws were 'common sense'.

Voter I.D. laws are the Jim Crow laws of the 21st Century. The Republican Party is trying to disenfranchise the disabled, poor, minority, and students on the pretext of solving a problem for which they cannot provide documentation.

If Republicans cannot make their party bigger, they will work to make our democracy smaller.

Seth, you big dummy. It's obvious, and right before your eyes, if you will just open them. Well, I mean your spiritual eyes, of course.

The evidence is that Democrats are still winning elections, in spite of the assurances from right-wing radio and TV that this is a very conservative country. Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et al, testify daily that they and their listeners represent a substantial majority of America (based, one can only assume, on the burning in their bosoms). It is an article of faith.

Therefore, liberals can only win by cheating. I think we all know this in our hearts. And the very fact that there is no evidence is simply evidence of how good they are at it.

Wait a darn tootin’ minute here. So, you’re telling me that members of a political party want to institute laws/policies that require you to "show papers" in order to participate in a basic right granted to law-abiding adult citizens? Surely it must be the big government socialist Democrats trying to impose such a thing. Surely?

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/04/2 ... ions/print

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/28 ... -spakovsky

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articl ... 13722.html

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/0 ... -dead.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/latest- ... 8-election

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/ ... ore-803972

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/ ... ore-803253

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/ ... ore-802207


And we could go on and on and on.

What all of this tends to show is that:

1. Although there is no way to say that voter fraud has not or does not occur among Republicans, somewhere or another, its long been endemic to the culture and tactics of the Democratic party, and activist groups like ACORN have been in the forefront of vote fraud on a national scale.

2. The core reason leftists and Democrats generally object to any efforts to determine actual eligibility to vote is that the demographic group that would be overwhelmingly affected, illegal aliens - among which are vast numbers who are ethnically balkanized, unassimilated, and unable to communicate in the language of the host country - living outside the law in the United States, are for the Democratic party its key to making that party the only party that ever wins national elections in the foreseeable future and to making the United States an effective one party state grounded in multiculturalist racial grievance, institutionalized victimology, and permanent welfare dependency.

There is no other reason to be against the simple act of proving that one is legally permitted to vote the United States and participate in the political processes of the nation. The overwhelming majority of blacks, other minorities, and "the poor," who are legal, indigenous residents of the U.S. already have either a driver's license or an I.D. card, so the faux outrage over such a simple and rational requirement (needed to buy liquor in literally all states in the Union) hardly seems warranted, unless there is an ulterior motive afoot (and there is).

I'm annoyed at myself now. I just wasted way too much of my life reading those linked articles, only to find no evidence beyond a couple of people filling out fake absentee ballots in a primary for an obscure party I've never heard of.

Grrrrr...

krose wrote:I'm annoyed at myself now. I just wasted way too much of my life reading those linked articles, only to find no evidence beyond a couple of people filling out fake absentee ballots in a primary for an obscure party I've never heard of.

Grrrrr...

In other words, you didn't read them at all.

And the beat goes on...

Droopy wrote:

krose wrote:I'm annoyed at myself now. I just wasted way too much of my life reading those linked articles, only to find no evidence beyond a couple of people filling out fake absentee ballots in a primary for an obscure party I've never heard of.

Grrrrr...

In other words, you didn't read them at all.
And the beat goes on...

Sorry, Cher, but no other words are needed. Mine will suffice.

If you think those articles have actual evidence of substantial voter fraud, go ahead and paste the actual text here that provides it, rather than just links.

But keep in mind that:
- registration fraud is not voter fraud
- the fact that dead people are still on the rolls is not voter fraud
- unverified right-wing conspiracy memos do not constitute proof of anything

If you want to understand the 'concern' the Republicans have about voter fraud, look at Ohio.

In 2004 there were severe shortages of polling equipment and poll workers in many polling places, primarily inner-city precincts with high concentrations of African-American voters. People had to wait in line up to seven hours to vote. One survey found that 174,000 didn't vote because of the long lines. Bush won the state by 118,000 votes out of over 5.5 million.

Early voting was instituted in 2008. Lines were greatly reduced. Obama won the state by 200,000 votes.

For 2012, under the direction of Ohio's Republican Secretary of State John Husted, heavily Democratic counties with cities like like Toledo, Akron and Columbus and Cleveland saw their voting hours constricted and heavily Republican counties saw their voting hours expanded.

Doug Preisse, chairman of the Republican Party in Franklin County, which contains the city of Columbus, admitted in an email to the Columbus Dispatch that black voters would now have a more difficult time voting:

I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine. Let’s be fair and reasonable.

Preisse was one of the board of elections members who blocked Democratic efforts in Franklin County to expand voting hours to evenings and weekends. According to the Dispatch, he called claims of unfairness “BS. Quote me!”

Last month, U.S. courts rejected election-related laws passed by Republican-controlled legislatures in Ohio, Florida and Texas, finding they violated the right to vote. At least 14 cases challenging voter-list purges, provisional-ballot rules, early voting curbs or photo identification mandates are pending in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Iowa, Florida and Ohio.