Voter Identification

This might explain the right's rush to come up with election cheating schemes....
According to Markos Moulitsas ‏of Daily Kos
Every month, 67,000 Latinos turn 18, while 100K whites die.

Colin Powell On Republican Voting Restrictions: ‘It’s Going To Backfire’

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On Face the Nation this Sunday, Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, warned his fellow Republicans that the continuing push to restrict voting rights is going to “backfire” and harm the Republican Party:

 

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These kinds of procedures that are being put in place to slow the process down, and make it likely that fewer Hispanics and African Americans might vote I think is going to backfire, because these people are going to come out and do what they have to do in order to vote and I encourage that.

Powell went on to describe just how damaging these laws may be as the country’s demographics shift:

 

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Here’s what I say to my Republican friends: The country is becoming more diverse. Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, African Americans are going to constitute a majority in a generation. You say you want to reach out, you say you want to have a new message, you say you want to see if you can bring some of these voters to the Republican side. This is not the way to do it. The way to do it is to make it easier to vote and then give them something to vote, they can believe it. It’s not enough to say just we have to have a new message. We have to have a substance to that new message.

Judge Who Framed Voter ID Laws Says He Got it Wrong

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When the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago issued a critical 2007 ruling defending the constitutionality of  voter identification laws, Judge Richard Posner authored the decision.

The arguments Judge Posner made for upholding Indiana’s voter ID law framed out some of the essential underpinnings for the 2008 determination of the US Supreme Court – in the case of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board – that has since served as a justification for the enactment of ever harsher laws in states across the country.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, “a total of 34 states have passed voter ID laws of some kind.” Not all of those laws have been implemented, with a number of them facing court challenges.

With the status of voting issues protections complicated by the Supreme Court’s June, 2013, decision to invalidate key sections of the Voting Rights Act, the wrangling over voter ID laws in states such as North Carolina and Texas has only become more legally complex and confusing.

So it should count for something that Judge Posner now says that he was mistaken in his 2007 decision.

A surprise to no one who's been paying attention.

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There was a dissenting judge, Judge [Terence] Evans, since deceased, and I think he [was] right. But at the time I thought what we were doing was right. It is interesting that the majority opinion [from the Supreme Court] was written by Justice [John Paul] Stevens, who is very liberal, more liberal than I was or am…. But I think we did not have enough information. And of course it illustrates the basic problem that I emphasize in book. We judges and lawyers, we don’t know enough about the subject matters that we regulate, right? And that if the lawyers had provided us with a lot of information about the abuse of voter identification laws, this case would have been decided differently.

Judge Posner should have paid closer attention to the detailed amicus brief filed in 2006 by the Brennan Center for Justice, which explained how the Indiana law threatened to “exclude many eligible voters from participating in our democratic process.”

But the jurist, one of the most prominent on the federal bench, has now come around.

Great Moments in GOP Election Fraud: Dinesh D’Souza Indicted

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You know how conservatives are always issuing dire warnings about election fraud, and demanding tough new voter ID laws in disadvantaged areas to make sure the lower classes don’t cheat?

Well, um, yeah. Dinesh D’Souza Indicted Over Campaign Contributions.

   

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NEW YORK — Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative commentator and best-selling author, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for arranging excessive campaign contributions to a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

   The candidate was Wendy Long, a Republican who sought to unseat Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand as New York’s junior senator in 2012, according to a person familiar with the case. …

   The indictment said D’Souza directed individuals to contribute a total $20,000 to the campaign of an unnamed Senate candidate in 2012 and then reimbursed them for their contributions.

   Federal law in 2012 limited primary and general election campaign contributions to $2,500 each, for a total of $5,000, from any individual to any one candidate.

Bipartisan Election Commission Destroys Republican Talking Points

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The Presidential Commission on Election Administration, led by Democratic lawyer Bob Bauer and Republican lawyer Ben Ginsberg, who ran the Bush recount efforts in Florida in 2000, has issued a final report that pretty much destroys Republican claims about voter fraud and how elections should be run. . . .

Basically, the report says that there is very little voter fraud and that what little there is has nothing to do with photo ID laws or voter impersonation:

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Consistent with the last point, there’s not much in the report which is overly controversial on the voter fraud-voter suppression debate between Republicans and Democrats, but I did find this line in the report particularly notable: “Fraud is rare, but when it does occur, absentee ballots are often the method of choice.” (Page 56.) That’s my conclusion too, but it is not the typical line of hard line Republicans like KS SOS Kris Kobach.

The GOP's ignoring absentee ballots was always proof that the photo ID requirement had nothing at all to do with fraud prevention.

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The report also recommends more early voting, something Republicans around the country have been trying to get rid of or restrict because, again, Democratic voters are more likely to vote early than Republicans. It contains a lot of other reasonable reforms that should be viewed as absolutely obvious if not for partisan political bullshit, which is why most of its recommendations will probably be ignored by Republican-dominated states because almost all of this is controlled at the state level.

The GOP is only interested in stealing elections.

Federal judge strikes down Wisconsin's voter ID law

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In a decision that could have implications nationally and in Wisconsin's November elections, a federal judge on Tuesday struck down the state's voter ID law, saying it violated the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.

The law known as Act 23 had already been blocked by a state judge. For the law to be put back in place, supporters would have to overturn both the state and federal decisions — a possibility thatcould prove difficult between now and the Nov. 4 election for governor.

"There is no way to determine exactly how many people Act 23 will prevent or deter from voting without considering the individual circumstances of each of the 300,000 plus citizens who lack an ID," U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman wrote in his 70-page ruling. "But no matter how imprecise my estimate may be, it is absolutely clear that Act 23 will prevent more legitimate votes from being cast than fraudulent votes."

Adelman, who is based in Milwaukee, found the state didn't have an appropriate rationale for imposing a voter ID requirement. In-person voter impersonation — the only type of fraud a voter ID law can prevent — is nonexistent or virtually nonexistent in Wisconsin, he wrote.

"Because virtually no voter impersonation occurs in Wisconsin and it is exceedingly unlikely that voter impersonation will become a problem in Wisconsin in the foreseeable future, this particular state interest has very little weight," he wrote.

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"The defendants could not point to a single instance of known voter impersonation occurring in Wisconsin at any time in the recent past."

Ding..ding.ding..ding.. ding      

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Adelman, a former Democratic state senator known for sponsoring the state's open records law, determined that in practice the law requiring voters to show one of nine types of photo IDs at the polls established an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote. It also violated the federal Voting Rights Act because its effects hit Latinos and African-Americans harder than whites, he wrote.

Under the voter ID law, minorities "must pay the cost, in the form of time or bother or out-of-pocket expense, to obtain what is essentially a license to vote," he wrote.

He issued an injunction barring the voter ID law from being enforced.

State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who defended the law, immediately pledged to take the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

dimbulb wrote:

Robin Banks wrote:

Do you have a study that supports your statistics?

Good luck getting an answer to that one.
Studies have shown that those who have a study to support their statistics will, 94% of the time, refuse to produce it.

Researcher finds only 31 incidences of voter-ID preventable fraud in 14 years

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We've got a new number on just how extensive America's voter fraud problem really is. Hold on to your hats, folks, because that number is: 31
 

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I’ve been tracking allegations of fraud for years now, including the fraud ID laws are designed to stop. In 2008, when the Supreme Court weighed in on voter ID, I looked at every single allegation put before the Court. And since then, I’ve been following reports wherever they crop up.

   To be clear, I’m not just talking about prosecutions. I track any specific, credible allegation that someone may have pretended to be someone else at the polls, in any way that an ID law could fix.

   So far, I’ve found about 31 different incidents (some of which involve multiple ballots) since 2000, anywhere in the country.

That's not 31 proven incidents in the last 14 years, that's 31 possible incidents—some or most of them could be the result of clerical errors, like people signing the poll books on the wrong lines. That's what the conservative obsession with voter ID laws seeks to tamp down on. Having politicians pay people to vote, or having "charity" organizations be front organizations for political operations, or having candidates funded wholesale by corporate lobbies, all of that pales in comparison to making sure those 31 people (maybe) get what's coming to them.

That, or it's a transparent attempt to make voting more difficult for minorities and the poor, backed by the same people who have a long history of trying to make voting more difficult for minorities and the poor. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast

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Election fraud happens. But ID laws are not aimed at the fraud you’ll actually hear about. Most current ID laws (Wisconsin is a rare exception) aren’t designed to stop fraud with absentee ballots (indeed, laws requiring ID at the polls push more people into the absentee system, where there are plenty of real dangers). Or vote buying. Or coercion. Or fake registration forms. Or voting from the wrong address. Or ballot box stuffing by officials in on the scam. In the 243-page document that Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel filed on Monday with evidence of allegedly illegal votes in the Mississippi Republican primary, there were no allegations of the kind of fraud that ID can stop.

Instead, requirements to show ID at the polls are designed for pretty much one thing: people showing up at the polls pretending to be somebody else in order to each cast one incremental fake ballot. This is a slow, clunky way to steal an election. Which is why it rarely happens.

Christie vetoes bill overhauling N.J. voting system

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TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie on Monday vetoed legislation to overhaul New Jersey's voting laws, charging that Democrats were using reform as a tool for political gain.

The "Democracy Act" was passed by the Democratic-controlled state Legislature in June and would expand early voting, allow for online voter registration and automatically register residents to vote when they obtain a drivers license at the Motor Vehicle Commission.

It would require pre-election materials to be printed in more languages, clarify the state's contradictory U.S. Senate succession laws and curb a governor's power in appointing temporary senators by requiring they be from the same party as the person vacating the seat.

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He called a provision establishing automatic voter registration that requires New Jerseyan to opt out a "government-knows-best, backwards approach that would inconvenience citizens and waste government resources for no justifiable reason."

How the fuck would automatic voter registration inconvenience citizens?

OTOH,I guess it would inconvenience Wingnuts like Christie that want to suppress voting.

Who says there's no such thing as voter fraud?
Kobach follows disbanding of Trump voter commission with charges against two voters

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Less than a day after President Donald Trump dismantled his voter fraud commission, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has filed criminal charges against two people he says voted illegally in the 2016 election.

He has filed charges against 15 people since then for a variety of election crimes, resulting in nine convictions or plea deals and one dismissal. The remaining five cases, including the charges announced Thursday, remain pending.

Most of those cases have involved U.S. citizens who have allegedly voted in more than one jurisdiction rather than non-citizens, despite Kobach’s claims that hundreds of non-citizens are on the voter rolls.

Kobach’s office charged Que J. Fullmer, 67, with two counts of voting without being qualified, one count of voting more than once and one count of “advance voting unlawful acts” for allegedly casting ballots in both Colorado and Hamilton County, Kan., in 2016.

Bailey Ann McCaughey, 20, also faces one count of election perjury and one count of voting more than once for allegedly voting in both Colorado and Finney County, Kan., in 2016, according to the release from Kobach’s office.

“These prosecutions will help deter voter fraud in the future,” Kobach said in a statement.

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Both Fullmer and McCaughey appear to be registered Republicans.

Reporters should look into how much money was spent searching for this nonsense.

happy jack wrote:

You may either substantiate your claims, or let your lies hang out there for all to see.
Makes no difference to me.

If it "makes no difference to you" then why do you keep posting about it?

Angry Trump Worshiper wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

happy jack wrote:

You may either substantiate your claims, or let your lies hang out there for all to see.
Makes no difference to me.

If it "makes no difference to you" then why do you keep posting about it?

No life yet, huh?

Says the Trump worshiping poodle that keeps asking the same question when it's already been answered.

Angry Trump Troll wrote:

I see my New Year's wish for you hasn't come true.

The one where you feverishly hope he stops pointing out what a jackass you are?

Dumbass Trumpkin wrote:

Don't worry, though - it's still early January, so be patient.

Got it!

Out of Touch Trumpkin wrote:

Did you have any more questions for me about Milo?

You really want to embarrass yourself further?

Condolences on the publication "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House". It seems to have really upset you based on your angry and rude response. We'll just chalk it up to the fact you're a Trump worshiper and when the truth comes out you get very cranky.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/stacey-abrams-undocumented-voters-blue-wave/

A Blue Wave of ‘Undocumented’ Voters?

By Jonathan S. Tobin

October 17, 2018 12:39 PM

In an expansive prediction of how Democrats would sweep the country with a “blue wave,” Abrams said the following:

The thing of it is, is that blue waves aren’t blue. . . . The blue wave is African-American. It’s white, it’s Latino, it’s Asian, Pacific Islander. It is disabled. It is differently abled. It is LGBTQ. It is law enforcement. It is veterans. It is made up of those who have been told they are not worthy of being here. It is comprised of those who are documented and undocumented. It is comprised of those who have been told they’re successful and those who have been left behind.

Oh, well.
On the bright side, we at least have a progressive finally speaking the truth about her true agenda.

A classic from 2016... there's even a knife wielding crab!

I wrote:

The easiest and far more effect way of tanking an election remains to be election fraud.  Voter ID's certainly won't stop either registration fraud or phony absentee ballots, either.

Ballot fraud investigation muddies North Carolina election

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Allegations of flagrant absentee ballot fraud in a North Carolina district have thrown the Election Day results of one of the nation’s last unresolved midterm congressional races into question.

Unofficial ballot totals showed Republican Mark Harris ahead of Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes in the 9th Congressional District. But the state elections board refused to certify the results last week in view of “claims of numerous irregularities and concerted fraudulent activities” involving mail-in ballots in the district.

The elections board has subpoenaed documents from the Harris campaign, a campaign attorney confirmed Tuesday. Investigators seem to be concentrating on activities linked to a longtime political operative from Bladen County, where allegations about mail-in absentee ballots also surfaced two years ago during a tight election for governor.

In affidavits offered by the state Democratic Party, voters described a woman coming to their homes to collect their absentee ballots, whether or not they had been completed properly. State law bars this kind of “harvesting” of absentee ballots, which must be submitted by mail or in person by the voter or a close family member.

If the allegations are accurate, “this is the biggest absentee fraud in a generation or two in North Carolina,” said Gerry Cohen, an election law expert and former longtime legislative staff attorney. “North Carolina has a long history of this kind of thing, particularly in rural areas.”

No IDs were harmed in this attempt to steal an election.

New Election Called In North Carolina House Race

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After months of insisting that he knew of no illegal activity being done on behalf of his campaign, Republican Mark Harris, who leads the race for North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, called Thursday for the State Board of Elections to hold a new election.

Shortly afterward, the bipartisan state board voted unanimously to redo the only congressional race left from the 2018 midterm elections that remains undecided.

"Through the testimony I've listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called. It's become clear to me that the public's confidence in the 9th District seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted," said Harris.

It was a dramatic and humbling reversal for Harris, a pastor who until now had insisted that the elections board certify his 905-vote lead over Democrat Dan McCready in the unofficial tally so that he could take a seat in Congress.

Four days of hearings had left that position increasingly untenable as witnesses detailed how an operative hired by Harris illegally handled absentee ballots, a felony in North Carolina. One witness said she filled in unmarked sections of ballots. Harris' own son testified on Wednesday that he had warned his father that the operative's tactics were likely illegal.