Honest Voting

Did you know you can make big bucks by disbelieving in vote-fraud? Just call 1-800-FAKEVOTE. Fake votes now, ask me how.

It makes me want to bang my head against the wall when I watch the entirely predictable, widely announced, even, Republican wave of claims that voter fraud is rampant across America. I’m reminded of the way they told me to write essays, way back in junior high school: first, tell us how you’re going to lie to us, then lie to us, and finally remind us of how you lied.

This article in the Wall Street Journal, written by Corey Dade and John D. McKinnon, says that the rising numbers of new registrants are giving Republicans the cold whibbies, especially in Virginia and Pennsylvania. To protect against successful Democratic registration drives voter fraud, Republicans are beginning to comb thousands of new registrations in those states for ineligible applicants.

I’m very glad to read, further down the page, that the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party planned ahead and already have people talking directly to local election officials to combat vote suppression.

My favorite quote appears near the end. Foley & Lardner lawyer Cleta Mitchell told the WSJ that she deplored efforts by Democrats and others to spike their anti-fraud campaign:

“What we’re not for is registering fake people at fake addresses, and creating barriers to trying to identify voter fraud where it exists, which is everywhere. It’s a growing problem, because of the professional vote-fraud denier industry.”

According to the Republican Party’s own voter fraud page, which doesn’t seem to have changed materially since I wrote about it on June 19th, they couldn’t find fraud in 30 U.S. states or territories, and of the news listings on that page, many of the articles are ongoing coverage of single cases. Just how big is that industry again? I don’t even think it can afford its own trade magazine.

Taking a closer look at the story in Alabama — the New York Times says most of what I’d say here:

The accusations have larger national implications at a moment when many Republican officials around the country have cited rampant voter fraud as a justification for stricter identification requirements at the polls, a move that Democrats have said is really designed to dampen the turnout among Democratic voters. Specific examples of fraud, though, are quite unusual.

The Times’ article, by Adam Nossiter, notes without comment that the party affiliation of most of the voting-fraud accusers is Republican. Nossiter contacted a group called the Democracy Defense League, which bills itself as a nonpartisan, biracial group focused on stamping out voter fraud. The group, founded in 2005, may or may not be a genuine grassroots group. Its members have been interviewed in the Selma Times Journal on the subject — unfortunately, the newspaper’s articles age off the website, or I’d link directly.

No doubts about Stop Voter Fraud Now, though — that’s some shiny green astroturf there.

Still thinking about Alabama’s situation; more to come.

This isn’t the only state to start making claims of voter fraud all of a sudden. You’d almost think this was coordinated.

Other states where accusations of voter fraud have suddenly hit the news: Nevada, Alabama, and Texas. (I’m only counting stories from recognized news organizations, by the way.)

For the record, let me restate what I’ve mentioned on this blog before: the voter fraud allegations I’ve seen so far have totaled small handfuls of voters per state. It’s nothing like the large-scale vote suppression and caging tactics seen in paces like Ohio. There’s no question which is a bigger threat to voting integrity.

Now for some further examination of the Republican Party’s voter fraud page.

As mentioned before, as of June 19th the page lists a total of 112 entries, going back to 2006, over 50 states, counting duplicates and national stories.  These stories have a few unifying characteristics that I’ll get to in a minute.  First, a quick breakdown of the page.

Here are the states and territories for which they list no episodes of voter fraud within the last three years:

Alaska
American Samoa
Arizona
Arkansas
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Guam
Hawaii
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Maine
Maryland
Minnesota
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
North Carolina
North Dakota
Northern Mariana Islands
Oklahoma
Oregon
Puerto Rico
South Dakota
Utah
Vermont
Virgin Islands
Wyoming
States with voter fraud stories listed:

California - Four stories, eight entries
Colorado - One story
Florida - One story
Georgia - Two stories, two entries
Illinois - Three stories, five entries
Indiana - Eight stories, thirteen entries, including one entry about a Supreme Court decision and four entries about the overall work of a state voter fraud task force
Kentucky - Eight stories, ten entries
Louisiana - One story, two entries
Massachusetts - One story
Michigan - One story
Mississippi - Four stories, thirteen entries
Missouri - Six stories, eight entries
New Jersey - Two stories, two entries
New Mexico - Two stories, three entries
New York - One story
Ohio - One story
Pennsylvania - Two stories, two entries
Rhode Island - One story
South Carolina - Two stories, five entries
Tennessee - One story, two entries
Texas - Four stories, five entries
Virginia - One story
Washington - Three stories, nine entries.
West Virginia - One story
Wisconsin - Six stories, seven entries; also, one entry following up on issues from 2004.

So, 112 entries on the page, but only 67 actual stories. The page also links to three major stories from earlier years on a separate Flashback page.

Beyond the things you’d expect — if any Republicans are involved in these cases they’re not named by party, but hey, it’s the Republican Party site, whaddya think they’ll say; meanwhile, Democrats and unions are called out by name — I noticed one thing: the vast majority of these cases are really small-time.  A number of them have to do with absentee ballots, which can’t readily be fixed by voter ID rules at a polling place.

Is this really the backbone of the case for preventing voter fraud with voter ID laws?

From the Houston Chronicle, the Las Cruces Sun-News …and the Republican National Committee webpage:

A suspended Sunland Park municipal judge accused of voter fraud pleaded not guilty.

Horacio Favela, 48, was arraigned Monday on six charges including false voting, falsifying election documents and falsely swearing in a municipal election.

State District Judge Stephen Bridgforth allowed Favela to remain free on his own recognizance. New Mexico law prohibits convicted felons from holding elected office, but Favela hasn’t been convicted.

Favela is accused of voting twice by absentee ballot in the 2004 general election — once in Texas and once in New Mexico. He also is accused of living in El Paso, Texas, not Sunland Park, making him ineligible to run or hold the judgeship that he won in the March municipal election.

Favela was sworn in as a judge; however, the New Mexico Supreme Court suspended him without pay on March 27 pending the outcome of the case.

Google brought me to the GOP page on New Mexico voting fraud, which shows two stories about Favela as I write this, one dated 5/30/08, the other dated 2/29/o8. Going beyond New Mexico, I took a closer look at the GOP’s listing of voter fraud stories around the nation. This state-by-state roster, which goes back to 2006, offers each update on an ongoing story as a new listing, so each new development in a case ratchets up the total number of stories; it also includes stories about voter ID, e.g., the voter ID law in Indiana, not just as a national story but as a state story.

Totting it all up: That’s 112 entries total, going back to 2006, over 50 states, counting duplicates and national stories. More on this in the next post.

Over in the Democratic Party’s pages, they’re talking about a different set of voter frauds, especially the way Rush Limbaugh encouraged Republican voters in Texas and Ohio to cross party lines in the primaries and vote for Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, that appears to be a minor felony in Ohio; in Texas apparently some people forgot they could only vote once, which is also a criminal offense. And then they’re remembering the Rovian strategy of replacing non-compliant federal prosecutors in states where Republicans faced tight election contests.

Interesting to see how the approaches differ.