A couple days ago, the House spent it's day debating banning the use of federal funds to be used in providing for abortion. If this sounds familiar to you, it's because this House has taken up the issue 3 times before to pass such a ban....that already exists.
Another problem the GOP wants to solve that doesn't exist is this notion of "wide spread" voter fraud. From 2002-2005 only 38 cases of voter fraud was prosecuted, and 14 of those cases were thrown out. There has never been a single case where voter fraud has turned a single election in the history of the United States. Voter fraud is so rare, that the chances are higher that you'd find someone who was struck by lightning than you'd find someone who committed voter fraud.
http://bradblog.com/Docs/TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf
So why is the GOP enacting voter fraud laws? Because it makes it very easy to legalize voter suppression.
For 38 years in the state of Maine, you could register to vote on election day. But no longer. In Ohio the GOP has shortened the number of days early voting is allowed. Early voting became quite popular in Ohio, and all around the country, after the GOP shorted Democratic districts of voting machines causing voting lines that lasted 6 hours. In South Carolina they have made student IDs not an acceptable form of identification to vote, a law that violates a Supreme Court decision. It's not a coincidence that college students tend to vote Democratic. In Florida new legislation has made it harder for outside groups to register people to vote, so much so that the League of Women Voters can no longer register new voters. New registered voters? You guessed it. They tend to vote Democratic. In Kansas a new voter ID law was established, which effectively prevents people too poor to own a car from voting. Texas enacted similar legislation, that requires people to show a driver's license in order to vote...with once specific exception...a conceal carry permit is also an accepted form of identification. Are people with conceal carry permits more likely to vote Democrat or Republican?
The GOP has a long history of voter suppression. To this day, the GOP is the only political party in the history of the United States to have been order by a court not to cage voters. In 2008, 50,000 voters were purged from the rolls in Georgia just for having similar names to other voters. The state then required those purged voters to prove their citizenship. In the case of one senior college student, Kyla Berry, she was sent a letter by the state that she had a week to prove her citizenship, a letter that was postmarked a week later than the letter. She was born in Boston, btw.
The GOP has enacted laws that make it illegal for ex-cons to vote, which is really convenient if you're trying to steal an election in Florida by 500 some votes by saying that 50,000 Democratic Florida voters are ex-cons from Texas when they've never been arrested.
In 2002 in New Hampshire, Dems had established a phone line to assist people who needed a ride to the polls. The GOP organized jamming that line by hiring people to call the line and hang up, rendering it useless. Three Republican operatives were later found guilty. The GOP claimed these operatives acting alone, yet the GOP didn't hesitate to spend 2.5 million to keep these operatives out of jail.
In Wisconsin during the recall elections earlier this year, the Koch funded group Americans for Prosperity sent out a mailer to Democratic voters giving them the incorrect deadline for absentee ballots.
The GOP strategy to win elections isn't to appeal to the hearts and minds of their constituents, but to suppress the vote of the other side. Criminal activity and wide spread ELECTION fraud isn't out the question. In other words, if you can't win...cheat.
-- Modified on 10/15/2011 8:41:00 AM
They'll lose anyway.
You say there has never been a case in US history where fraud has turned an election.
Texas with Lyndon Johnson's first and second Senate run. The first time he was way ahead when he went to bed, and woke up to discover they found all sorts of ballots.
The second time, he won but some counties had more voters than population.
Chicago is notorious. In fact, the Kenney/Nixon election really had some problems, but Nixon thought that it would be terrible if elections were precursors to court cases, so he order his people not to contest the results.
Finally, you don't know how many elections were affected. If memory serves, I think Wisconsin has a law that allows you to sign up at the last minute. A few years ago, they checked the names and discovered huge numbers that did not correspond to any real address. The problem was, with a secret ballot, they didn't know which ones to throw out.
In short, you can have fraud, but it may not be able to prove how it affects the race because you can't "prove" that it had an impact.
Re the law making it illegal for ex-cons to vote - Gosh, it is funny how you assume that criminals and robbers and burglars and child molestors would usually vote democratic, so the Dems would be hurt the most.
Personally, if public policy depends on who gets the swing vote of ex-cons, well, I guess it just says something about the quality of people the policy attracts.
(also, that doesn't "steal" elections because it has been held that this is not impersmissible, so it is not stealing it.)
Another problem the GOP wants to solve that doesn't exist is this notion of "wide spread" voter fraud. From 2002-2005 only 38 cases of voter fraud was prosecuted, and 14 of those cases were thrown out. There has never been a single case where voter fraud has turned a single election in the history of the United States. Voter fraud is so rare, that the chances are higher that you'd find someone who was struck by lightning than you'd find someone who committed voter fraud.
http://bradblog.com/Docs/TruthAboutVoterFraud.pdf
So why is the GOP enacting voter fraud laws? Because it makes it very easy to legalize voter suppression.
For 38 years in the state of Maine, you could register to vote on election day. But no longer. In Ohio the GOP has shortened the number of days early voting is allowed. Early voting became quite popular in Ohio, and all around the country, after the GOP shorted Democratic districts of voting machines causing voting lines that lasted 6 hours. In South Carolina they have made student IDs not an acceptable form of identification to vote, a law that violates a Supreme Court decision. It's not a coincidence that college students tend to vote Democratic. In Florida new legislation has made it harder for outside groups to register people to vote, so much so that the League of Women Voters can no longer register new voters. New registered voters? You guessed it. They tend to vote Democratic. In Kansas a new voter ID law was established, which effectively prevents people too poor to own a car from voting. Texas enacted similar legislation, that requires people to show a driver's license in order to vote...with once specific exception...a conceal carry permit is also an accepted form of identification. Are people with conceal carry permits more likely to vote Democrat or Republican?
The GOP has a long history of voter suppression. To this day, the GOP is the only political party in the history of the United States to have been order by a court not to cage voters. In 2008, 50,000 voters were purged from the rolls in Georgia just for having similar names to other voters. The state then required those purged voters to prove their citizenship. In the case of one senior college student, Kyla Berry, she was sent a letter by the state that she had a week to prove her citizenship, a letter that was postmarked a week later than the letter. She was born in Boston, btw.
The GOP has enacted laws that make it illegal for ex-cons to vote, which is really convenient if you're trying to steal an election in Florida by 500 some votes by saying that 50,000 Democratic Florida voters are ex-cons from Texas when they've never been arrested.
In 2002 in New Hampshire, Dems had established a phone line to assist people who needed a ride to the polls. The GOP organized jamming that line by hiring people to call the line and hang up, rendering it useless. Three Republican operatives were later found guilty. The GOP claimed these operatives acting alone, yet the GOP didn't hesitate to spend 2.5 million to keep these operatives out of jail.
In Wisconsin during the recall elections earlier this year, the Koch funded group Americans for Prosperity sent out a mailer to Democratic voters giving them the incorrect deadline for absentee ballots.
The GOP strategy to win elections isn't to appeal to the hearts and minds of their constituents, but to suppress the vote of the other side. Criminal activity and wide spread ELECTION fraud isn't out the question. In other words, if you can't win...cheat.
-- Modified on 10/15/2011 8:41:00 AM
You said there was no case of an election being proven to be affected in the outcome by fraud. (This is a paraphrase from memory, but I think the substance is accurate enough for purposes of conversation)
That said, when the is fraud in registering voters or fraud in casting votes, you can say no elections was voided for it, but you cannot say whether the election was tainted by it and the result changed.
Using the LBJ election, it turned out there were too many voters. But they couldn't say those voters supported the winner, thereby tainting the election, or supported the losef, thereby being moot.
In short, you can't say that no elections have been altered by voter fraud, election fraud, or what ever you want to call it.
The bottom line is if Person X casts one fraudelent ballot and votes for the other side, he has disinfrachised me by illegallty negating my vote.
With all the crying in their soup about how the poor people in FL had their votes negated, you think you would be more sympathetic.
Ooops. I forgot. The lefts standards shift.