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Health & Fitness

Voter Suppression: Anti-democratic or Anti-fraud

Discussion of new voter ID and registration requirements and the impact on voter turnout.

Several states have implemented draconian new rules to make it difficult to register to vote and to vote on/during elections. The most popular, simplistic and deceptively suppressing idea is to have an ID provided by the state. Since most people have a driver’s license or similar ID provided by the state, most people assume this provides a simple way for everyone to identify themselves at voting booths.

However, there’s a sizeable minority of people who do not have this form of ID, and for whom getting the ID is difficult and expensive. Who are these people? One group is the elderly who over time have stopped driving, have let their license lapse and are not as mobile as they once were. There are those young people who haven’t needed or desired a license or other form of state ID. Then there are those from out-of-state having recently moved who have not changed their license from one state to another.

However, the largest numbers of people affected are students, more importantly out-of-state students who live mostly at their dorms but maintain their state ID from their state of origin. Federal law allows students to choose whether to vote in the state where their college is located or in their state of origin. Thus states with these new laws are requiring students to go through a process to change their state of origin to their college location. What impediments there are to doing this are not clear.

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Various statistics regarding incidents of voter fraud indicates that voter fraud is a very rare phenomenon. For example, during the eight years of President Bush’s presidency, only 86 people were convicted of voter fraud.  (http://tiny.cc/of59k) A study by the Brennan Center for Justice indicates that voter fraud by individuals  “[in the] microscopically scrutinized 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington State actually reveals …(al) though voter fraud does happen, it happens approximately 0.0009% of the time. The similarly closely analyzed 2004 election in Ohio revealed a voter fraud rate of 0.00004%. National Weather Service data shows that Americans are struck and killed by lightning about as often.” (http://tiny.cc/wlmyi)

In Florida, which has the most restrictive laws in place, have placed difficult requirements for third party registration efforts. These groups include the League of Women Voters, high school civics class teachers and college drives by political clubs and other groups.  The law now requires…”third party groups conducting voter registration drives have to turn in all forms within 48 hours of completion, and must note the date and time of completion on the forms, along with a tracking code for the organization. The law also requires that monthly reports on voter registration drives be submitted to state election officials.” (http://tiny.cc/wxo84)

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I am not sure how many of my readers have run voter registration drives. Having done so, I can only emphasize how both annoying and difficult it would be in Massachusetts to follow these rules. Just the vagaries of the postal service alone could account for many violations to the return in 48 hours rule in Florida.

The non-partisan League of Women voters of Florida have discontinued their voter registration efforts.  "’It is an attempt to fix a problem that doesn't exist. We do not have voter fraud in Florida,’” claims Hillsborough League of Women Voters President Mickey Castor who notes that there have been only three arrests for voter fraud in Florida since 2008.” (Read more: http://tiny.cc/fzioc)

Basically, the truth is there isn’t a problem of fraud by individual voters trying to vote twice, using the list of people in the local cemeteries or like claims. Yes, there are other problems, such as machines being tampered with to increase the size of a certain candidate’s vote. The requirement for voter ID doesn’t address the real problem. Instead it diverts the public’s attention from the real man being the voter curtain: the ghost in the voting machines.

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