George Rebane
[This is the addended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 30 May 2014.]
Next Tuesday June 3rd Californians vote in their mid-term primaries. And the question of voter fraud resurfaces as regularly as clockwork. Traditionally conservatives are concerned and see it as problem that needs fixing, and liberals see nothing to worry about except that such worries are really designed to deny the vote to their constituencies. I believe both sides can make their cases.
The most obvious and hard to deny reality is that polls continue to show that Americans have concerns about our elections. Only 2 out of 5 believe elections are fair, and more than half the voters have no “confidence in the honesty of elections.”
What causes such a poor view of arguably the most sacrosanct institution in our democratic republic? Well, the documented stories of voter fraud, improprieties, and just plain incompetence in how elections are handled grow after every vote count. One reason for all this is that our voting systems and governing laws are very decentralized. What is required to vote in one state or smaller jurisdiction is quite different than the requirements in others. To systematically detect fraud is therefore difficult due to the apples and oranges problems when comparing factors which indicate fraud.
Legitimate concerns also point to recent elections that have been decided by as few as a couple of hundred votes out of millions, elections in which subsequent irregularities of a much higher number were discovered that could have thrown the results in the opposite direction.
Moreover, everyone knows of stories such as the ones about ‘voter bloat’ where more people are registered to vote than there are residents living there. Recently ten blue counties in Colorado turned up with such embarrassing numbers, and countless others are scattered across the country. Reports from local election boards and county commissions constantly identify such infractions as non-citizens registered and having voted. At the same time these officials claim that there is little they can do because there are no funds to properly investigate and pursue the violators.
Across the country voter databases are a mess. In a 2012 study Pew Research reported that 2.75 million people had active registrations in multiple states. Moreover, 24 million, or one out of eight, active registrations in the country are either totally invalid or “significantly inaccurate”, such as the 1.8 million dead people still listed as active voters.
And, of course, there is a history of outfits like ACORN which have been exposed and their staff members prosecuted for systematically attracting and coaching unqualified people in how to vote early and often. That organization was disbanded, but quickly resurrected itself in multiple follow-ons that are as active as ever in their attempts to improperly influence elections. In short, the beat goes on.
The often suggested cure for all this is to establish and issue voter-ID cards or national ID cards that can serve the same purpose. Liberals pounce on this idea as a blatant attempt to harass and intimidate their traditional constituencies among the poor and uneducated. And outfits like the Brennan Center at NYU have presented ‘research’ arguing against requirements for voter-ID and even proof of citizenship, claiming that millions would be kept from the polls. On the other hand organizations such as Judicial Watch and Heritage Foundation have systematically deconstructed such research, demonstrating bias toward pre-conceived results in both their survey questionnaires and data analyses. Adding to the confusion is the libertarian Cato Institute which argues against additional voter-ID requirements, stating that people already have sufficient identification to properly vet their qualifications to vote.
So what can we do? Unfortunately, precious little. First, remember to vote. And if you do have the time and energy, then become a poll watcher either at a polling place or later at the county elections office. Just make sure they don’t treat you as a potted plant and stick you in a corner where you can’t see anything, that’s against the law.
Finally, please take note that just because voter fraud prosecutions are few does not mean that there is little evidence of voter fraud.
My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on georgerebane.com where the addended transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively. However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
[Addendum] Judicial Watch has published ‘8 Things You Can Do Now to Help STOP Voter Fraud – A Citizen Guide to Ensuring Free and Fair Elections in 2014 and Beyond’ to advise voters at the grassroots level what to do to combat voter fraud. And organizations like True the Vote provide an update of what’s going on nationwide in the fight to keep elections fair and open. And to get a real snootfull on all sides of the issue, just google ‘voter fraud’.
rebanesruminations.com 
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