(Voter Fraud:) Another Urban Legend

[Wilms]

Another urban legend

Sept. 9, 2006

Gregory Stanford

snip

"We don't have a lot of evidence of fraud," noted Toby Moore, the project manager for the Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker and organized by the Center for Democracy and Election Management at American University.

snip

In a forum in Milwaukee last week, former Madison U.S. Attorney J.B. Van Hollen said, "Yes, I believe voter fraud is a significant problem in Wisconsin." Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher seconded that notion. The two are vying for the Republican nomination for attorney general.

snip

They talked as if double-voting was rife - which raises the question about their own prosecutorial record in that regard.

So as a member of the panel tossing questions, I asked them how many double-voters they put behind bars.

None, admitted Van Hollen. "It's very difficult to prove," rationalized Bucher. "Just because you haven't prosecuted those cases doesn't mean it's not a problem."

snip

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=493502

[RC]

1. Voter Fraud? How about wholesale Election Fraud?

[StClone]

2. Wisconsinites should know

Because the Repiggies running the House are always squealing and telling tales of unidentified bums getting packs of cigs to vote Dem, or the dead rising to vote again and again. BOO! Hope I didn't scare you. Strict voter i.d. legislation is needed to fend off these cheese-coated urban legends they swear.

[freedomfries]

3. Good article!

Thanks for posting, Wilms!

[diva77]

4. here's an article from 1998 that is the earliest I could find that

documents the planting of the seed of another urban myth -- "Elections officials across the country are hearing complaints about blatantly incompetent voters tarnishing the electoral system." {a fine excuse for ushering in those paperless DREs}

http://www.sptimes.com/State/113098/Debate_surrounds_voti.html

Debate surrounds voting rights

Advocates say developmentally disabled voters deserve and cherish the right to vote. Others call it an abuse of the electoral system.


By ADAM C. SMITH

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 30, 1998

?T. PETERSBURG -- In some ways, William J. Kennedy could be a model for all voters.

?William J. Kennedy, who sas cerebral palsy and is mildly retarded, proudly displays his "I Voted" sticker on his wheelchair.
<snip>
The voting booth today is America's great equalizer, where a genius millionaire has the same influence as an unemployed, retarded citizen. Advocates say encouraging retarded people to vote helps once disenfranchised citizens become functioning members of society, taking control of their lives.

Others see it as abusing the election system, letting ill-equipped people blindly cast votes or, worse, be exploited by "helpers" telling them how to vote.

<snip>

McGowan said she watched staffers from PARC bring a number of retarded citizens to her precinct, and she listened as two women from the agency helped Kennedy and another retarded voter in the booth. Both women from PARC said more or less the same thing.

"She said, "You want to vote for Bush, don't you? You like Bush. Don't you like Bush?' I never heard her even mention Buddy MacKay's name," McGowan recounted.

"The only conclusion I could make was they were bringing in retarded people and having them vote Republican. . . . I believe strongly that everyone should have the right to vote -- if they know what they're doing. This is a disgrace, taking advantage of those illiterate people like that," she said. PARC officials -- including one of the women McGowan watched -- strongly denied that they intentionally swayed any of their clients' voting and said McGowan must have misunderstood. Several PARC staffers laughed at the thought of social workers trying to put a Republican in the governor's mansion.

<snip>

Elections officials across the country are hearing complaints about blatantly incompetent voters tarnishing the electoral system.

The issue is bubbling up more frequently as social workers increasingly encourage retarded citizens to become more active participants in society. Disabilities laws also have made it easier to vote, and the "motor voter" law of 1993 is pushing state social service agencies to register their residents to vote.

Selena Roe, director of the PARC apartments where Kennedy lives, said some of the concerns stem from people not understanding retarded citizens. For instance, she said, Kennedy's mental capacity to some people might seem worse than it is because he has cerebral palsy and is difficult to understand.

"I think you get into very dangerous ground when you start saying someone who's different should not not be able to vote," Roe said.

[Kurovski]

5. K&R.(nt)