Voter Fraud: North Carolina

Voter Fraud

For the record, I am FOR voter ID.  To think otherwise is nothing more than pure political gamesmanship.  In today’s world, to obtain a photo ID is next to trivial.

With that said, I acknowledge that voter fraud is rare.

Ladies and gentleman, North Carolina:

4 responses to “Voter Fraud: North Carolina

  1. This is a handful of people with very suspicious anecdotal evidence from a group with a somewhat spotty record. I can’t know for sure whether these people are lying, but when people tell incredible stories that lack any evidence, when they didn’t file incident reports at the time, when the absence of a crease in a bill is considered proof positive that the person is committing voter fraud…I have a hard time believing them.

    Is there any reason to think those brand new energy bills weren’t printed that day, instead of being mailed? Why would people go up and ask a poll watcher how to complete their nefarious deed? As for the elderly person getting help voting, is there any reason to think it isn’t a grandparent whose grandson went in to help them because they’ve lost their eyesight? Why didn’t the elderly person tell someone that they were coerced? Did they pitch a fit? Of course not, or it would have been mentioned in the account.

    I’m not saying that voter fraud never happens; it does. But it happens on the order of thousandths of a percent. Is there any system in the world where you would consider an overhaul to the eligibility rules because of a margin of error of thousandths of a percent?

    • I’m not saying that voter fraud never happens; it does. But it happens on the order of thousandths of a percent.

      I agree – I’m not claiming that this is occurring on an order that is large enough to justify this much attention. Equally true is that requiring an ID is of the same magnitude as it relates to obtaining one.

      Voter fraud occurs at a rate to be worried of equal to the rate of people who cannot obtain an ID.

      If it doesn’t matter – then it doesn’t matter.

      Now, I’ve begun to try and think of a way in which voter fraud could be detected. Unless someone stole the identity of someone who later came in to vote – it would be next to impossible to catch them and record it as occurring. I then thought what crime would occur in roughly the same numbers – I couldn’t think of one.

      But it did get me to look:

      1,165.6 – Burglary
      2,345.1 – Larceny
      219.0 – Auto theft

      Those are rates per 100,000 in North Carolina. I have no idea if faking an identity in NC is easy, hard or worth the risk of getting caught. But I do know that both Obama and Hillary faked the signatures of hundreds of people in Chicago in order to get them on the ballot.

      In any event, I rest on my point, fraud is low to the point of non-issue, but so is requiring an ID. So, if democrats are in power and don’t wanna pursue it – fine. If republicans are in power and DO wanna pursue it, that should be fine too.

      • The thing is that getting an ID card is not actually that easy all the time. Look at California:

        When you go to the local DMV on your appointment day, be prepared to do the following:

        Fill out an application form (DL 44C).
        Have your thumbprint taken.
        Have your picture taken.
        Provide your Social Security number.
        Show proof of your birth date and legal presence.
        Pay your fee with check, cash, or debit card (at some DMVs). No credit cards.

        So, in order to vote you have to be fingerprinted, photographed, provide documentation of your birth date and residence, and pay a (small) fee, all 60 days before you want to vote. The last one bugs me the most; we’ve made great strides towards letting people vote right after registering, which is a feature not a bug.

        Or look at Illinois:

        Illinois requires at least four pieces of documentation for a first-time applicant for an identification card. All listed pieces of identification must be originals, not copies. In some cases, notarized or certified copies may be accepted, but this is at the discretion of the examining employee. Any document that looks suspicious will not be accepted.

        Granted, a voter id law may accept some of these other forms of ID, or it may not, but I suspect the language would read “A state-issued identification with photograph, name, and address,” which means driver’s license or state ID.

        One other aspect that gets lost in this, voter ID not only makes it harder for people to vote (which should never be allowed unless absolutely necessary, even if it’s just a bit harder), it also discourages people from voting at all. Putting more roadblocks in the way of exercising our democratic rights and duties means fewer people will choose to participate, which is bad.

        • Look at California:

          and

          Or look at Illinois:

          Are you really using two of the most liberal, democrat controlled states and point to government over regulation as reason why something can’t get done?

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