Politicians and Voting Rights Advocates continue to clash over whether Photo ID and other voting requirements are needed to prevent voter fraud, but all analysis and recent Court rulings show little evidence that such fraud is widespread.
An analysis four years ago of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases in 50 states found that while some fraud had occurred since 2000, the rate was infinitesimal compared with the 146 million registered voters in a 12-year span. The analysis found only 10 cases of voter impersonation, the only kind of fraud that could be prevented by Voter ID at the polls.
This year, review of cases in Arizona, Ohio, Georgia, Texas and Kansas, where politicians have expressed concern about voter fraud, and found hundreds of allegations but few prosecutions between 2012 and 2016.
Attorneys General in those states successfully prosecuted 38 cases, though other cases may have been litigated at the County level. At least one-third of those cases involved non-voters, such as Elections Officials or Volunteers. None of the cases prosecuted was for voter impersonation.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said that the number of fraud cases is beside the point. “All it takes is one person whose vote is canceled by someone not voting legally and that’s a problem,” he said. “I always tell folks who oppose the ID law, tell me whose vote they want canceled out.”
I wish Gov. Walker would care as much about each eligible voter who has been denied the right to vote because of the State’s strict voter id law when the voter cannot get the Photo ID through no fault of their own. Maybe he should give up his own vote until all of those people get the ID’s they deserve, or better, can vote by more methods like affidavit or utility bill.
As I've been writing for a long time, Photo ID will not stop the fraud using Absentee ballots. I haven't found a complete solution yet. But here is a start.
When a voter asks for an Absentee ballot, they are mailed the ballot and in a separate mailing a security code. This code they add to the Absentee ballot must match for the ballot to be counted. When we go to online voting, the security code should still be mailed, that is snail-mail not emailed.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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