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Excellent John Stewart segment on the issue of voting fraud and these voter ID laws. For the most part, not a single example of fraud was found, so it's hard to

Excellent John Stewart segment on the issue of voting fraud and these voter ID laws. For the most part, not a single example of fraud was found, so it's hard to justify laws that disenfranchise large segments of society. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/jon-stewart-slams-voter-id-laws-nonexistent-in-person-fraud_n_1935344.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/jon-stewart-slams-v...

waterlesscloud 14y ago
I can buy that voter fraud is pretty limited. But it's simply untrue that there's not a single example. People are convicted and go to jail for it. Not many, but some. Saying they don't seriously undermines the credibility of the argument.
- peteforde 14y ago
  Allocating massive resources to stamping out a statistically insignificant issue (given that we have no intelligence on who those votes are for, the end result is moot) makes it hard to take Republican voter ID frenzy at face value. Those strategists are smart and they know exactly what happens if you make it harder for the down-trodden to vote. Moderate, intelligent Republicans should be embarrassed by Voter ID. Is this the small government you keep referring to?
- _delirium 14y ago
  That's true, the more careful version of the argument is that it's in such minute quantities that it could not possibly swing elections. In addition, to the extent any voter fraud does happen, it's extremely rare for it to be of the kind where voter ID would solve the problem, i.e. people voting under false identities. The most common kinds of voter fraud are people with perfectly legitimate documents, e.g. voting in both your old and new residence in the same election, under your real name with a real ID in both cases. Or, registering in a jurisdiction that isn't actually your primary residence. Some numbers I can find for Texas: they convict about 5 people/year for voter fraud, of which 0.3/year are of the false-identity variety. (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/voter-fraud-real-rare/story?id=17213376 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/voter-fraud-real-rare/st...)

waterlesscloud 14y ago

I can buy that voter fraud is pretty limited. But it's simply untrue that there's not a single example. People are convicted and go to jail for it. Not many, but some. Saying they don't seriously undermines the credibility of the argument.

peteforde 14y ago
Allocating massive resources to stamping out a statistically insignificant issue (given that we have no intelligence on who those votes are for, the end result is moot) makes it hard to take Republican voter ID frenzy at face value. Those strategists are smart and they know exactly what happens if you make it harder for the down-trodden to vote. Moderate, intelligent Republicans should be embarrassed by Voter ID. Is this the small government you keep referring to?
_delirium 14y ago
That's true, the more careful version of the argument is that it's in such minute quantities that it could not possibly swing elections. In addition, to the extent any voter fraud does happen, it's extremely rare for it to be of the kind where voter ID would solve the problem, i.e. people voting under false identities. The most common kinds of voter fraud are people with perfectly legitimate documents, e.g. voting in both your old and new residence in the same election, under your real name with a real ID in both cases. Or, registering in a jurisdiction that isn't actually your primary residence. Some numbers I can find for Texas: they convict about 5 people/year for voter fraud, of which 0.3/year are of the false-identity variety. (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/voter-fraud-real-rare/story?id=17213376 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/voter-fraud-real-rare/st...)