Voter ID laws: sensible regulation or attempts at voter suppression?

Thirty-three states, most with Republican controlled legislatures and governorships, passed strict voter identification laws in 2011 and 2012, purportedly aiming to stop voter fraud.

Most of these laws tighten up the process of getting voter identification cards, sometimes weeding out ineligible voters, but in many cases the result is that end up dumping longtime legitimate voters from the rolls because of the cost and hassle of obtaining the new ID cards.

And now, in Massachusetts, two bona fide cases of voting fraud have actually occurred and are illustrative of how typical voter fraud works.

Two weeks ago, United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced she had come to an agreement with state Rep. Stephen “Stat” Smith (D-Everett), under which Smith will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of voter fraud, resign from his seat and promise not to run again for public office for at least five years. According to Ortiz, Smith fraudulently obtained absentee ballots and sent them in, sometimes without the knowledge of the voters who were intended to receive those ballots.

And in October, former East Longmeadow Selectman Enrico “Jack” Villamaino pled not guilty to 12 voter fraud counts after he was accused of trying to rig absentee ballots in his unsuccessful Republican primary race for the Legislature.

Are voter ID laws justified?

Do these kinds of cases justify the passage of new voter ID laws or, as many Democrats and others contend, have these laws been a coordinated attempt to suppress voter turnout among the traditional Democratic constituencies of minorities and poor people?

Unfortunately, it appears many Republicans believe, with growing numbers of minorities and other traditionally disenfranchised groups going to the polls in greater numbers, the only way to stop this trend is to pass voter ID laws and claim these laws are some kind of antidote to a growing voter fraud problem.

But the facts just don’t back up their assertions.

Voter ID laws only stop one kind of voter fraud – where an individual shows up at the polls and pretends he or she is someone else. These cases of voter fraud are so rare that in Pennsylvania, for example, where a tough voter ID law was passed, the Republicans admitted they had not found a single case of in-person voter fraud. The record in other states hasn’t proved any more damning. There is simply no evidence that impersonation voter fraud is a problem anywhere in the country, but the Republicans persist.

But what about the recent cases in Massachusetts? Don’t they prove that voter fraud is real?

Voter fraud is real, but almost all cases in recent years have involved candidates or collusion between candidates and election officials and do not involve individuals trying to vote fraudulently. Such was the case with the Massachusetts state representative who recently resigned and the unsuccessful candidate in East Longmeadow.

In neither case did the candidate show up at the polls and pretend to be someone else. They fraudulently procured absentee ballots and tried voting for themselves by submitting those ballots. Massachusetts hasn’t passed any new voter ID law, nor would one stop any kind of voter fraud except in-person voter fraud.

And since this kind of voter fraud barely exists, attempts to fix the “problem” through laws that make it harder for people to vote are no more than cynical political moves to suppress voting by the party in power’s political opponents.

This was best shown in a video of the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party giving a speech to fellow Republicans last year. He was reciting the Legislature’s accomplishments and cited the state’s new voter ID law. And then he completely gave away the game by saying the measure would ensure Mitt Romney won the state.

Happily, the courts have blocked some of the more egregious laws and others are under challenge. And President Barack Obama suggested in a recent speech the nation needs to set national standards for voter eligibility and not leave it up to the states.

Otherwise, what’s next for voters in these 33 states that have passed voter ID laws? Poll taxes and literacy tests?

Footnote

GOP officials have not only engaged in a cynical exercise in voter suppression, but they have been abetted by their own voters, who are woefully ignorant about elections and voting.

In a Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll taken shortly after the November election, nearly 50 percent of responding Republicans claimed the liberal group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) was responsible for widespread voting fraud that ended up reelecting Obama. The only problem with this is ACORN disbanded in 2010 and was nowhere to be seen in 2012.

Posted by Bruce Garlow on January 3, 2013. Filed under Berkshire Beacon Hill Spotlight,Columns,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry