Posted on 02/05/2016 10:05:42 PM PST by Olog-hai
Voter fraud is, for all intents and purposes, practically nonexistent. The best available research on the topic, by Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, found only 31 credible incidents of voter impersonation in an investigation of over 1 billion votes cast.
But that hasn't dampened Republican efforts to pass a spate of strict voter ID laws since 2008. And it hasn't hurt the public's overall enthusiasm for those laws, either.
But the results of a new working paper from political scientists at University of California, San Diego suggest folks may want to consider. The researchers analyzed turnout in recent elections -- between 2008 and 2012 -- in states that did and did not implement the strictest form of voter ID laws. They found that these laws consistently and significantly decreased turnout not just among traditionally Democratic-leaning groups, like blacks and Hispanics, but among Republican voters too.
The findings are notable because they're some of the first using data in elections that took place after some states implemented photo ID requirements to vote. Previous studies on the effects of these laws showed mixed results. A 2014 report by the Government Accountability Office examined 10 of these studies. Five showed no significant effect of voter ID laws on turnout, four found a significant decrease in turnout, and one found, paradoxically, that the laws increased turnout. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This from a Political Party that refuses to release the vote tally in Iowa to one of the candidates. Hilarious.
This is garbage.
Voter ID does not discriminate against anyone .. in fact it is the surest way that EVERYONE’s vote is counted.
Yeah sure that is why we have a Black President. I did not read article because they suck and lie what is the point really.
Christopher Ingraham lies like 0bama. One of my favorite conundrums is where Scott Walker won going away in a recall election in Wisconsin in June 2012 - yet a mere four (4) months later, Barack Obama walked away with Wisconsin's electoral votes.
When the article starts out with such an outrageous lie, why bother going any further.
From the same people who tells us global warming is settled science.
Oh gosh, now somebody has to come on here and give the old explanation of causation and correlation.
What is more interesting than this psuedo-research is that 31 incidents in a billion is, statistically, almost impossible. The number would be far higher even by complete random chance.
It is probably true as far as it goes. Eliminating voter fraud definetly favors republicans.
all those banks that require an ID to oen an account or cash a check...are they discriminating against minorities???
are states that require ID to buy alcohol discriminating against minorities??
are airports discriminating against minorities for requiring IDs to be shown???
are pharmacies discriminating against minorities for requiring ID when buys certain over the counter medicines????
Don’t think they won’t go there!
When we conservatives and Republicans say, “Vote early ... and often!” well, we’re just joking.
Democrats say it with a straight face, and that’s why they don’t want more safeguards.
We know it’s true and so do they.
If one doesn’t support a secure verified voting system that guarantees people who are ineligible to vote can not then one supports the minimizing of the vote of the citizen whether it be black, white, hispanic, asian, or whatever.
The argument that voter fraud doesn’t exist is a lie and because we don’t have a voting system that really prevents it let alone actively seeks to detect it. The left said the same thing about welfare fraud and yet in the 90s they discovered countless cases as states began integrating their welfare databases and low and behold it was found that many people were collecting benefits in multiple counties in multiple states.
The one thing that is certain is that if people know that no one is watching someone will abuse that fact and its not even very hard to commit voter fraud as has been proven in secret camera attempts.
How does he determine this "fact" without a robust voter ID process?
I see claims, but no proof.
turnout changes with enthusiasm. it changes with population trends. these things happen both in the general population as well as within sub groups. 4 out of 10 had lower turnout. meaningless.
Voting Procedures in Honduras, a Banana Republic!
(a re-write of excellent post by Gideon300)
I had the opportunity to go watch my wife, a citizen of Honduras, vote in last years presidential election in Tegucigalpa. It was a real eye-opener, and I can only wish the US had such a strict voting process.
Everyone in Honduras is required to vote only in the precinct as indicated on their government issued (free) photo ID card. Every citizen over 18 is required to have an national ID, and everyone with an ID can vote. No one else, and no one is registered as a member of a certain party, merely a citizen. My wifes precinct is Barrio El Bosque, so she was required to go to the Escuela de 14 de Julio (local elementary school) if she wanted to vote.
When we arrived at the voting place there were hundreds of people milling around the street and a long line was waiting to enter. The entire scene was closely watched over by Army and PolicÃa Nacional to make sure order was kept. For the most part everything was quite orderly, and people were polite to each other even with the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. After showing ID, passing the guard and entering the school we went to the main table in the courtyard where they ran her ID through a computer and she was given a little slip of paper that indicated her name, her precinct, her ^mesa^ (voting area) and ^linea^ number (her number on the voter registration list). Every citizen is automatically registered to vote, and their name, Id photo and precinct number is on a list posted in that precinct.
The ^mesas^ in this case are rooms in the school, numbered in order to handle the hundreds of people waiting to vote. Her mesa was number 8586, so after finding the room, there was a list of all registered voters beside the door. She checked her line number with photo, 235, to make sure she is at the right door, the man watching the door checked her ID against the list, and let her in. She went to the table inside the room
for a ballot, was checked again for ID and compared it to the info and photo in the registry, was given two ballots, one for president and one for congress, and this time they held her ID while she voted. I was allowed in as a foreign observer, but was not on school tables for privacy, so after voting she deposited her ballots in the appropriate boxes, was given her ID back and we left.
I wanted to take photos but no cameras were allowed anywhere but in the street. No alcohol is sold anywhere in Honduras from Saturday through Monday, the day before and the day after election.
They take voter ID, and potential vote fraud, VERY seriously. All ballots are paper, and all have the candidates info and photo. There are eight official parties in Honduras, and the one with the most votes wins. The police and the army watch the voting very closely. One woman was caught with an extra ballot, and was immediately arrested. The Honduras news media, which is quite politically unbiased, indicated that both local and official foreign observers found only three cases of vote fraud in the entire country.
It was certainly an eye-opener for me! If this is the difference between a the US and a Banana Republic, then I will take a banana republic election anytime.
They do discriminate against the deceased and against people who vote more than once per election.
from http://www.iowadatacenter.org/quickfacts (The Iowa Data Center) Iowa Demographics:
Race and Hispanic or Latino (2014)1
White alone: 91.3%
Black or African American alone: 3.1%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone: 0.3%
Asian alone: 2.2%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone: 0.1%
Two or more races: 1.9%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 5.5%
White alone, not Hispanic or Latino: 87.1%
I’m not sure how this favors the ‘white’ voters in any significant way.
This explains why only white men are drunks who die from lung cancer, as you need ID to buy alcohol and cigarettes...
The quickest way for Democrats to become advocates for voter ID is for Conservatives to start multiple-voting on election day.
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