Analysis: Who’s afraid of absentee balloting in Israel?

The Jerusalem Post ^ | 4/30/2015 | GIL HOFFMAN

[Jan_Sobieski]

Dozens of countries around the world have allowed their citizens who happen to be abroad on Election Day to vote by absentee for decades.

Practically speaking, absentee balloting is more necessary in a country like Israel, where elections are set three months in advance, than in the United States, where Americans know their presidential races will be held every four years in November.

So why is absentee balloting for Israelis such a controversial issue, and why have governments promised it for years and never delivered? To answer the first question, it is important to understand the ethos of Israeli society.

Despite their diversity, Israelis see themselves as united under a constant threat from their enemies.

Former American secretary of defense Robert Gates said there are more missiles in southern Lebanon aimed at Israel than there are in any place in the world, aimed at any place in the world. Then there are the threats from Iran, Syria, the Palestinians, etc.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Who's afraid? Anyone with a brain!

Twelve thousand noncitizens registered to vote in Colorado; apparently 5,000 of those voted in 2010. A recent report in North Carolina by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas (of ACORN-undercover expose` fame) compared records of registered voters to prospective jurors disqualified due to noncitizenship, but who then voted in North Carolina in 2010. The State of Florida is suing the Department of Homeland Security to obtain a list of noncitizens in order to purge the state's voter rolls before the 2012 election, and was just sued in return by the Barack Obama-Eric Holder Department of Justice with a lawsuit for purging its rolls, which is required by federal law.

Despite the steady reports of election fraud cases, updated regularly on the Republican National Lawyers Association "Vote Fraud Map," there persists a left-wing, Democratic Party-led drumbeat of "vote fraud deniers," who ignore the cases and complain loudly that there is no vote fraud.

And since there is no vote fraud, there is no need to try to prevent it, according to the liberal mantra. It is a federal crime for an illegal alien to register to vote or to vote in U.S. elections. Yet, rather than enforcing federal law, the Obama-Holder Department of Justice is intent upon punishing states that purge their rolls or enact laws requiring voter ID.

The Obama-Holder Department of Justice ignores the facts. Tennessee recently enacted a voter photo identification requirement. Its experience in its March primary demonstrates the fallacy of liberal opposition to voter ID. There were 645,775 votes cast in the Tennessee primary, and only 266 persons did not show a photo ID at the polls (including liberal activists protesting the law by appearing at the polls without a photo ID). Those 266 individuals were allowed to vote provisionally and if they returned with their photo ID, their ballots were counted. 112 of them did so, leaving only 154 voters of the 645,775 who did not return with a photo ID. That represents .023 percent of the total primary voters.

In America today, a photo ID is required to buy beer or cigarettes, get married, get on an airplane, or enter the Department of Justice to meet with Eric Holder. Voter and election fraud does exist in America today. The Obama-Holder Department of Justice should be aggressively seeking to ensure the integrity of America's elections, instead of throwing punches at the states who are trying to do the department's job.

Such fraud can take several forms. For example: Political parties, campaign organizations or other groups can perpetrate organized fraud by obtaining and voting fraudulent absentee or mail-in ballots.

Interested groups can organize large-scale “commercialization of the vote” or vote buying—for example, by providing incentives for otherwise uninterested voters to go to the polls and vote in a certain way or coordinate efforts to help enough voters vote more than once. Local election administrators or poll workers can commit clear-cut fraud through vote rigging, by not counting or destroying ballots, allowing votes that should have been barred, and tampering with ballots.