Posted on 02/20/2017 5:55:02 PM PST by TigerClaws
The specter of voter fraud hangs over our electoral process and undermines the legitimacy of our elected leaders. Partisans on one side see fraudsters cavorting with the communists under their beds. Partisans on the other side claim that there is no such thing because no one is in prison for it.
The reality, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. American history is filled with stories of endemic voter fraud in corrupt political machines such as Tammany Hall in New York. Chicago was notorious for votes cast by dead people, leading to the slogan “Vote early and often.”
The nation is also haunted by a shameful history of voter suppression, most notably the suppression of the voting rights of African-Americans in the South. African-Americans were systematically deprived of their voting rights through a series of obstacles, including expensive poll taxes, unpassable “literacy” tests and outright violence.
Without some method of determining who actually voted, it is virtually impossible to detect voter fraud. It is not surprising that there are no prosecutions for a crime that is nearly undetectable. Voter fraud is as close to the perfect crime as possible. A political operative, armed with the names of registered voters who have recently died or moved, could easily vote in dozens of precincts in a single day with little chance of detection.
A handful of such operatives could swing a very close election. With passions riding high in a polarized political climate, it stands to reason that some partisans would be willing to commit fraud. These partisans could be lone wolves motivated by the passions of the election or part of a conspiracy within a campaign organization. They may be willing to commit voter fraud just to offset feared fraud from the other side.
One proposed solution is to have strict voter identification (ID) laws. People who show up at the polls without the right paperwork would be denied the vote. This sounds reasonable on its face, as most citizens of voting age have some form of identification. Indeed, people have to regularly show identification just to function in our society.
Alas, there are many reasons why a legitimate voter may show up at the polls without proper ID. The elderly person who has chosen to stop driving may have an expired driver’s license. The man who was mugged yesterday may not have been able to replace his identification in time to vote.
A harried mom may show up at the voting booth and discover that her husband drove off to work with her purse in his car. A person with a recent name change, such as a newly married woman, may have identification that does not match an old voter registration database.
Draconian voter ID laws provide yet another obstacle to voting that will disproportionately affect the poor, the busy and the differently abled. Given our sad history of voter suppression, many voter ID proposals are seen as yet another attempt to suppress historically disenfranchised voters.
Political parties that propose draconian measures are hurting their chances with minority voters, who see voter ID laws as nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to resurrect Jim Crow.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to deter voter fraud and provide strong evidence with which to convict fraudsters — fingerprints. If a person shows up at the polls without proper identification, they should be required to leave a fingerprint. They could put a fingerprint on a form on which they attest their identity under penalty of perjury.
This process would be very cheap. It costs next to nothing to take a fingerprint, and follow up investigations would only be needed if there were other suspicions of voter fraud or the election was close enough to require a recount. Everyone has fingerprints, so there is no possibility of someone showing up without identification.
If there is a suspicion of illegal voting, the fingerprint can later be checked against law enforcement databases to verify identity. This makes it easy to prove who actually voted in that precinct on that day. A fingerprint would provide irrefutable evidence that would lead to a conviction.
Such biometric evidence will serve as an extremely strong deterrent to voter fraud. Any potential fraudster would be reluctant to leave behind such strong evidence proving that they were lying about their identity. Faced with a near certainty of detection and conviction, most potential fraudsters will decline to take the risk.
The integrity of our electoral process is a necessary foundation for our society. As some elections are very close, even a very small amount of voter fraud can hijack an election. Our elections, like Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicion.
Requiring fingerprints of those who show up at the polls without identification is a cost-effective measure that will deter voter fraud by making it easier to detect. I call upon our political class to adopt this simple compromise to protect the integrity of our political process.
I was told that all those people submitting DNA to Ancestry.com for analysis, that those records on that database are then available to the authorities should they wish to run a check. Would like to know the truth of that???
And the law used to be if you were deported for any reason you could never re-enter the U.S. If this law is still in effect it should be well advertised so that those here illegally can self deport and sign up to come in legally or forever lose their chance.
Fingerprinting?
No. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.
Valid citizen ID only. No citizen ID for non-citizens.
First ensure that all registered voters are citizens.
I do not want my fingerprints in any more databases than they already are. Picture ID is good enough.
All criminals are members of a certain ethnic group.
Therefore, requiring fingerprints to vote is racis.
Q.E.D.
Do I really need a </sarcasm> tag???
absolutely agree.
Current federal law is that pictures may *not* be taken at polling places.
It supposedly “suppresses” voter turnout!
That law is absurd!! immediately change that law forth with.
It would require an alternative method. My mother-in-law worked as a florist for 20+ years and has almost no finger prints.
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Texas does something similar unless they've changed in the last four years. You register with
the County and get a registration card. On primary day you go to the polls and select which party's
primary you want to vote in. Your card is stamped with that party and you you are committed to that
party runoffs, etc. At the beginning of the next two year cycle you are mailed a new registration
card which isn't forward-able. It is to be returned to the registrar if not delivered and your name is
struck from the voter roles. Thus you must change your address or register again to keep you in the
correct voting district.
A digital finger print could verify instantly whether the voter has voted already.
Plus, if you tie an encrypted key to the person, you could now remove illegal votes without bias.
I think the segment of the population that would abstain from voting in this scenario would be more on the right. So this would potentially benefit the democrats.
I think a lot of Democrats - not yet arrested for various crimes - would not show up to vote!
uh...no.
Fingerprinting is a terrible idea.
The Hill is a fairly leftist org. So they are providing talking points as to why no method will work to stop voter registration fraud and then subsequent fraudulent voting.
So they propose fingerprinting as the draconian answer to the problem.
In order to clean up the election mess the first step is that all registered voters must appear in person and present PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP to their Registrar of Voters. If a person does not show up, their name is removed from the voter registration roll.
That step will clean up 95% of the fraudulent election issue.
The second step is to require a photo ID to vote or to receive an absentee ballot. Thje second step will fix the remaining 5% of fraudulent election issues.
You might be onto something. What it comes down to is whether criminals among the democrats outnumber those on the right who don’t trust the government. Tough call, but the dems might have the higher numbers here.
I hate early and absentee voting.
Absentee because they can fill out blank ballots all day long and early because it gives them more time to learn how many offsetting votes they need to manufacture.
No problem. Thousands of schools use photo visitor passes: takes photo of visitor and prints their face on the badge, for a penny. All you have to do is send it in to nat facial recognition and you have a non- duplicatable record. As a bonus wanted felons and illegals will not want their picture taken; they might end up in jail!
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