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How Voter Fraud in Philadelphia Affect Us All

By 2banana

According to CNN, Bush lost Pennsylvania to Kerry by 144,248 votes (out of more than 5.7 million cast - a razor thin margin that was even closer than the "too close to call" Ohio vote).

Also according to CNN, Kerry received about 542,000 votes and Bush received about 130,000 votes in Philadelphia (or a ratio of 4.16 for Kerry).

Now, for the really interesting numbers. According to the recent US Census, the Population of Philadelphia that is of voting age is 1,105,066. This number includes people who by law can not vote (non-American citizens, felons, out of state college students, etc.). In 2004, there were 1,035,395 registered voters in Philadelphia, up 34,000 from 2001.

So, what does this mean?

First, even as Philadelphia looses population, the number of registered voters continues to increase, year after year. Today, in Philadelphia, nearly 100% of every person of voting age must registered to vote (as compared to a national average of 60% by the Census Bureau). Consider, since 1995, Philadelphia's voter rolls have jumped 24 percent while at the same time that the city's population has declined by 13 percent.

Second, the total lopsidedness of the 4.16 ratio is an absolutely astounding number - even heavily democratic Broward Country, FL (one of the only places Gore wanted recounted in 2000) only went for Kerry 2:1 and Cook County, IL (Chicago - THE definition of the democrat voting machine) only went for Kerry 2.5:1.

Either Philadelphia has the most engaged and civic population in the history of the World, or there is massive voter fraud.

And the amount of fraud easily exceeds the margin of loss of President Bush. For instance, if the registration was above average and if Philadelphia was just your "average-democrat-rustbelt-city-union-stronghold with a 50 year democrat political machine," the vote for Kerry in Philadelphia would have been just over 350,000. The voter fraud in Philadelphia is worth about 150,000 votes - a deficit that any Republican running for statewide office must overcome with real votes.

But is this "real" fraud or is it one of the easily predicted "unintended consequences" of the Clinton Motor-Voter Law? A few nights before the 2004 presidential election, Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Andrea Mitchell and the Mayor of Philadelphia (John Street) were on Hardball. They were all laughing away about how the election was great for the economy of Philadelphia, and suggesting that there would plenty of "street money" around to "get out the vote." And these are the same people who are going to stop or report any kind of voter fraud?

I find it ironic that a country like Afghanistan (where I had combat tour of duty), with no history of democracy, has a country wide and nearly fraud free election under the oversight of us - Americans. But we instituted a few rules like - you had to prove you are an Afghan, you had to get a voter ID, show the voter ID when you voted, your name had to match the voter roll, and you had to get your thumb stamped by permanent ink so you couldn't vote twice.

Maybe, one day, in Philadelphia, we will have free and fair elections with a minimum of fraud on the level of the recent vote in Afghanistan.