Posted on 03/31/2011 12:30:26 PM PDT by Liz
Republicans on the House Administration Committee want to shore up voter registration rules in the wake of a Colorado study that found as many as 5,000 non-citizens in the state took part in last year’s election.
Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), the panel’s chairman, called the study “a disturbing wake-up call” that should cause every state to review its safeguards to prevent illegal voting. “We simply cannot have an electoral system that allows thousands of non-citizens to violate the law and vote in our elections. We must do more to protect the integrity of our electoral processes,” Harper added.
Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican, told the panel that his department’s study identified nearly 12,000 people who were not citizens but were still registered to vote in Colorado. Of those non-citizen registered voters, nearly 5,000 took part in the 2010 general election in which Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican John Buck.
Colorado conducted the study by comparing the state’s voter registration database with driver’s license records. “We know we have a problem here. We don’t know the size of it,” Gessler said in testimony to Administration’s Elections subcommittee.
He told Harper that Colorado would look to create a registration system that would allow his department to ask that some people provide proof of their citizenship in writing. If individuals did not respond to the request, their registration as voters would be suspended.
Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas) raised doubts about the reporting, noting that the study itself said it was based on inconclusive data and that it was “impossible to provide precise numbers” on how many people who were registered to vote in the state were not citizens. Gonzalez asked Gessler, a former prosecutor, if he would have pursued a court case on such evidence.
Gessler responded that the goal of the study was to expose voter registration issues and pursue administrative avenues to resolve them. “We don’t have a screen for citizenship on the front end when people register to vote,” he said.
Pennsylvania is pushing legislation for voter ID. It needs to pass THIS YEAR. Every single state needs the same law. We can’t wait until next year, they will steal another election. Get those letter campaigns and phone calls going folks. This is priority one.
” GOOD SOLUTION Colorado would create a registration system that would ask proof of citizenship in writing. If individuals did not respond to the request, their registration as voters would be suspended. “
Now, add Commiefornia, and the rest.
Every citizen in the US needs to reregister to vote using picutre id and Birth certificate. Now that is a program I could support.
I’m with you. The fact that we don’t require this shows how stupid we(the politicians) are.
“Authorities wouldn’t identify the NJ hotel by name for fear it would spark retribution by savage drug cartels.”
Authorities announce to the world they are a bunch of cowardly pansies.
Yep. That too.
What amazes me is that they don’t have such systems. The “honor system” doesn’t quite cut it.
He told Harper that Colorado would look to create a registration system that would allow his department to ask that some people provide proof of their citizenship in writing. If individuals did not respond to the request, their registration as voters would be suspended.
Yeah lets try that with bank robbers, murderers and tax dodgers, send them a letter and if they dont respond take them off a list..they did that in Calif for welfare fraud, of course the recipient never responds and they go to see why and surprise they have moved. IDIOTS, should use IRS tactics make an example of a few give them hard time and publicize it !
Enough of this crap. Our voting rights, the value of our citizenship and our Constitution have all been liberalized, watered down and destroyed. NO MORE.
Boy, you can't get anything past the GOP.
They alienated much of their voting base by ignoring them or calling them racists or like Bush derisively calling them "vigilantes" for wanting America's immigration laws enforced and borders secured.
A decade too late, the GOP is starting to get a hint that all is not well.
Ping!
Thanks Liz.
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