Thanks to a press leak, it is now public that the US Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) commissioned a report to find out about voter fraud. According to USA Today, the EAC’s report shows that there is no evidence that significant numbers of voters are lying about their identity at the polls, voting twice, or voting in the name of dead people. Let me repeat that: NO EVIDENCE.
While this has long been suspected by those of us who have fought discriminatory attempts to address “voter fraud” (e.g. voter ID bills that would, in effect, create a poll tax for poor, elderly and minority citizens who don’t have or need government issued ID in their regular lives), the EAC report makes it official: voter fraud does not present a health risk to our democracy. That is, it would be official if the EAC had released it. … But it won’t release it.
Please petition the EAC to release the report at http://www.ReleaseTheReport.com
From an email I just got.
I'll agree with you that your average American voter tends to be an honest person, but that's rarely where the blame for vote fraud is placed. Typically, it's farther up in the party hierarchy, or an election official acting in bad faith, as was the case with the absentee ballots in the recent Detroit mayoral election, or assorted elections in Illinois over the years, etc. It's not the people trying to game the system, it's the political parties, and they are the ones which need oversight when it comes to the electoral process. The trouble is that everyone in politics, is by definition, political, and a member of some sort of political party.
Right, which is why requiring ID and other things is just a way to decrease the number of minorities or non-drivers from voting – people voting that shouldn't isn't really a problem so why the big deal? Well, the problem is that the minorities, non-drivers, and people who can't justify the expense of a state ID because they don't use it are disenfranchised by these rules.
They didn't have photo ID when the constitution was drafted, and never required that a voter be positively identified.
In any event, registering to vote is free, at least in my experience. I also don't think that the cost of a state ID is too exorbitant for anyone.
However, when the Constitution was drafted, most people lived in small towns where everyone knew everyone else by sight, if not acquaintance. Philadelphia, New York and Boston were notable exceptions.