The Complete Myth of Voter Fraud

How completely ironic is it that all of this manufactured nonsense about voter fraud is now biting the Republicans in the VA presidential primary.   In a great article by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post, Ezra Klein brings out a couple of great points:

"But other Republicans — and most of the candidates — have turned their fire on Virginia. Ken Cuccinelli, the state’s attorney general, was particularly unsparing about the access laws. “Virginia won’t be nearly as ‘fought over’ as it should be in the midst of such a wide open nomination contest,” he wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “Our own laws have reduced our relevance. Sad. I hope our new GOP majorities will fix this problem so that neither party confronts it again.”

He hopes, in other words, that Virginia will make it easier for Republican candidates to get on the ballot, so Virginia’s voters are better able to participate in the election. It’s a noble goal, and one many Republicans share. But it runs counter to the efforts Republicans have mounted in dozens of states to make it more difficult for ordinary Americans to participate in the 2012 election."

This manufactured problem by the Republicans is best exemplified by this Ari Berman article in Rolling Stone that Ezra Klein points out in his article:

"As Ari Berman detailed in an article this summer for Rolling Stone, these laws have mostly been introduced by Republicans, who have justified them largely on fraud-prevention grounds. The only problem is that it’s been extremely hard for advocates of more restrictive voting laws to prove that fraud is a problem.

As Berman wrote, “A major probe by the Justice Department between 2002 and 2007 failed to prosecute a single person for going to the polls and impersonating an eligible voter, which the anti-fraud laws are supposedly designed to stop. Out of the 300 million votes cast in that period, federal prosecutors convicted only 86 people for voter fraud — and many of the cases involved immigrants and former felons who were simply unaware of their ineligibility.” 

Stated another way, that is a problem that happens at MOST .0000286666 percent of the time. 

 Perhaps Stephen Colbert said it best as Ezra Klein brings out in his article:

Joked comedian and political satirist Stephen Colbert: “Our democracy is under siege from an enemy so small it could be hiding anywhere.”