The illuminati, UFO sightings, voter fraud and the DIA Death Camp are all theories eschewed by rational and educated people who know the difference between fantasy and reality. Yet one of these has become a central argument for a very specific piece of bad public policy. Can you guess which one?
Voter fraud can be defined as “Any person or group tampering with election results, voting or the democratic process.”
Over the past several years, some Republicans, such as bombastic and controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh, have repeated a claim that massive amounts of voter fraud are occurring in national elections. “I don’t know to what extent [voter fraud] will occur, but I do know the Democrats are counting on it and want it to happen. It is why they are so opposed to voter ID, photo ID, in order to vote,” Limbaugh said, earlier in September.
In order to combat this fraud, some propose requiring a photo ID before voting.
Not only is voter fraud a non-issue, but these voter ID laws do not offer a viable solution and instead tend to suppress minority voters.
The truth of the matter is that there is remarkably little voter fraud. There is no documented evidence of massive voter fraud abuses. The states that have conducted studies to establish a voter fraud incidence rate have found that for every one million votes cast in Ohio, four of them are fraudulent. In Washington, it is nine in 100,000. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, there have only been twenty-six federal voter fraud convictions in the last decade. In fact, a report published in the Denver Post found that in Colorado, only 0.001 percent of registered voters had done so illegally. The anecdotal evidence about voter fraud has been proven false by the courts.
More Americans claim to see UFOs a year than people who commit voter fraud. Yet UFOs are in the realm of conspiracy theory. We should move the myth of voter fraud to that realm.
The worst issue surrounding these voter ID laws is that they suppress voter turnout. The Brennan Center for Justice also cites some telling figures. Ten percent of Americans do not have a valid voter ID. Just under 50 percent of women do not have a birth certificate with their current legal name. Should we prevent nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population from voting?
One in four of those Americans without an ID are black; one in five is Asian or Hispanic.
Less than 8 percent of white Americans lack a valid photo ID.
America was founded on equality, and that includes the equal right of every legal citizen to vote. To almost any rational observer of these laws, it is clear that voter ID laws are a form of poll tax, reminiscent of the Jim Crow Days.
According to a joint study by the Massachusetts and California Institutes of Technology, 14 percent of the public cited not having a valid voter ID as their reason for not voting in the 2008 election. Perhaps we should focus on providing new IDs for citizens instead? It is abundantly clear that these laws would not only solve a problem that does not exist, but that they would additionally suppress voting in this election.
Let’s assume that voter fraud does exist and voter ID laws would not suppress voters who have a legitimate right to vote. Would these laws even work?
As college kids, we know that it is easy to get a fake ID. On election day, we’ll have people who have barely had a day’s training, are earning a $100 for the election and likely do not know a fake ID from a real ID. Requiring a photo ID at the polls to prevent voter fraud would probably not even work.
We are dedicating millions of dollars to pass laws and litigate voter ID legislation. This spending is a waste. It seems that the prudent use of America’s limited resources would be to have a UFO education campaign. Republicans advocate for fiscal responsibility and limited government. Is this not one of those instances of government waste?
