Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Protecting the Franchise

Democrats love screaming that there is no voter fraud, until you link to verified cases, then they scream that it is insignificant, and go back to calling you racist.

In a little-noted ruling at the end of June, a federal judge sided with Florida in its efforts to purge the voter rolls of non-citizens and felons:
MIAMI — A federal judge on Wednesday rebuffed the Department of Justice’s emergency request to stop Florida’s attempt to remove people who are not American citizens from its voter registration rolls
Judge Robert L. Hinkle of United States District Court in Tallahassee said federal laws did not bar the state from identifying and removing ineligible voters from its rolls, though the Aug. 14 primary is less than 90 days away. The laws, Judge Hinkle said, are to block the removal of legitimate voters: people lawfully registered to vote before being eligible for removal, like felons or the deceased. They do not apply to people, like noncitizens, who never should have been on the rolls. (NY Times)
In response to the judge's ruling, the Obama Administration has temporarily ceased abetting criminal activity and is now expanding access to its data

Here in Colorado, Secretary of State Scott Gessler, with the backing of Attorney General John Suthers, is trying to clean up our voter rolls, but he’s being met with the same loony left protests…
Opponents of Gessler's efforts say they amount to voter intimidation and could keep eligible voters — particularly Latinos, who are expected to play a big role in deciding the election in states such as Colorado — from going to the polls. Those voters lean heavily Democratic. (Denver Post)
If you are a US citizen and you are not sure that you are allowed to vote, you are too stupid to vote and you never should have gotten your citizenship because you should not have passed the citizenship test. This is a red herring, like most liberal arguments.

If they wanted to combat voter intimidation, they could post poll watchers and act as advocates to keep mean republicans from telling the little brown people that they can’t vote. You can’t swing a cat in Denver without hitting a liberal lawyer or some kind of social agitator, so there are surely enough people to do this.

Gessler’s office has already been going through registration records and finding questionable voters:
Gessler asked DHS to verify the status of roughly 4,500 people who provided a noncitizen document such as an alien-registration card, or "green card" when they applied for a Colorado driver's license and who also are registered to vote. Suthers' letter sent Monday notes that number has now grown to more than 5,000.
About 2,000 of those people have cast ballots in recent elections, spokesman Rich Coolidge said.
[…]
Suthers and Gessler acknowledge those 5,000 could include people who have since become citizens. (Denver Post)
The Voter Registration System is Broken
Gessler acknowledges he doesn't have a stack of confirmed cases of voter fraud, but he points to 430 cases where non-citizens self-identified their presence on the voting rolls and asked to be removed.
Letters provided by Gessler's office and reviewed by 9NEWS show non-citizens apologizing, often in broken English, for mistakenly ending up on the voting rolls when they registered for a driver's license as a resident alien.
"What it shows is that we don't have a system in place to properly screen people to make sure only eligible voters are voting," Gessler said. (9 News Colorado)
How to do voter registration

Voter registration should be a deliberate act initiated by the voter. No SEIU crooks with clipboards filling out bogus registration forms, no signing up pot smoking out-of-state college students at rap concerts, no mailing pre-filled voter registration forms to people's houses, no motor voter that allows eager Democrat public union employees to fraudulently register non-citizens.

You present yourself at the county office with proper documentation and you register yourself. Deputized county officials could go register people in old folks homes as well as the shut-ins. After the election, the rolls are zero'd out and you start all over. A simple face-to-face confirmation that you are still alive and still live where you did two years ago would suffice for those who had previously proven their citizenship status and address. Any government employee caught improperly registering someone should be fired and prosecuted.

This is not discrimination because it applies to all citizens equally. It is not a poll tax, as inJustice Minister Heinrich Holder ridiculously claimed, but then again he could probably get Chief Justice Roberts to agree with him...

Putting such laws in place would go a long way towards ending the destructive cycle of one side or the other attempting to delegitimize someone's election with charges of voter fraud or voter intimidation.

64 comments:

Rob said...

Agreed that the registration process needs some serious rehab.

I've long since wondered why, if the Internet can be hardened enough to be secure enough for banking - not to mention, gambling - we can't have Internet voting?

I believe in doing my civic duty and engaging in the democratic process, but let's be real - my finances are far more relevant and vital to my family than my vote. Yet in one form or another, I entrust my finances to the whims of the Internet daily.

Z said...

We need to tighten registration and we have to do away with Provisional Ballots and get tight on Absentee Ballots, too. Nobody ever looks at the Provisional Ballot books which get signed when one uses a Provisional Ballot ("gee, I live far away from where I work, can I vote HERE? I'll sign the book!" which I've personally seen, and which means that person can go from precinct to precinct and vote again and again) ...
I know with certainty that people in S. Central LA go to the homes of elderly and kindly help get them absentee ballots then kindly "Help" them vote. Total fraud.

It says a lot that most on the Left think that controlled and legal registration is discriminatory and those on the Right think it's the honorable thing to do.

Geaux A Retired Marine said...

So Obama the American Hater, the Jew Hater, the Socialist said
"In his war on American exceptionable, President Obama has turned the sights on exceptional Americans. If you've built a successful business, it wasn't your dream or your sweat — somebody else made it happen. The unbridled disdain President Obama has for the entrepreneurs who work hard and risk everything was made plain when he told supporters in Roanoke, Va.: "If you've got a business — you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." This was stunning news and a colossal slap in the face to the millions of small-business owners who get up every day "


When I heard Obama saying this, I thought perhaps now people will see what he really is, a perfect example of what we don't want and certainly don't need.
What more would a communist have to say to convince people that he is a communist?

This evil cretin makes me sick. I can NOT believe someone so blatantly communist was allowed to become our President.

How any American, (unless you're a black racist) can vote for him is beyond me.

Fredd said...

Let's get back to the Founding Father's idea that prevented such skullduggery: if you have land, you can vote. If not, go away.

Letting people vote themselves a slice of the treasury without having any skin in the game is slowly killing us as a nation.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

The fact is, that Obama a disciple of Saul Alinsky, admirer of a coterie of Marxists, Black radicals, and other professional haters of America, and Whites--has the major media sewn up. He has public employee unions that are going to be energized because of Scott Walker in Wisconsin. His minions will also fire up the African-American and Latin communities about racism. Given Obama's Chicago background, he'll have no problems with dead people and illegal aliens voting for him.

I'm voting for Romney because I don't think this election is one in which I can afford a protest vote--but I'm still pessimistic

Paul said...

You are Chicken Little screaming the sky is falling.
Voter fraud is .0028% of the American population.
Talk about trying to make a non-issue, an issue.

Silverfiddle said...

Steve: One instance of voter fraud disenfranchises a US citizen.

Fixing it isn't hard. Would it help if I said it was for the children?

So let me get this straight: In a liberal world, it's ok to tell people what they can eat and drink, but putting controls on voter registration and voting is out of bounds... Coocoo! Coocoo!

Sam Huntington said...

Steve may have the statistics right. What difference will 312 votes make in a country populated with well-over 330 million people? Although I’m not certain former Senator Norm Coleman would agree with Steve. This isn’t about Coleman or Franken; it is about whether Coleman should have been defeated honestly, or by skullduggery. What I find amazing is all the fuss on the left over a proposition that insists that our voting process have integrity. Honestly, SF … I scratch my head.

Bunkerville said...

Meanwhile Holder goes to Guam to deny the majority of the population the right to vote their destiny. Bye bye Guam.

Z said...

Sam, after the Primaries in Houston between Hillary and Obama, I'm quite sure Hillary doesn't agree, either. I remember liberal Gloria Allred screeching about how the Obama Chicago thugs came in and were telling old black ladies "If you're not voting for Obama, go home"...SHe was furious! And was going to do something about it.
SOMEHOW, her anger faded and went away...........someone got to her, obviously.
.
I have a video at my place from a few years ago (I should dig it out) by a female Democrat documentary maker who said she thought fraud couldn't be happening but finally ended up making the video because she was so shocked at what she found when she investigated. She had the good sense to say "This is America, nobody should be doing this."

The point is that we must protect our voting rights and some on the Left don't find that too important... nobody wants to disenfranchise legal voters! That's as unAmerican as it gets.
I'm starting to agree with Fredd's comment.

Or let's start another ROCK THE VOTE like 2008 where we knew it was a leftwing group but they were insisting "this is so ALL kids vote" That one really cracked me up!

Paul said...

No, it's a matter of being smart enough to know priorities, and putting our slim financial resources towards problems that are causing real problems in America.
You have written about this problem (like a good little Republican pushing Republican talking points) way more than its negative effects on our voting system deserves. Just the millions of dollars to purge the roles, is money better spent elsewhere.

Z said...

There is no money better spent than protecting the voting rights of all legal Americans.

Paul said...

Right, there are 48 cases of voter fraud throughout the WHOLE country, but, purging these roles has taken away (mistakenly) the voting rights of thousands of legitimate voters. Way to protect voting rights. .

Silverfiddle said...

Way more than 48, Steve, and each case documents more than one act.

Any, it's a red herring that this would cost millions. County employees do this anyway, it's just changing some procedures.

Taken away the rights of thousands? Prove it!

Silverfiddle said...

And it's not just typical corrupt democrat voter fraud like in Chicago, as I point out in my post.

In Colorado alone, 430 documented cases of government workers negligently or illegally registering aliens to vote.

You guys scream that we need to hand trillions to the UN because of global warming, but balk at tightening up voter registration.

It's easy to see where the liberals' priorities lie.

Unknown said...

Democrats charge that laws requiring photo IDs suppress minority voting.
The facts say otherwise. In Georgia, black voter turnout for the midterm election in 2006 was 42.9 percent. After Georgia passed photo ID, black turnout in the 2010midterm rose to 50.4 percent. Black turnout also rose in Indiana and Mississippi after photo IDs were required.
Illinois gubernatorial election in 1982, 100,000 votes cast in Chicago -- 10 percent of the total -- were fraudulent, the U.S. attorney there estimated.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/jack-kelly/voter-fraud-is-real-224753/#ixzz20tqkbs1p

Silverfiddle said...

Careful Mark!

Don't confuse the liberals with the facts.

FreeThinke said...

"If you are a US citizen and you are not sure that you are allowed to vote, you are too stupid to vote and you never should have gotten your citizenship because you should not have passed the citizenship test ... "

That, of course, is both the heart of the matter and its sum and substance.

Nothing further needs to be said.

If our political enemies want illegal aliens and convicted criminals to have the franchise, that proves quite conclusively that their desire is not to play fair and abide by the law, but simply to win at all costs.

That makes them frankly IGNOBLE.

All the ess-aitch-eye-tea about "intimidating minorities" is just that ---- ESS-AITCH-EYE-TEA!

~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

Steve,

Pardon my impertinence, but you sound like a FUGGENIDIOT.

In several of the last few election a tiny handful of votes decided the outcome.

Unless you harbor downright traitorous sentiments to what-I-presume-is your country, why would you think it unimportant that illegal aliens might determine the outcome of one of OUR elections? Sorry, but I just don't get that.

~ FreeThinke

Anonymous said...

Some types of voter fraud are difficult to catch witout voter IDs. Activist get peopñe to register that they know will never go and vote. They send someone to vote in that person's name. It happens more thanwe would like to know.

Always On Watch said...

If you are a US citizen and you are not sure that you are allowed to vote, you are too stupid to vote...

No kidding!

Sam rightly points out that the integrity of the voting process is paramount in a free society.

That the U.S. Justice Department is swarming all over the place to undermine the integrity of the ballot box is an act of treason as far as I'm concerned.

Look, I grew up in the South and know all about how racial discrimination was accomplished at eliminated. For someone to believe that we haven't solved the problem defies all sense!

FreeThinke said...

Where I live we have ALWAYS had to present a "Picture ID" at the polls no matter WHO we are or how long we've lived in the vicinity.

No one has ever complained about it before. Why should they start now?

Could it be, because they know deep in their bones that they can't possibly win without the extra votes of criminals and illegal aliens?

~ FreeThinke

FreeThinke said...

I also should point out that in some states -- Missouri is one -- convicted felons can have their voting rights legally restored after they've served their time in prison.

I believe it varies from state to state -- as it should. I'm still a believer in states' rights to some form of their former, pre-Lincoln sovereignty.

~ FT

Always On Watch said...

FT,
Steve,

Pardon my impertinence, but you sound like a FUGGENIDIOT.


Hehehe. I needed that smile!

Always On Watch said...

Z is absolutely correct:

There is no money better spent than protecting the voting rights of all legal Americans.

Paul said...

The facts? Don't make me laugh.
Maybe the black voter turnout in 2008 after the 2006 election you cite, was because in 2008 the first black man ever was running for president.
You guys get confused easily, don't you.

Jersey McJones said...

"If you are a US citizen and you are not sure that you are allowed to vote, you are too stupid to vote and you never should have gotten your citizenship because you should not have passed the citizenship test."

Wow. I didn't know you were with the Citizenship Police.

The kind of ballot fraud you guys are chasing is rare, and though we should and do investigate that sort of fraud, we already have all the laws on the books we need to handle it.

As for sleazy, rich lunatics spending billions electing ludicrous anti-politicians, that's for you guys to explain. You did this. What do we do now?

JMJ

Z said...

FT "No one has ever complained about it before. Why should they start now?"

Therein lies the curious part. WHY NOW? Everyone has always known that one should at least be bright enough to register and I understand that ID cards are being made fairly easy to get (for those who don't drive, etc.)... this is ALL about fraud...and they blame the right for trying to shut down voting!?

Yes, illegals, felons (although if someone's served their time, I'm not sure I'm against holding them from voting), dead people, etc....should NOT BE VOTING.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"In several of the last few election a tiny handful of votes decided the outcome."

Not in the 2008 election.

Silverfiddle said...

@ Steve: You guys get confused easily, don't you.

No, but you do. It doesn't matter why the people voted, they were able to vote, even with more stringent voter ID laws.

Better go back to Morons Spouting Nothing But Crap and get some more propaganda talking points, you're failing miserably.

Silverfiddle said...

Shaw,

Some congressional races were extremely close.

Z said...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/study-says-obama-tax-proposals-could-cost-700-145037841.html

A study's now saying that 700,000 jobs will be lost over Obama tax proposals..except the writer of the piece does EVERYTHING he can to make it look like Ernst and Young, which did the research and stats, are only backing a Republican cabal of business owners...
it's kind of like a Snopes "FALSE" report :-) The fun never stops.

Z said...

SF...some CALIFORNIA races were very close; something few people realize.

Silverfiddle said...

Z: I can't understand why the same people who believe we can blow trillions to turn the earth's thermostat down will turn around and oppose simple measures to ensure only citizens can vote.

Given the democrats' history, I can only conclude it is so they can continue to commit voter fraud, and granted, as in the story, it is often done by exploiting the ignorance of the unwitting, but liberals are good at that...

Paul said...

Only those who cannot defend their BS get nasty and use personal attacks. A real display of proving I'm wrong, call me a moron.
Thanks for proving my point.
Now on with your Gestapo tactics about purging voter roles. (Papers please)
You know Romney will lose, so by all means depress the liberal vote.

Finntann said...

Uh... need I point out that Bush beat Gore by 537 votes? You do the math.

PS. You might need to remove your shoes.

FreeThinke said...

He needs to remove his foot from deep inside his mouth, if you ask me.

(You were talking to "him," weren't you, Finn?)

~ FT

FreeThinke said...

Ms. Shaw,

The current polls show Mr. Romney and President Obama neck and neck -- a virtual dead heat. that practically guarantees another super-close election.

Surely you wouldn't want fraudulent votes to be responsible putting either candidate over the top, would you?

I believe you have far too much integrity for that, even if you are a partisan. ;-)

As I've said already, the state where I live -- in fact every state I've ever lived in -- requires a picture ID to be shown at the polls, and they always check it against the rolls before letting you vote.

It's never bothered me, although I do wish I could drive across town and vote in a less crowded precinct, because i hate waiting on lines, which has become a bit of a hardship for these old bones, but it has never occurred to me to make a fuss about it. Why should I be treated any differently from anyone else?

I also think ALL voting should take place on the SAME DAY between certain designated hours and that's IT. ---- Except for citizens who temporarily live -- or are stationed -- abroad.

if elections were always held on a Saturday, there would be no BS about "I ain't got no time to vote, because I gotta work," etc.

I do think that felons who've paid their debt to society should have their voting rights reinstated. I've always been dead set against "everlasting punishment" of ANY kind.

I am against the practice of aggressively seeking out those who would never bother to vote and virtually DRAGGING them to -- or in some cases BRIBING them -- to go to the polls.

~ FreeThinke

Paul said...

The Republican Supreme Court would just appoint another Republican president.

FreeThinke said...

After the performance just put on by John "Benedict Arnold" Roberts, Steve?

You really ARE a FUGGENIDIOT, aren't you?

Great day in the morning!

If DAT doan' prove liberlism is one ob dem mendal disorders, Ah cain't imagine wutt wood.

Jumpin Jehoshefat, now Ah've reely hab hurd EVERTHANG!

~ FreeThinke

Finntann said...

Like the Republican Supreme Court would overturn Obamacare?

I think you need to change your panties.

Trekkie4Ever said...

It is a huge problem to contend with but I believe that by having to prove that you are, in fact, a US citizen by showing proper ID, like a driver's license, would put a stop to a lot of the voter fraud. And also, that the license is up to date.

The system can be fixed if every state would cooperate and not allow every zombie to enter and vote, if you catch my drift.

Silverfiddle said...

Calm down Stevie, you started it with your little snark about us getting easily confused.

If you're going to lash out like that here, expect to get hit back or go home.

I provided you a fact. More people voted, proving that more stringent voter ID laws did not deter citizens of color from voting.

You also need to work on your reading comprehension skills. I did not call you a moron.

You get testy when your arguments collapse, don't you?

You may want to try to expand your sources of information.

Ducky's here said...

@Fredd -- Let's get back to the Founding Father's idea that prevented such skullduggery: if you have land, you can vote. If not, go away.

----
I don't own land and I ain't going anywhere you Fascist douchebag.

Shaw Kenawe said...

"After the performance just put on by John "Benedict Arnold" Roberts, Steve?"

FT, you called ME partisan?

Just because Chief Justice Roberts didn't vote the way YOU wanted, he's now a traitor?

nAd I'm partisan?

LOL!

Shaw Kenawe said...

BTW, ft, elections are won by electoral votes, not popular, as the 2000 election showed.

The current count on electoral votes does NOT show this election will be close. Right now it's a landslide for Obama. But I'm not foolish enough to count on it just yet. We have to let Romney continue to make stupid mistakes before I will believe the projections.

Z said...

Blogger Steve said...

The Republican Supreme Court would just appoint another Republican president."


Steve, NOW you're talkin'!

And nobody called you moron.

Ducky..nobody's a fascist but a leftist and no, nobody expects you not to vote because you don't own land. The expression about "own land or don't vote" can be nuance; but the point is made....you cannot have more people in the cart than the amount of people pulling it, and we've come to that point. We need to have the people doing the pulling and carrying the heavy weight to have a say, not those along for the ride, voting themselves goodies.

How about OWN LAND or HAVE $50K in the bank? SOmething has to work. what's happening now is ridiculous

Paul said...

"Better go back to Morons Spouting Nothing But Crap and get some more propaganda talking points, you're failing miserably"

So I'm only a member of a moron group, not a moron?

Silverfiddle said...

Steve: It's a derogatory term for MSNBC. So unless you're on their staff, get over your sensitive little self.

Unknown said...

Steve "Maybe the black voter turnout in 2008 after the 2006 election you cite, was because in 2008 the first black man ever was running for president... You guys get confused easily, don't you"

Or maybe you need to read the "facts"
"In Georgia, black voter turnout for the midterm election in 2006 was 42.9 percent. After Georgia passed photo ID, black turnout in the 2010 midterm rose to 50.4 percent."
Not 2008.

KP said...

Steve, I think it is slang for MSNBC; kind of like Faux News. I wouldn't take it personally.

KP said...

I see SF posted while I was reading. It took me 30min to read all the comments!

jez said...

Well hey, why not just charge money for votes? *Now* we're democratic!

Silverfiddle said...

Well hey! Why not just let anyone who staggers in vote! Why waste money on registration or keeping track of who voted?

Rob said...

I'm just throwing out a guess here - being thankfully without personal experience - but when you go pickup and/or use the card that is now the equivalent of food stamps, doncha hafta show some kinda ID?

Just seems that there's likely to be a fair bit of overlap with much of the demographic who'd be bellyaching about having to show ID to vote.

For that matter, jeez, even after I swipe my credit at the pump, I have to also provide a (loose) bit of secondary identifying info - my ZIP code - before I can begin pumping gas.

And have you seen the red tape nightmare involved in getting civic infrastructure services turned on? Sweet mercy, you nearly have to provide a blood sample to get gas turned on for your home!

So as so many other rational folks have said here, if you can't be bothered to produce a basic form of ID to cast your individual, private vote at the polls, then you have no business voting anyway.

jez said...

"Why waste money on registration or keeping track of who voted?"

to make sure each voter does so only once. I've no quarrel with it.

I should have noted that I was responding to Fredd & Z.

IMO confining the electorate to the sufficiently wealthy is at least as great an insult to democratic principles as voter fraud. The latter is broken in implementation, the former is broken in principle.

We've been arguing this point (universal suffrage) since the 1840s. I'd rather hoped that by now, we'd won.

Silverfiddle said...

OK Jez.

Democrats in this country have equated a voter ID requirement to a poll tax. I thought you were making that point.

I do not want to take the vote away from any non-felon citizen.

Hack said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Z said...

jez "IMO confining the electorate to the sufficiently wealthy is at least as great an insult to democratic principles as voter fraud. The latter is broken in implementation, the former is broken in principle."

In my heart of hearts, I feel much the same way, but something has to be done or we'll just continue to have the indigents voting themselves our goodies. that can't be good for ANY country and we're already reaping that harvest.
We want to help, we don't want to be forced to hand over whatever economic success AMerica ever had....and that is what's happening.

jez said...

My poorer friends tend not to vote. I want indigents to engage more, disenfranchisement is going the wrong way.

Z said...

"I want indigents to engage more,"

Why particularly? Because they know the platforms so well? Understand the economy's problems, the terror threats, understand the issues enough to weigh in?

jez said...

Engagement, includes getting interested and informed. I obviously* don't mean voting at random for the sake of it.

* it's obvious if you don't believe or want to believe that I'm an idiot. Same effect going on with Obama's speech IMO.

jez said...
This comment has been removed by the author.