Voter Fraud And Intimidation
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-10-25/voter-fraud-and-intimidation
Republicans are pushing efforts to crack down on voter fraud, but others say the problem is extremely rare. Debate over the scope of voter fraud and what's being done to prevent it.
Guests
Jane Mayer
staff writer at The New Yorker and author of "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals."
Comments
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Where would America be if the Diebold machines were used, instead of the simple voting box in the 1960’s when all citizens became empowered because of their new access to the power of the vote? Who thinks African-Americans would have been elected as representatives throughout the South if the infamous Diebold machines were in place in the 1960's?
The Republican Party Central Committee's party plank has become disenfranchise grandma, grandpa and minorities, thus taking away the voting rights of bonafide U.S. Citizens.
American Citizens are being relegated to second class citizenship. Laws have been passed which require that all citizens- be they octogenarians, war veterans or both- have their “papers” in order. That is, before lawsuits had judges interfere with Republican plans, these senior citizens were told they must have copies of their original birth certificates in order to be given the right that they fought for and their family members died for – the right to vote. This, despite these octogenarians having voted for more years than the ages of the Republicans who voted for these laws designed to deny the right to vote of U.S. Citizens.
Given the Republican's plan and repeated Election Day “surprises” of stopping legitimate voters from casting their ballots, Board of Elections need to be prepared. One way is to have the Democratic Party advertise their 800 number in local newspapers so people may call the 800 number when there are problems, such as dysfunctional voting machines. For example, people at the calling center took my information, called the local election board and technicians came and fixed the machine that was “broken for hours” within the hour. This happened in 2008.
@ Statman 2: So machines that default your vote to Obama after you enter Romney in North Carolina and the new black panthers standing outside polling places to intimidate voters last election is totally discounted? Not to mention Acorn and on, and on, and on with the democratic party's blatant attempts to defraud the American people. If you are looking for voter fraud, you had better look on both sides of the aisle and this year, particularly on the Democratic side. As for voter suppression and disenfranchising grandma, grandpa and minorities... your claims are total B.S. Show me a grandpa or grandma who doesn't have picture I.D. They were voting when you were in diapers and they learned the drill long ago. Sounds to me like you are crying because the dems are finding it tougher to cheat this year!!!!
Instead of the usual pundit fueled discussion, on this topic people should go to Blackboxvoting.org. This group has been monitoring voting processes in this country for years and has relied on research and investigations (as opposed to partisan spin) to identify and try to correct substantial problems. The real fraud is that, instead of the voters choosing their candidates, candidates keep getting better at choosing their voters and how the votes are counted. Diane, I hope to hear a nutritious discussion on this subject rather than the pablum that is increasingly common on NPR.
As Thomas Paine said, "the right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case."
@Stateman2:
Diane Rehm show has had many opportunities to address this, and will not. Last week the panel on polls had questions on the website, on the fb page,
and email, asking how pollsters take machine behavior into account. I have written about this on my blog and given talks, and have concluded that the American press and the American people have known for 20 years that our voting is a farce, and apparently not enough people care. The Ohio voting machines have miscounted every election since 2000. The Ohio machines will do the same in 2012. It's very disheartening.
A little off topic but what about voter intimidation and fraud after the election. Here in Wisconsin we are plagued with democrats and unions that refuse to accept election results. Liberal judges overturning laws for political reasons, union threats on businesses and the worst thing of all, the abuse of the recall system to stymie the results of the elections by causing perpetual campaigning for no other reason than to thwart the will of the people.
If it were not already obvious:
"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."
-- Paul Weyrich, Dallas TX 1980, co-Founder of ALEC, Heritage Foundation, Moral Majority, and Free Congress Foundation, explaining why Republicans should suppress voter turnout. And it's on video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPsl_TuFdes
In my state the courts have decided it is legal for voters to carry guns to voting places. I am a liberal Dem in a tea party run state, yes I feel intimidated.
If voter-fraud concerns were not a pretext, then that crew would be mostly concerned about types of voting that are not in person--what kind of id gets shown for online, absentee, other types of not in person voting?
Who would risk imprisonment or deportation to cast one ballot? It's absurd. The only possible type of voter fraud I can imagine might pay (in small or close elections) would be group fraud, like someone at a nursing home getting a couple of hundred ballots of incompetent people.
Professor Alex Halderman of Michigan State Univ. offered a course on digital voting security via coursera. He gives many demonstrations on how easy it is to manipulate the voting machine count vithout leaving evidence.
What is the point of this lopsided conversation? Dumb question! this is after all the D.R. show 12 days before the election.
The requirement of photo ID to vote only perpetuates security theater. As a Michigan election administrator, I know that signature matching is the Gold Standard and the only real standard, for voter identification. A laminated card that the voter brings in, simply cannot be matched to a standard held independently in the polling place. That card can be easily faked, or borrowed, as every teenager knows who wants to buy alcohol. A signature is very difficult to forge, and election workers can be easily trained to match signatures on the voter's application to a master signature on the precinct list. Currently, the states requiring photo ID do not provide training or any technology that would detect fake IDs.
What happens if someone didn't respond to the challenge? Would their voting rights be rescinded?
Jane,
...within a few years, I believe that Americans will look back on this era with shame and regret. Too bad that more of us are not realizing this blatant and racist attempt to defraud American citizens of their legal right to vote. It's a mean and hateful thing....thanks for your work in exposing a simple but harsh truth.
Nat Irvin
Diane & Guest:
Where is the "pro voter registration" voice on today's program?
What is the truth of the Seattle-mailed letters to Republican voters in Florid?
Thanks,
long time listener
GOP pro-choice, marriage equality, retired teacher of 43 yrs, volunteer VA Hospital teacher in Vet Recovery Program
Kay Merkel Boruff
According to an article on PoliticolNews.com, Mitt Romney's son, Tagg, is a major investor in Hart InterCivic, the company that owns electronic voting machines that will be used in Ohio for this election.1 The article also alleges that these machines are easily hacked. Not to mention it's an obvious conflict of interest.
nice to know that my military ID card would not work in some states because the expiration date block says INDEFINITE. I served our country in the navy for 21 years and am considered retired.
thanks
scott livesey AT1 USN(ret)
Can you address reports of American servicemen overseas being prevented from voting.
Howard Eckstein
According to an article on PoliticolNews.com, Mitt Romney's son, Tagg, is a major investor in Hart InterCivic, the company that owns electronic voting machines that will be used in Ohio for this election.1 The article also alleges that these machines are easily hacked. Not to mention it's an obvious conflict of interest.
I am a regular listener of NPR and your show, being in US I had witnessed 2008 and the present elections. I do not what is the problem with election system in the country which boasts longest Democracy, I come from the country of largest Democracy. where the whole voters are more than the population of the US.
In our country the Election Commission issues the Voter ID freely to the Registered voter through the local government offices take a Photo and write down his address, also to avoid the misuse of the ID, they also note the body marks on this voter id.
Now the country is freely issuing a National ID card with chip on the Card to all the Citizens, which more than billion worth of the project financed and supported by the Central Government.
I am not sure why such a country like US can not stem this problem forever.
On the election day if the person voting faces some Id problems, a local official of good standing can vouch for him so that he can vote, however these votes are counted in case of very tight contests.
I’m neither a Democrat nor an Obama supporter but this is clearly an effort at voter intimidation. Voter fraud at the polls is astonishingly rare.
If Republicans were really concerned about voter fraud, they’d target the method where voter fraud is far easier: early and absentee ballots.
But early/absentee voters are seen as more up for grabs, a demographic they’re trying to woo, so they don’t care if fraud happens there.
Jane Mayer is a national treasure, an institution chocked full of wisdom, intellect, smart writing and hard work. Everything she does rings with quality and integrity! I am so glad NPR brought her to us on this critical topic.
Tom Mcguire
Huntington Woods, Mi
Voter fraud DOES exist...a friend's daughter, married, to an illegal is getting an absentee ballot so her husband, the illegal, can vote. Did I turn them in? You bet I did!
Picture IDs are a good idea...we have to show them to get on a plane, to go to the doctor or cash a check...it will keep fraud down.
Your show should be titled: Voter Suppression is the greatest threat to democracy.
Most Americans, over 74% agree with the Federal Election Reform Commission.
Federal Election Reform Commission Advocated Voter Photo ID
Jimmy Carter, James Baker led panel saying election integrity essential
"The commission, also co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker, called voter identification one of “five pillars” that would “build confidence” in the integrity of federal elections. Only three of the 21 commission members voted against requiring photo identification of voters.
“The right to vote is a vital component of U.S. citizenship, and all states should use their best efforts to obtain proof of citizenship before registering voters,” the commission’s report stated. “In close or disputed elections, and there are many, a small amount of fraud could make the margin of difference"
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=8713
Couldn't college students without local ID's use some type of absentee balot to vote where their ID's were issued?
RE College Students. The problem is when they vote via absentee ballot in their home state, then attempt to vote in the state where they are attending college. Not an urban myth either.
Partisan:
Wisconsin.....
"perpetual campaigning for no other reason than to thwart the will of the....Koch Brothers"
As all good Republicans know, as long as we have one black person voting in the U.S., we have a problem with voter fraud. This wasn't the case in the sections of the country that now form the Republican base until the mid-sixties when the do-gooders started to encourage voting by people who obviously shouldn't vote. It's unlikely that we can go back to the efficient and effective solutions we had to this problem prior to the '60s, but that shouldn't stop us from being creative and coming up with other means to stop groups that shouldn't be gumming up our elections from participating.
When speaking about students who need ID from the county in which they attend school, could these students have voted absentee in their home county? Jean
The people who say there should be UNLIMITED 2nd amendment rights- with no restrictions of any kind, are the same people who want to impose as many restrictions as can be gotten away with on 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th amendment rights. And yet they LOVE the constitution (or at least the parts they like.)