An article in this space over the weekend highlighting multiple cases of voter fraud in Ohio generated the following reaction from reader Eric Ward, who occasionally comments and is generally hostile to the views espoused in this column:
Aww…let’s see, Colin Small, a former employee of Strategic Allied Consulting who worked for the Republican party found guilty of dumping voter registration forms in both Virginia and Florida that were for Democrats during the 2012 election. Nine Florida counties reported in September that hundreds of voter registration forms submitted by Sproul’s firm contained irregularities such as suspicious, conflicting signatures and missing information.
n [sic] Nevada, 56-year-old Roxanne Rubin, a Republican, was arrested on Nov. 2 for allegedly trying to vote twice, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The newspaper quoted a report by an investigator with the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office that said Rubin “was unhappy with the process; specifically in that her identification was not checked.”. [sic]
On Tuesday in New Mexico, a Republican poll watcher was taken into police custody after also apparently trying to test the system. According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, the man voted, then obtained a second provisional ballot and announced he was simply “testing the system to see if people could get away with voting twice.”. [sic]
And a viral video uploaded to YouTube in late September showed a young woman who worked for Strategic Allied Consulting registering voters in Colorado and admitting that she was only looking for Republicans. “Well, I’m actually trying to register people for a particular party. Because we’re out here in support of Romney, actually,” the woman said.
I can go on….again, no integrity contained within your party.
The last sentence appears to presume — wrongly, it turns out — that this writer is a registered Republican, but the larger point remains: There are documented cases of voter fraud committed not only by Democrats but by Republicans.
The most significant of these are the cases involving Strategic Allied Consulting. The New York Times ran several stories on the scandalous firm, which the Daily News pointed out shares an address right down to the suite number with Karl Rove’s American Crossroads PAC. Sounds dicey.
After the story (which admittedly was underreported by the right-leaning media) broke, Strategic Allied Consulting released a statement denying that it had “tolerated even minimal violations of election law.” But that, to coin a phrase, is “what they all say.” It was almost identical to the protestations made in 2011 by a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) organizer who was discovered to have had his own hand on the electoral scale, tipping it in favor of the Democrats.
If one wanted to be coy, one could point out that SEIU has 1.9 million members, whereas Strategic Allied (which seems to be out of business) almost certainly had a smaller staff. But size only matters when there is conclusive evidence of wrongdoing. Both anecdotes suggest limited malfeasance, so the point is moot.
What should be done about voter fraud is another matter. One obvious solution would be to issue some sort of nationalized voter identification card that would keep elections honest at both ends of the political spectrum. Yet the U.S. Justice Department has strenuously fought efforts by states to implement such IDs. If as Eric Ward intimates, the crime is even more rampant on behalf of Republican voters, the benefit to Democrats would greatly outweigh the supposed inconvenience the issuance of these cards would impose on minority voters.
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well Howard…the fact that both sides might engage in it is the sole justification to not do anything. So I say if a crazy conservative misuses gun rights but a crazy liberal does also, let’s forget about gun control. If a conservative cheats on his taxes but a liberal does also, let’s abolish the IRS.
You can see where I’m going with this. The fact that loudest protests come from the left is very telling.
teejk, afraid I’m not following — especially the gun rights/control analogy.
In this particular instance, I say the clear path to honest elections is voter IDs. If anyone can come up with a better foolproof solution, I would be for that.
guess I have to learn some more about smiley faces Howard. My point was that the old debate has moved from “no proof of voter fraud” (now obviously disproved) to “yeah but republicans do it too” as the left tries to argue that no changes are needed since both sides do it (therein my analogy to gun control but perhaps that was extreme needing yet another smilely face).
Voter ID would be a step but I can still see the opportunity for fraud…we can’t cross-check between wards in a single city! So obviously we can’t cross-check between cities or states. A national database would be the key (like most civilized countries that take election integrity seriously) but that will be a big fight. Even as ObamaCare unfolds I’m sure there will be a such a database but I doubt they will share that with local election officials.
I’m not sure that’s what they are arguing — or even if they have thought that hard about it. The commenter I was quoting certainly strikes me as the tit-for-tat type, someone who’s perfectly content to have liberals commit crimes as long as he can claim that the other side does it, too.
It is exactly the “tit-for-tat type”
I’ve watched the debate for years. SE Wisconsin (comprised of Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee) was famous for the “smokes for votes” thing…it’s a short bus ride from Chicago (where they already had enough Dem votes what with all those dead people) and a meal and Marlboros were part of the package.
The argument against voter ID was always “no proof” (pretzel logic since it can’t be proved or disproved in the absense of voter ID). So now we see somes signs that it CAN happen. And the argument switches to “two wrongs make a right”…
Wisconsin’s voter ID law is now tied up in the Courts (Madison of course that beyond the SE corridor is next on the fraud potential list…UW students and state capital).
Sorry, teejk. The confusion is mine. I meant to write tit-for-tat in response to your comment on “breastraurants.” [Cue the rimshot]
Seriously though, folks… The difference is not so much the form of the argument is it is the attitude that informs it. If as another commenter wrote at this site yesterday in connection with another blog post, if you come to an argument with the view that you are the superior intellect and that you are perforce talking down to your opponent, you have nothing to lose … and everything to lose.
are you complaining about me Howard? I don’t claim superior intellect on anybody I deal with (I know I have the superior intellect but try to hide it…I like people to sit up in the middle of the night and figure out that they may have been insulted)!
I do yell at my dog though.
Most assuredly not. I did, however, find the comment I was referring to. It was in the thread following this article: http://libertyunyielding.com/2013/02/10/liberal-radio-host-so-turned-off-by-listeners-gun-views-he-quits-own-show/.
It is the comment by Axe.
well howard…I read that comment earlier and was going to post a “huh”? Realize that the NFL is over and it’s winter. I watch over a number of blogs (woodworking, mechanical stuff etc.) and find that many people (myself excluded of course) do not come across with what they mean.
And sometimes I see that the problem is the reader
I might be wrong but you’ll know soon I think.
As an aside, I haven’t given up my mission yet…working on an acromym that will be one of those “sit up in the middle of the night” things (had an intern once that watched me in action…she was very smart and after watching me in action, told me that I was “evil”. In a nice way…