The Voter Fraud Myth

The Voter Fraud Myth

“If they found a single case of a conspiracy to affect the outcome of a Congressional election or a statewide election, that would be significant,” Richard Hasen, election law expert at the Loyola Law School, told the New York Times last year. “But what we see is isolated, small-scale activities that often have not shown any kind of criminal intent.”

But that hasn’t stopped Republicans trying. Five of the 12 US judges who were fired last year, in the scandal that led to the resignation of US attorney general Alberto Gonzales, were axed because they refused to pursue the issue of voter fraud with sufficient vigour. It also explains the Republican attacks on the community group Acorn, which pays people to register voters in low income and minority areas. Some of Acorn’s workers made up names. That should be and has been condemned. But there is no evidence that it has resulted in a single fraudulent vote ever being cast since Acorn began its large-scale voter registration drives four years ago.

Problem is, the GOP is already setting this up as their talking point for why they lost the election, if they lose. If the margins are high enough I don’t see it gaining much traction, but if it’s close I can’t see why Jon McCain wouldn’t use this as a scapegoat, it’s too easy a target.

Hopefully one of the new administration’s new concentrations will be election systems reform.