THIS IS WHY AMERICA NEEDS VOTER ID LAWS …
By TOM TOTH || The voter fraud issue has again reared its ugly head, this time in Opelousas, Louisiana.
Democrat mayor – father of Senator Mary Landrieu’s Chief of Staff – Don Cravins, Sr. gave a campaign rally speech urging the Democrat voters in attendance to “vote again” if they had early voted. He continued the speech by telling voters to support the local Democrat DA candidate, joking that if elected the DA wouldn’t prosecute the fraudulent voters.
Voter fraud is a serious issue, committing it is a serious crime, especially when perpetuated by an elected official — and it’s still inexplicably easy to commit.
One might consider this kind of rhetoric to be a playful joke from one enthusiastic public servant to an excited crowd on the eve of an election because voting twice is practically impossible for most voters.
But it’s not impossible.
To board an airplane, open a checking account, buy an alcoholic beverage, or get a job at most employers in the United States, you need valid, government issued form of photo identification. Yet submitting a ballot at the polls, the unquestioned integrity of which is the very cornerstone of any meaningful democratic process, is less onerous than buying a pack of cigarettes.
In a modern society, this is ridiculous — as are arguments that voter ID laws are somehow a racist voter suppression scheme.
Voter suppression theorists passionately invoke the legacy of poll taxes to oppose voter ID laws because it generally costs a nominal fee to attain an ID. But the minute states, like Texas for example, take it upon themselves to swallow the cost of issuing a photo ID to every citizen who requests one — a small price to ensure election integrity — that concern is swiftly put to bed.
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Tom Toth is the Senior Editor of Americans for Limited Government. This piece (reprinted with permission) originally appeared on NetRightDaily.com.
62 comments
Hans von Spakovsky must be on vacation this week, Toth is filling in.
Does anyone believe actual voter fraud will occur? A far greater likelihood is fraud by the vote counters, not fraud by the voters.
She is down 23%. What does it matter?
Yeah
Talk about much ado over nothing.
Does anyone actually believe that ID is too much to ask?
Does anyone actually believe that ID is too much to ask?
There are legal US citizens who get screwed out of their right to vote due to not being able to get an ID.
Please provide evidence of this.
“Please provide evidence of this”
Please provide evidence of voter fraud remedied by the Voter ID Laws.
I asked first.
“I asked first.”
In other words, there isn’t any. But we already knew that didn’t we?
http://patdollard.com/2013/05/ohio-woman-who-voted-6-times-for-obama-convicted-of-felony-voter-fraud/
Pat Dollard??? Really? Breitbart.com columnist Pat Dollard? LOL
It does not matter to you that this women was video taped stateing she voted 6 times because it was her duty to get Obummer reelected because I did not provide you a liberal rag link? How about from USAToday, is that going to allow your Liberal brain comprehend? You said provide proof I am providing. What is your excuse now?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/17/cincinnati-illegal-voting/2530119/
“What is your excuse now?”
I do not believe anything – nothing – on breitbart.com – it is all racist, ultra-partisan, President Obama hating trash.
LOL – your posts are hilarious and show what you are all about – “Obummer”, etc. he got elected twice – by large margins – did your head explode both times? It is obvious and telling where ALL of your information comes from – Fox, breitbart, worldnetdaily – got any other good ones?
Are you going to go off the rails when Hillary is elected or is that just reserved for Black folks like “Obummer”?
Here is another
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hans-von-spakovsky-here-comes-the-2014-voter-fraud-1414450805
You mean Hans Van Spovasky of the NON-PARTISAN Heritage Foundation – please! LOL
If the ID is free no rights are violated. This is the continue cry of Liberals the party that wants to allow fraud to continue. BTW here is proof. http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/22/No-Justice-Department-Charges-Against-Ohio-Woman-Who-Voted-Six-Times-for-Obama
Ah! And now we get to Breitbart.com – you’re joking right? LOL
how about USAToday?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/17/cincinnati-illegal-voting/2530119/
Care to comment, or are you still going to lie that it is taking place?
“Care to comment, or are you still going to lie that it is taking place?”
So you’ve found how many isolated instances? Count ’em up for me, please – care to do that? And this is evidence of rampant voter fraud? LOL
Everyone knows, that whatever starts at Opelousas, Louisiana, the rest of the nation is bound to follow. Opelousas is a bellwether for the rest of the nation.
It is one of the birthplaces of zydeco music and known as the the spice capital of the world.
Tonight I will play all of my Zydeco music — it’s happy music..!!
I’ll be right over with the Jambalaya.
How tall is she, can she dance, and can she remove a curse put on me by a Haitian witch doctor?
I can remove that curse – but it’ll kill you.
But – but – but —- that is the curse! His exact words (never to be forgotten) when he put his right index finger to my heart were — “I put curse on you. You die!”
That’s the easiest curse to remove of them all. It’ll kill you to remove it, but you won’t die any sooner than you would have died if you’d never been cursed.
Now – you are “waning” …..
Lame, right?
I blame Bush…. and being exposed to Damned Tango’s posts for so long.
No, you just have to keep massaging the little grey cells …..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz2GVlQkn4Q
“To board an airplane, open a checking account, buy an alcoholic beverage, or get a job at most employers in the United States, you need valid, government issued form of photo identification. Yet submitting a ballot at the polls . . .”
Big difference here Tom: (one of these kids is not like the others)…that’s right! . . . it’s called a fundamental right.
Does that mean I support voter fraud? Or that I don’t support voter ID laws? Don’t draw incorrect inferences. However, lets compare apples and apples.
If you have a great argument, don’t destroy it with flawed logic. The right to vote is a fundamental right. Balance that right the way our current jurisprudence tells us to. If you want to win that argument, win it that way.
You make a good point. Apples to Apples…
Fundamental Rights that Require ID :
To leave and reenter the country
Operating a newspaper
Running for elective offices
Hold a rally or protest
Initiative, Referendum and Recall Petitions
Getting married
Getting a divorce
Purchasing a gun
I don’t need an ID to exercise free speech.
Freedom of the press requires someone with ID to operate the press.
I don’t need an ID to believe in God.
You need ID to build and operate a church.
There is NO LAW in America requiring a church to incorporate or apply for a 501-C-3 tax exemption recognition.NO License is required .
I make a perfectly logical post and then I let you drag me into the weeds. I don’t know why.
http://www.montypython.net/sounds/yellowbeard/stoppiss.wav
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ReqXzcNGAw
Eh, well, I think you’d have any number of building inspectors, tax men, fire marshals and inspectors of all ills crawling up your anal orifice if you tried to operate a church without doing the proper paperwork. Any number of church groups that meet or started in homes have run afoul of the law.
no one cares unless you collect money, or clog up the street with cars.
The last two are normally what starts the trouble. There’s a family here in town that has been given a cease and desist order.
…naturally, it’s Satan trying to destroy their fellowship working his evil through corrupt officials who hate God.
A Mazitlan drivers license is 60 pesos on the streets of LA, with photo ID.
This is true. I have a distant relative who founded a church and she has yet to be ordained or licensed or “IDed” or registered or anything like that … and the congregation is more than 10,000 world wide. (But she does have a driver’s license.)
Lots of Church of Bob members and ministers out there, too.
But not to preach there.
I don’t have to be a member of the press to exercise free speech.
… and to own stock in the publishing company?
You don’t need an ID to get food stamps, apparently, anymore, either.
I have a fundamental right to know that my neighbor did not vote twice.
What if your neighbor didn’t vote twice? Do you have a “fundamental right” to know this in the affirmative–as well as in the opposite?
I don’t think I’m following…either that–or you’re just not making sense. I’ll assume it was the latter.
Do you suggest that voter ID laws infringe upon someone’s fundamental right?
I ask because if they do, then background checks and licenses infringe upon the fundamental right of gun ownership. Gotta be consistent.
“Gotta be consistent.”
I’m not sure how I can be any more consistent. Let’s take a look, shall we? The U.S. Constitution is the ultimate law of the land. Furthermore, it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. (Marbury v. Madison). In cases where a fundamental right, such as the right to vote are considered, the judicial branch–via the U.S. Supreme Court–has created several types of tests to determine whether a law is upheld, or whether it violates the U.S. Constitution. In Harper v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme court closely scrutinized the restrictions on one’s right to vote (i.e. poll taxes). This ruling extended the 24th amendment’s prohibition on poll taxes in all federal elections. In Gwin v. U.S. literacy tests were challenged and overturned. Of note, this became moot after the Voting Act.
In 1969, the U.S. Supreme court applied the strict scrutiny test to strike down a law requiring property ownership as a condition precedent to casting one’s vote. In sum, in each of these matters, the court properly balanced (independent of outcome) a compelling government interest against one’s fundamental right.
Now turning to gun ownership…the court also balanced this constitutionally-provided right against impediments to this right. In US v. Miller, the US Supreme Court upheld the National Firearms Act (restricted commerce of weapons without serial #’s, etc.).
See also Lewis v. United States (1980) and, of course, the recent decision in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008). Of note, in Heller the court even made sure to mention that the right to bear arms is, indeed, a fundamental right. However, the court explicitly rejected the idea that this right was free from all restrictions. That is, it is certainly a narrowly tailored approach to protect several compelling government interests.
Therefore, I am certainly “consistent” when I expect all voter-right arguments follow the same jurisprudence. The right to buy alcohol, get on an airplane, etc. are not in same ballpark.
In order to reduce the possibility of voter fraud, everyone who votes should have to prove that they are independently wealthy.
And that’s exactly the kind of thing that legitimate voter photo ID would prevent.
And who has the higher average incomes and more accumulated wealth than the average Carolinian? And who would gain the most from a manipulated vote? … Would that be poli-wogs and g’ment middle management?
Great. We also need gun control because people get shot by criminals. Way more people get shot, in fact, than commit voter fraud.
So it’s ok to put restrictions on some Constitutional rights but not others? There are also limits to free speech, but somehow proving you are who you say you are is so fundamentally abhorrent that it greatly restricts the guaranteed rights of the people?
Road Apples! The entire Sonoma County g’ment in Taxifornia is fully knowledgable about and complicate in vote fraud. They even send uniformed police and firemen door to door soliciting votes for measures and propositions …. Now there’s a thought … Line ’em up against a wall?
Landrieu must be put out to pasture. Perhaps she will volunteer for this unusual project:
http://www.fastcocreate.com/3034878/the-range-of-faces-people-make-while-being-tasered-is-surprisingly-vast?fullsite&partner=ps04101rss#17
That might be something that could really get her aroused!
It’s not “voter” fraud when g’ment employees are the perps. It Is Vote Fraud.
This tiny nit-picky detail is exactly according to the est-hole, Gruberizing, newspeaking, mofo knee padded pukes in mean scream media/ “progressive” Fascist/ scallywag complex wants when it twists the meanings of its multitudes of spews, scams and propaganda.
“Voter fraud” implies that this is the fault of the voters.
“Vote fraud” indicates who the guilty perpetrators really are.