There are those pundits and other who claim there is NO voter fraud to amount to anything, and we don't need voter ID verification laws. The second argument is that doing so places undue burdens on the poor and elderly. Let's look at these popular arguments one by one.
There is NO voter fraud that amounts to anything! The NC Board of Elections, which joined a consortium of 28 states in data sharing on voter registrations. The NC BOA published the report April of 2014. The report listed the following facts in the State of North Carolina
• 765 voters with an exact match of first and last names, dates of birth and last four of the SSN's registered in NC and another state and voted in the other state in the 2012 general election.
• 35,750 voters with the same first name and last name and date of birth were registered in the state of NC and another state voted in both states in the 2012 general election.
• 50,000 death records which were previously unreported to the NC State Board of Elections
• 13,416 deceased voters were on the voter rolls as of October 2013
• 81 deceased voters showed voter activity after the dates of their deaths.
This is only one state with 100,012 irregularities, and it is not the most populous state by any means. Just taking that times 50 (as an average) is 5,000,600 nationally (it is probably more). Take into account that Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck voted in Nevada, and you get the picture. Five million votes (probably more in the 10M range) could sway an election. This is NOT a “no account” issue.
Now, let’s talk about the second point. These laws are discriminatory and place an undue burden on the poor and elderly. Let’s look at some points:
• You needed a photo ID to get into the Democratic National Convention in 2012. Everyone who got in had one. I guess the Democrats don’t need and poor and elderly in their conventions, or they place such an undue burden to attend, the poor and elderly could not attend (even if they lived in the city the conventions was held and could have walked there! The Dems must speak “with forked tongues” so the saying goes.
• Many communities actually offered to send mobile units to accomplish the task of voter verification and ID issuance. Why would this be a burden? Can you not walk inside your house and get some type of ID that proves you are who you say you are? Don’t the poor and elderly ever go out of the house? Do they go to the grocery store? Do they go to churches? Do they attend football or other sports games?
• The poor have a hard time finding their paperwork! If you have that much of a hard time, maybe it is that you CAN’T produce the paperwork?
• You need a photo ID in many states to drive a car. So, the poor and elderly don’t drive? That’s a bunch of pure BUNK! Some may not, but they can produce some form of ID verification for sure. I’m sure they were BORN somewhere! If they were, they at least have a birth certificate.
• If you lose your driver’s license, you have to produce two different types of ID to get a new one. At least a birth certificate and a tax return or passport.
This is just a few of the flimsy excuses politicians and others site in the push to either prevent voter verification laws or any effort to confirm a voter’s valid ID. If you cannot produce a document showing you are who you say you are, then maybe you should NOT be allowed to vote, or as we have seen from the first example, you cannot vote in two places or if you are already dead! Voter ID laws make sense and keep the system more sacrosanct.