With all the talk from Republicans about how big of
a problem voter fraud is for the country and all the talk from the left saying
it isn't an issue, the facts tend to get lost in the confusion. The severity of
the fraud problem can be greatly blown out of proportion by quoting other voter
fraud stats instead of voter ID statistics specifically when debating the
validity of voter ID laws. Make sure you know exactly what voter fraud
statistics are being discussed when you read an article or listen to a talking
heads.
Voter Fraud (officially called electoral fraud) is the act of illegally tampering with an election. Although the major issue being discussed by talking heads is voter ID fraud there are a number of different types of voter fraud.
Types of voter fraud include intimidation, vote buying, misinformation, misleading / confusing ballot papers, ballot stuffing, misrecording of votes, misuses of proxy votes, destruction / invalidation of ballots, and tampering with electronic voting machines.
The truth is that voter fraud does exist. Not just
in America, but in just about every election since the beginning of time (this
is an exaggeration and not a fact to be fair). Make no mistake, neither the
left or right (radicals excluded) think we need don't need to protect our
democracy from voter fraud, they just have very different opinions on how this
should be done.
Believe it or not, voter fraud rarely happens at an
individual level. Although you may hear about the rampant problem of voter
fraud in the United States, Individual voter fraud is nearly nonexistent, while
voter suppression and voter fraud by powerful political groups as been in
ongoing issue throughout history. 
Take this statistic, in Ohio in 2004 the percentage
of individuals accused of voter fraud was 0.00004% (about the amount of times
Americans are struck by lightning every year).
Out of the 197 million votes cast for federal
candidates between 2002 and 2005, only 40 voters were indicted for voter fraud.
Only 26 of those cases, or about .00000013 percent of the votes cast, resulted
in convictions or guilty pleas.
Voter Fraud Statistics in US history:
•In Missouri
in 2000, for example, the Secretary of State claimed that 79 voters were
registered with addresses at vacant lots, but subsequent investigation revealed
that the lots in question actually housed valid and legitimate residences.
•2004 election in Ohio revealed a voter fraud rate
of 0.00004%.
•2004 gubernatorial election in Washington State
actually reveals just the opposite: though voter fraud does happen, it happens
approximately 0.0009%
•A 1995 investigation into votes allegedly cast in
Baltimore by deceased voters and those with disenfranchising felony convictions
revealed that the voters in question were both alive and felony-free.
•A 2005 attempt to identify supposed double voters
in New Jersey mistakenly accused people with similar names but whose middle
names or suffixes were clearly different, such as “J.T. Kearns, Jr.” and “J.T.
Kearns, Sr.,” of being the same person. Even when names and birth dates match across
lists, that does not mean there was voter fraud.
•it is more likely than not that among just 23
individuals, two will share a birthday. Similar statistics show that for most
reasonably common names, it is extremely likely that at least two people with
the same name in a state will share the same date of birth.
•Other allegations of fraudulent voting often turn
out to be the result of common clerical errors, incomplete information, or
faulty assumptions. Most allegations of voter fraud simply evaporate when more
rigorous analysis is conducted.
Regardless of your opinions, the facts show that the
Republican Party has been using voter fraud as a political weapon to
disenfranchise those who are likely to vote for the Democratic Party, to get
rid of votes for the opposition and to actually commit voter fraud themselves.
It's time for it to end.
Wendy Weiser, Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, offers a solution:
"Instead of rolling back voting rights, lawmakers should focus on modernizing our voting system and increasing access to the polls. Vote suppression is the real fraud in our election system. It's time to fix it.
Stand up for the laws that make our country great and let our citizens vote.
Related Articles:
How Voter ID Laws Are Being Used to Disenfranchise Minorities and the Poor, Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic
The Voter-Fraud Myth, Jane Mayer, The New Yorker
The GOP War on Voting, Ari Berman, Rolling Stone
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