GAO Report in Hand, Dems Step Up Voter ID Offensive
With less than four weeks to go until Election Day, Democrats are stepping up their public offensive against state voter laws — even pulling the Government Accountability Office into their fight to claim voters are being disenfranchised by GOP efforts.
The protestations from members of Congress may do little to keep voters from having to flash ID at the polls, but set up a post-election landscape where laws and perhaps even results are challenged on claims of voter intimidation and exclusion.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) requested a comprehensive report on an “alarming number” of new state voter laws. At more than 130 pages long, the GAO report was turned into the senators late last week, as well as the Justice Department and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
The GAO was asked to compile state identification requirements for all eligible voters (including for registering to vote, voting at the polls on Election Day, and absentee voting), which documents satisfy ID requirements, and what happens if voters don’t have the proper identification in time to vote.
The senators also requested information on absentee voting and early voting statutes, as well as state requirements relating to third-party voter registration organizations.
“Voter identification requirements vary in flexibility, in the number and type of acceptable documents allowed, and in the alternatives available for verifying identity if a voter does not have an acceptable form of identification. There is variety in how state laws reflect HAVA’s registration identification requirements, and some states have adopted substantive requirements that are in addition to those provided for in federal law, such as proof of citizenship,” the report said, referring to the Help America Vote Act passed after the 2000 election recount debacle.
Thirty-one states have requirements for all voters to show ID at the polls on Election Day, and 12 have ID or notarization requirements for absentee ballots. North Dakota, which does not require registration to vote, and certain states that allow election-day registration at polling places are exempt from the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which paired registration opportunities with obtaining a driver’s license or with offices that provide public assistance.
Six states — Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Wyoming — have voter registration identification requirements in addition to those provided for under federal law in effect for next month’s election, the report notes.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have no ID requirements on Election Day. Of the 31 states requiring ID when a voter comes to the polls, 11 mandate a photo ID (three of those states don’t even require that it’s government-issued) whereas the other 20 allow documents such as a Social Security card, utility bill, or bank statement.
Twenty-seven states and D.C. allow voters to cast absentee ballots without an excuse; an additional six states allow early voting. Those states vary on whether early voting is available on the weekends, during business hours only, or if it’s left up to local discretion.
The report outlines the 21 states that passed laws over the past decade making “substantive changes” to voter ID requirements.
“Once states have had voter identification requirements in place for all eligible voters, they have made few substantive changes to the processes for voters who do not present acceptable identification on Election Day,” the GAO report states. “For example, with respect to the available options that states provide for voters at the polls who do not have acceptable identification, about two-thirds of the states have not changed whether a particular option is available since the time that HAVA was enacted or the state established voter identification requirements.”
The senators asked for details on “any prosecutions or convictions for voter impersonation fraud within each state during the previous 10 years,” but the GAO said there was a lack of data to detail such information.
“We must make it easier, not harder, for poor and working people to vote and to participate in the political process,” Sanders said. “There is no credible evidence of voter fraud having had any impact whatsoever on the outcome of an election in recent history. Using unfounded scare tactics and isolated cases to weaken the public’s faith in elections and to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters is reprehensible.”
The report came two days after a Pennsylvania judge partly upheld the state’s voter ID law, ruling that voters wouldn’t have to show identification at the polls this election but the law would be allowed to go into full effect next year.
The Pennsylvania House Dems tweeted today, “They will ask, but you do NOT have to show #VoterID to cast a ballot. Period.”
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) praised the Pennsylvania decision as “recognizing that requiring citizens to obtain a voter ID places an undue and excessive burden on eligible voters, mostly from minority communities, that is difficult to overcome.”
It is imperative we have clean, clear, fair elections…If we lose this sacred right…our right to vote because it was fraudently removed from us, one by one…then who is really “disenfranchised”?…Robbed…Ruined…no longer America, but Venezuela or Iran…
wrongheifer, and herein lies the ultimate plans of the left. The fact of the matter is that the left WANTS U.S. leadership to mirror Hugo, Castro, A’jad etc, principally because power and control (over the citizenry)is their end goal.Of course, they would rather stick needles in their eyes than admit said truth. But true no less.
Is it any coincidence, despite all the evidence pointing towards massive electoral fraud, they still keep fighting proper ID vetting? To be sure, without the media’s collusion, via the bugaboo of racism, the above would be a losing battle-theirs.
Furthermore, Barack HUSSEIN Obama and his surrogates are of like-mind with Hugo and his cohorts. For heavens sake, he gave him a congrats on being ‘re-elected’! It is intrinsic to note, the U.S. is on the precipice, and it is nearly bowed. Not only to the left, but to their twin Islamic devil.
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/09/02/the-subversion-of-america-through-the-fault-lines-of-democracy-muslims-in-america-plotting-in-plain-sight-with-their-leftist-counterparts-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/ tells part of the tale.
In effect, under the guise of democracy, the evisceration of freedom and liberty has taken place. Not only in far off lands, but right in America’s backyards! Ain’t PC, multicultural psychosis the ultimate weapon of (democratic) destruction?
And, who says leftists and Islamists aren’t cunning? They run circles around conservatives, who are (mostly) hell bent on playing by the rules.
NOT this blogger.
Obama may have to be forcibly removed from the White House and military officers are not likely to honor their oath to the United States Constitution and do it unless they go through their generals.
Black faith leaders announce campaign goal to strip 25 percent of black vote from Obama 10/09/2012
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/09/faith-leaders-aim-to-strip-25-percent-of-black-vote-from-obama/
Let me slightly rephrase that last comment of mine as it seems to have been sent to the cornfield.
If the nice President Barack Obama loses the election but his Attorney General, the honorable Eric Holder, files law suits in several states to bring those states over to the nice President Barack Obama’s column, then Mitt Romney and Big Bird and Elmo should all very politely ask the nice President Barack Obama to vacate the office of the Presidency come January of 2013, but if he says no then, of course, he must be allowed to remain President for as long as he wants as to demand otherwise would just be plain rude. And racist.
A likely scenario . . . . if it’s close.
If it’s not close, they can’t cheat. – Hught Hewitt.
Dems believe they have a better chance if they can find a sympathetic judge than they do by trying to make their case, i.e., win hearts and minds. This is a permanent truth. Their urban wardheelers and criminal elements have been practicing “losing” and “finding” boxes stuffed with ballots for centuries. We need computer voting, with pins, and privacy. Dems go on and on about how easy it is to hack a program; but that’s nothing compared to the time-honored traditions of vote rigging, box stuffing, etc. that paper ballots and absentee ballots make so irresistable.
It is funny how hard liberals fight Voter ID laws. Kind of gives you a sense for how much they count on their absence.
You could make the same statement on the other side, that Republicans are counting on a restricted franchise.
How would the franchise be restricted? “The poor” will not have ID? C’mon, ID costs about the same as a pack of cigarettes, and that’s in the states that will not give them free ID.
Want a laugh? Alaska’s voter ID law is being challenged as unfairly denying the Hispanics a right to vote. No one can get to Alaska without showing an ID somewhere along the line.
only a simple person would think that securing a true vote by something as simple as an i.d. could be cause for racial contention. thus we again have the dem. party of perpetual and everlastng racial victimology (p.e.r.v.).
so, what to expect from an apparent fraud who sold guns to murderers and drug dealers, got Americans and hundreds of Mexicans killed, destroyed documents(?) and then claimed executive privilege where none existed? what to expect from a guy who covers up the facts about our ambassador and 3 others murdered because of his administration’s actions/inactions – in our face lies over and over and over?
i grew up watching the ussr and other ‘less than honorable’ regimes treat the truth like a roll of toilet paper. kill millions of their own people overnight and lie to your face. these type people, driven by the notion that they know best, no matter what it costs, have killed millions.
maybe we can have a big party somewhere w/ lots of celeb’s, and when they leave seperately on AF 1 & AF II again, change all the locks and passwords.
holder? wonder if maybe romney has a high position for him? i have a suggestion.
Damn, these day-old Democrat chicken bones sure do stink. Time to take out the trash.
Why is PJM telling me that I am posting too fast when I have not posted ANYTHING today? I am a paying PJTV member and this crap, which happens too often, is beginning to piss me off.
It seems the entire Democratic machine is set to use every legal, and less than legal, means to insure the Won wins. Are they afraid that someone might look into their conduct over the last four years, or are they simply seeing their revolution die again. Either way, the only hope for a clean election and turnover of power is a substantial Romney vctory. If it’s too close it may be stolen, like Franken’s MN senate race, or tied up in various obvious and less obvious (or honest) challenges for months.
I am convinced that the left will do anything they think they can to win, or steal, this election. Not sure exactly why, since the next four years will be tough, but maybe they just want to finish the “fundamental change” they are already so well on the way to accomplishing.
You can’t cash a check with suitable ID. You can not refuse to identify yourself to a law enforcement officer. How is it that you can register to vote without showing identification?
So the Left Wing moonbats, the corrupt Racist DOJ Holder and the Democrats and the Lame Stream EneMedia believe that rquiring photo ID to vote is discriminatory to minorities.
Well lest see the ONLY way you could presume that such a move discriminates against minorities is that you would have to believe that minorities are too STUPID to be able to obtain a photo ID. Now THATS what I call being RACIST.
The real reason the corrupt USURPER Regime want to prevent voters from showing ID’s of course is so they can STEAL the election by corrupting the vote. After it was Stalin , one of their own, who said ‘Its not the votes that count its WHO counts the vote”.
With all due respect, Rep. Cummings is a bald faced liar and he knows it. He’s been offered opportunities to view every aspect of True the Vote’s approach and mission. Evidently, he chooses ignorance to reinforce his hate and bigotry. Too bad, because there is nothing unconstitutional about one person, one vote. Yet he perpetuates the lie that that effort somehow keeps his people from voting. My how common sense is misrepresented by these libs.
There are really two separate issues. First, there are the absentee votes which are clearly easy to manipulate. Second, however, on poll day we should have the Iraq-style ink stained finger which would eliminate multiple voting on election day. That would not require any special forms to fill out or prove citizenship, but it would limit the votes to one per person.