The Myth Of Voter Fraud

by Adam Fogel // Published March 29, 2007
Notable commentary in today's Washington Post from voting rights leaders from the Brennan Center. Having secure elections should certainly be a priority, but not at the expense of ordinary citizens trying to cast a vote legally.
Allegations of voter fraud -- someone sneaking into the polls to cast an illicit vote -- have been pushed in recent years by partisans seeking to justify proof-of-citizenship and other restrictive ID requirements as a condition of voting. Scare stories abound on the Internet and on editorial pages, and they quickly become accepted wisdom.

But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. Where fraud exists, of course, it should be prosecuted and punished. (And politicians have been stuffing ballot boxes and buying votes since senators wore togas; Lyndon Johnson won a 1948 Senate race after his partisans famously "found" a box of votes well after the election.) Yet evidence of actual fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy.

Comments currently closed for The Myth Of Voter Fraud

  • Good point. We should be proactive when it comes to protecting our elections from potential fraud. That's why we should put the onus of voter registration on the government--to avoid duplication on the rolls and limit the role of potentially dishonest partisan organizations that register the majority of citizens. FairVote suggests 3 ways to make elections safer: http://www.fairvote.org/?page=756.

    Posted by Adam, 2007-03-30 10:13:58 (6 years ago)

  • In other news, most people don't think about home security until after a burglery. Is it better to install a home alarm system before or after such an event? You know the saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Requiring proof of eligibility before a person can cast a vote saves from having to punish after the fact, assuming the fraud is even detected. (Ignorance is bliss!) Unless we actually *want* more people in our jails.

    Posted by Derek, 2007-03-29 20:10:05 (6 years ago)