September 24, 2012 by David K. Sutton

Voter Fraud: Republicans Still Haven’t Found What They Are Looking For

When it comes to voter fraud, Republicans are singing the U2 song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” But that won’t stop them. They will continue to waste time, money and resources going after a non-existent problem. After all, they need to prove their voter restrictions (i.e., voter suppression efforts) are sound, whether it be voter ID laws or voter registration purges.

Either way you slice this issue, Republicans are wrong. Hear me out. — It doesn’t matter whether you believe Republicans are actively attempting to suppress votes or if you believe they are making an honest attempt to weed out voter fraud, both are wrong, but for different reasons.

Not all Republicans are actively engaged in suppressing the vote. Some do believe that there is a widespread voter fraud problem. I’m not sure what informs this belief, but one guess would be their unwillingness to accept that half the country (or more) do not agree with them, particularly when a Democratic candidate wins an election. How else could we explain the disconnect with conservatives who think, if only they could run a more conservative candidate, they would win? If they believe that, then it’s not a stretch to also believe that an election won by a Democratic candidate is a result of voter fraud. It is a convenient way to instantly (in their mind) discredit the elected Democrat and make their office illegitimate. Just ask Barack Obama.

For other Republicans it’s all about voter suppression. Sure, most of them play coy — well, except PA Rep. Mike Turzai — but they know exactly what they are doing even if they don’t publicly admit it. The fact is that the larger the turnout in an election, the more it favors Democratic candidates. Republicans know this. Well, at least the Republicans who are in positions of power in the party. What they tell their constituents is something else entirely. But they know suppressing the vote, particularly the minority vote will benefit Republicans.

So it doesn’t matter whether Republicans are actively suppressing the vote or if they truly believe they are combating voter fraud, either way they are wrong.

Republican election officials who promised to root out voter fraud so far are finding little evidence of a widespread problem.

State officials in key presidential battleground states have found only a tiny fraction of the illegal voters they initially suspected existed. Searches in Colorado and Florida have yielded numbers that amount to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all registered voters in either state.
Democrats say the searches waste time and, worse, could disenfranchise eligible voters who are swept up in the checks.

“I find it offensive that I’m being required to do more than any other citizen to prove that I can vote,” said Samantha Meiring, 37, a Colorado voter and South African immigrant who became a U.S. citizen in 2010. Meiring was among 3,903 registered voters who received letters last month from the Colorado Secretary of State’s office questioning their right to vote. – Republicans look for voter fraud, find little, Yahoo!