When Confidence Fails

Of the many things that conspire together to make the United States of America the greatest place in the world to live, our long record of peaceful transfer of power has to among the most prominent. Throughout our 200+ year history our leaders have been replaced and disputes about power transfer have been settled with the ballot or through elected representatives. Obviously this has not always been perfectly accomplished, or done without some occasionally bitter divisions and disputes. But on January 9, 2009 George W. Bush will willingly surrender his office to the winner of this years presidential election. Such a peaceful succession of power is only possible if the citizens and the politicians involved have a reasonable level of confidence in the election process.

Surely all Americans will admit there is some amount of voter fraud in every election. We would be naive not to admit it. However, we have chosen to believe that the vast majority of voters and election officials are honest, that there are enough safeguards to ensure an accurate and fair election. We have to believe this, otherwise our system of government is a sham.

Recent evidence is beginning to call that confidence into question. Particularly in regards to the activist group ACORN. ACORN purports to be a non-partisan, non-profit organization that is interested in promoting involvement in the democratic process by as many people at possible. Admirable, if true. Nothing could be further from the truth however, they are actively partisan, supporting and promoting Barack Obama. Unashamedly so. This should be scandal enough, but there's more, and worse. They have been shown to be engaged in widespread voter registration fraud. Deroy Murdock over at National Review Online posts a good article summarizing most of the voter registration fraud connected to ACORN that is currently known. I have no doubt that more will come to light. You'll have to read the whole thing for yourself, but some relevant sections:

In Indiana, people seem really psyched for November. STATSIndiana reveals that 644,197 adults in Marion County (Indianapolis) are of voting age. Among those, 677,401 are registered to vote. Thanks to these 33,204 fake voters, Indianapolis enjoys an amazing 105.15 percent registration rate.

In Lake County, among 5,000 registration applications that ACORN submitted, all of the first 2,100 proved bogus. “All the signatures looked exactly the same,” Republican election official Ruthann Hoagland told CNN. “Everything on the card filled out looks exactly the same.” Her Democratic colleague, Sally LaSota, agreed. “We’re not handwriting experts, but what’s obvious is obvious.” These 5,000 forms were placed in what Hoagland called the “fake pile” for later scrutiny.

One card was filed by Jimmy Johns. His address is listed as 10839 Broadway in Crown Point. That turns out to be the location of a fast-food restaurant called . . . Jimmy Johns.

Don't worry, each one of those 35,000 registrations is an isolated incident by an over-enthusiastic volunteer, not typical. (Of course, my 35,000 number is HUGELY conservative considering it allows a 100% registration rate for Marion county and assumes that only the first 2,100 registrations in Lake County are fraudulent.) But wait, there's more:

In New Mexico, Bernalillo County authorities are examining 1,400 dubious registration cards. Also, ACORN illegally has hired felons there to register voters. This apparently included a child rapist. ACORN reportedly has had at least 59 felons signing up voters across America.

More isolated incidents:

According to the Wall Street Journal, a worker for one Ohio ACORN affiliate in 2004 “was given crack cocaine in exchange for fraudulent registrations that included underage voters, dead voters, and pillars of the community named Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy, and Jive Turkey.”

And yet a few more over-enthusiastic volunteers, just wanting to help people:

In Washington State, ACORN agreed to court supervision and paid a $25,000 fine after five of its workers went to jail in July 2007 for sitting in a Seattle public library and filling out 1,800 registration forms with names they invented. In 2004, some Democratic precincts generated more mail-in ballots than there were mail voters.

This is just a sampling. ACORN is being investigated in 13 different states. This is probably the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Many states, including our own Illinois, aren't even looking at ACORN for voter fraud. It's impossible to tell how much fraud takes place when the people responsible for the safety of elections aren't interested in groups like ACORN. Of course, elections in Illinios are largely determined by the Daley machine. "Vote early, vote often!" has long been a Cook County motto. Now, a group like ACORN can handle the dirty work under the cloak of "non-partisanship."

For more on ACORN and Barack Obama's ties to the organization see Stanley Kurtz's piece, here; Mark Hemingway, here; or any one of Michelle Malkin's posts on the subject, start here.

Back to the greater point. In light of prevalent fraud of this nature, and the knowledge that we are only looking at the tip of the iceberg, what are we as a society to do? It has become rather common for elections, even national ones, to come down to thousands, even hundreds of votes. What if the candidates are separated by 2,000 votes in Indiana? 5,000 in Illinois? (unlikely I know) Iowa by 500? What would we do? Pretend that fraud didn't play a part in the selection our President? If we DO recognize the fraud, what would we be able to do about it?

Our election systems are in trouble. It's time to take a hard, honest look at some of our policies. Like even allowing a third party to register voters in the first place. Or same day registration/early voting. Or even early voting at all, I guess there are some situations where it is needed, but it should be rare. One immediate way to begin reform is to ask for a simple photo ID at the voting booth. We show photo ID for virtually everything else. I have to show a photo ID to buy cold medicine for my kids, to rent a video, to drive a car, the list is endless. The idea that this would discriminate against any eligible voter in any way is ridiculous and embarrassing. The idea that it would it would unfairly hurt minorities is condescending, offensive, and racist.

Open, honest and fair elections are among the basic foundations for our system of government and way of life. These elections are under attack. If we do nothing, we risk losing our collective confidence in the electoral process. What will happen when that confidence fails?

~Gabriel

Photoshop credit: Leo Alberti