Voter Identification Laws Are Trouble For Democrats
Wed, Nov 14 2012 00:00:00 E A14_ISSUES
Posted 11/13/2012 06:46 PM ET
Voter Fraud: Democrats say America doesn't need voter identification laws because there's no evidence of election cheating. But when a candidate doesn't get a single vote in 59 precincts, you've got to wonder.
One candidate did just that last week in Philadelphia, where Mitt Romney was shut out 19,605-0 in 59 voting divisions.
The Obama Justice Department might not be concerned about that, but one man who studies voting patterns is dubious. University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato told the Philadelphia Inquirer that it deserves scrutiny.
"Not a single vote for Romney or even an error?" he asked. "That's worth looking into."
Philadelphia is also where 75 legal and credentialed Republican election workers were blocked or removed from the polls on Election Day. And Pennsylvania is the Democratic state where a duly legislated voter ID law was blocked by a judge for the 2012 election.
Romney was similarly blanked in nine precincts in nationally pivotal and heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, Ohio, centered on Cleveland, where he did even worse than third-party candidates.
Seem impossible? Yes, it does. And that's not just our opinion. Rich Exner, the Cleveland Plain Dealer's data analysis editor, said he doesn't find the shutout credible.
Equally as implausible were the turnouts in Democratic strongholds that either exceeded the number of registered voters or the voting-age population.
It's possible for voter participation to exceed the number of registered voters — new residents and unregistered voters can register on Election Day and vote. But it's unlikely when the average voter turnout has been 64% in the last two presidential contests.
Yet that happened in, yes, Pennsylvania, where Republican Gov. Tom Corbett has complained that some precincts voted at more than 100%.
Even more unlikely is turnout surpassing the voter-age population. But that happened in two counties in Colorado, a state won by Obama.
Despite all the smoke strongly suggestive of fire, left-wing publication Mother Jones ran a headline in August that read "UFO Sightings Are More Common Than Voter Fraud," which sums up nicely the Democrats' cavalier attitude toward the issue.
They're not even interested in the United Nations' election observers' surprise that Americans can vote without proving their identity. Same with the Obama supporter who said last week on Facebook that he'd voted four times in North Carolina and was planning to vote once more. Nothing to see there.
Though Obama won last week, he lost in all four states that strictly require would-be voters to present photographic identification before receiving a ballot. Imagine what would happen if just half the states required photo ID. The game would be over for Democrats.
Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/111312-633313-voter-fraud-is-a-problem.htm#ixzz2CCWh1Uvi |
