Chief
05-01-2008, 06:23 AM
http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/349166.html
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: May 1st, 2008 01:00 AM
The election-eve nightmare of Republicans is voting fraud, traditionally the specialty of corrupt Democratic machines.
The election-eve nightmare of Democrats is vote-suppression, the specialty of shifty conservatives who worry about the rabble’s political inclinations. The masters of suppression were the old-time Southern Democrats, who devised poll taxes, literacy tests and other tactics – including lynching – to keep blacks away from the polls.
No – take that back. The masters of suppression were the founding fathers, who restricted the franchise to white male property owners.
That’s the political context of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Monday to uphold Indiana’s voter-ID law. Indiana’s Republican Legislature in 2005 required voters to produce government-issued, photo IDs when they showed up at the polls. Democrats challenged the law, fearing it would discourage voting by marginalized citizens with no picture ID.
John Paul Stevens, arguably the court’s most liberal member, wrote the lead opinion upholding the law.
The Democrats had pointed out that the Republicans could point to no actual fraud that justified the ID requirement. Perhaps, said Stevens, but neither had the Dems been able to point to any actual suppression that justified overturning it. In the absence of concrete evidence, he wrote, the state had a legitimate interest in guarding the integrity of its elections.
Disputes over who gets to vote and who doesn’t should be of keen interest to Washingtonians, in light of the incredibly narrow gubernatorial election we saw here in 2004. Gregoire, on the second recount, won by 129 votes out of more than 2.8 million cast – one of the closest elections, in percentage terms, in history. (Gregoire says she’s still asked about that infinitesimal victory margin when she visits distant countries.)
So is Washington a fraud state or a suppression state? While there doesn’t seem to be much of either here, fraud and allegations of fraud have certainly been more in the news.
Washington also requires would-be voters to provide identification. But it accepts copies of utility bills, bank statements or paychecks – not a high hurdle for people who are bent on voting illegally.
With motor-voter registration, mail balloting and other super-easy-to-vote policies on the books, most of the complaints have been coming from Republicans – especially since those bundles of ballots kept mysteriously materializing in King County after the election four years ago. In that case, incompetence rather than fraud appeared to be the culprit.
Fraud would clearly be easier than suppression in Washington. That means election officials must handle ballots so competently and carefully that questions of corruption never arise.
Sam Reed has been all over this issue, and we will find out if King County has cleaned up it's act this November...
8)
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: May 1st, 2008 01:00 AM
The election-eve nightmare of Republicans is voting fraud, traditionally the specialty of corrupt Democratic machines.
The election-eve nightmare of Democrats is vote-suppression, the specialty of shifty conservatives who worry about the rabble’s political inclinations. The masters of suppression were the old-time Southern Democrats, who devised poll taxes, literacy tests and other tactics – including lynching – to keep blacks away from the polls.
No – take that back. The masters of suppression were the founding fathers, who restricted the franchise to white male property owners.
That’s the political context of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Monday to uphold Indiana’s voter-ID law. Indiana’s Republican Legislature in 2005 required voters to produce government-issued, photo IDs when they showed up at the polls. Democrats challenged the law, fearing it would discourage voting by marginalized citizens with no picture ID.
John Paul Stevens, arguably the court’s most liberal member, wrote the lead opinion upholding the law.
The Democrats had pointed out that the Republicans could point to no actual fraud that justified the ID requirement. Perhaps, said Stevens, but neither had the Dems been able to point to any actual suppression that justified overturning it. In the absence of concrete evidence, he wrote, the state had a legitimate interest in guarding the integrity of its elections.
Disputes over who gets to vote and who doesn’t should be of keen interest to Washingtonians, in light of the incredibly narrow gubernatorial election we saw here in 2004. Gregoire, on the second recount, won by 129 votes out of more than 2.8 million cast – one of the closest elections, in percentage terms, in history. (Gregoire says she’s still asked about that infinitesimal victory margin when she visits distant countries.)
So is Washington a fraud state or a suppression state? While there doesn’t seem to be much of either here, fraud and allegations of fraud have certainly been more in the news.
Washington also requires would-be voters to provide identification. But it accepts copies of utility bills, bank statements or paychecks – not a high hurdle for people who are bent on voting illegally.
With motor-voter registration, mail balloting and other super-easy-to-vote policies on the books, most of the complaints have been coming from Republicans – especially since those bundles of ballots kept mysteriously materializing in King County after the election four years ago. In that case, incompetence rather than fraud appeared to be the culprit.
Fraud would clearly be easier than suppression in Washington. That means election officials must handle ballots so competently and carefully that questions of corruption never arise.
Sam Reed has been all over this issue, and we will find out if King County has cleaned up it's act this November...
8)