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It’s Time for Vote Reform
Law, National Politics, Texas Politics Comments (5)
In 1948 Lyndon Baines Johnson’s political career was revived by a “lost” ballot box which put him 58 votes over popular Governor Coke Stevenson in that year’s Senate race. The Miami Herald won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for uncovering how “vote brokers” employed by candidate Xavier Suarez stole a mayoral election by tampering with 4,740 absentee ballots. In 2004, Representative Ciro Rodriguez charged a missing ballot box appeared in south Texas during a primary recount with enough votes to make his opponent the Democratic nominee by 58 votes and Democrat Christine Gregoire wins the Washington state gubernatorial election by 110 votes based, in large part, on 723 “lost” votes in King County. Some 56 years after LBJ stole an election through ballot fraud, it’s time for enough vote security reform that will prevent these mass ballot problems.
As a former election judge here in Texas I can talk about our system. In order to vote in Texas you must have and present a voter’s registration card, which may or may not be stamped with “voted” when presented for voting. If it is your first time to vote, you are also supposed to present a form of photo identification. If you forget your registration card, then you can present some other form of identification. Suggested forms include: your driver’s license, birth certificate, or a copy of your electric bill. Voting on the strength of something as easily forged as an electric bill (and the documents I received as an election judge stated it more broadly as an “utility bill”) creates a situtation ripe for fraud.
We need to start off with more stringent voter identification requirements. Knowing where all of the votes are is no good when a good number of those ballots could be fraudulent. The method of voter identification used by Mexico in their federal elections provides a good example to be followed. In the introduction to Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy, John Fund describes the Mexican system:
To obtain voter credentials, the citizen must present a photo, write a signature and give a thumbprint. The voter card includes a picture with a hologram covering it, a magnetic strip and a serial number to guard against tampering. To cast a ballot, voters must present the card and be certified by a thumbprint scanner.
To use such a system would mean tying the scanner into a central database. Such a system would prevent voter fraud by denying the opportunity for people to vote multiple times. Once they have voted, it is important that they be provided with a way to carry with them a verification of the ballot cast if they desire it. That should mean that a receipt is issued to each and every voter when they cast their ballot. For electronic voting systems the proposed receipting system will be more than sufficient. For those of us still using optical scanners then election officials should offer them the opportunity to recieve a counterfeit-resistant, printed receipt upon which they may also record their ballot ID number.
Once the ballot is cast, it is important that no ballot get left behind. Vote repositories must be centralized, well guarded, and catalogued. They need to be treated with the same chain of custody arrangements as police evidence lockers. Every tray or ballot box should be locked when not in use with written check-in, location, and check-out procedures. No longer should it be true that “election workers, along with observers from the political parties, [should] search the locked cage inside the warehouse” for ballots as happened in Washington and reported by Fox News.
But, would such a system ever be adopted? Likely not. As long as people like DNC spokeswoman Maria Cardona are around. According to Ms. Cardona, “Ballot security and preventing voter fraud are just code words for voter intimidation and suppression.” It’s a stupid position to say that Mexico has designed its system, which allowed for the first non-PRI government in 70 years, was designed with voter intimidation and suppression in mind.
And until such sane measures are in place, we will continue to see stories of doubtful votes and elections.
MickC @ December 24, 2004
Excellent! I was expecting some cry-baby “count every vote” rant. This is brilliant.
Until we have true election security, we’ll always wonder who REALLY won. The same people who want to “count every vote” have no desire to eliminate fraud because fraud benefits them and they know it. They never cry “count every VALID vote”!
You need to show a photo ID to fly on a plane. How much more important is it to confirm who you are when you vote? Voter intimidation? Yes, I guess you would feel intimidated if you were going to cast a fraudulent ballot.
Okay, may I say something as a Texan and as someone who has voted without my registration card? Presenting alternate forms of ID is acceptable to me in certain cases. The last time I voted IN Texas was during the 2000 election. Before that, 1996. All the other times I’ve voted has been absentee.
Now, during the 2000 election I was registered, but they sent my card, and hubby’s, to our old APO in Germany. We had updated the info, they just hadn’t corrected it. When I went to vote I supplied Driver’s License, SSN, Military ID and a piece of mail to my Permanent Home of Record. ONLY after supplying all that was I permited to vote. That poll worker went well above state law, and I’m sure some would have whined about it. I was put at ease about the very fact I had to ‘jump through so many hoops’ to vote.
I take my right, no duty to vote seriously. I would gladly supply a fingerprint or an iris print to vote. I take my responsibilities, and their protection, that highly. I already supply my thumbprint for my Driver’s License, surely using my print to vote isn’t too much to ask.
Not just some would have whined about that. Many would have. In the 2002 off-year election I was reported to the county clerk and (at least they said when they left) the Texas Secretary of State’s Civil Rights office for refusing to allow someone to vote a non-challenge ballot (they call them provisional ballots now). My crime? I told a woman that she was on the rolls in another precinct (a fact which agreed with the voter registration card she presented) and that the law dictated that she could not cast a regular ballot in my precinct. She didn’t want to take the five minutes necessary to fill out the paperwork for the only option available to her if she wanted to vote in the wrong precinct.
That said, I’m not totally against the use of alternate identification for voter authentication. But there is going to be a balancing act there because the lessening of requirements (and face it, when you allow someone to vote solely on the strength of an electric bill, you’re lessening the requirements) you increase the possibility of fraud.
[...] It’s past time for sensible vote reform. In 2004, the Democrats and liberal 527s tried to steal the election, but failed and they don’t deserve another shot at that apple. Reforming the system only serves to protect our most valuable national treasure: our right to vote and have that vote properly counted. [...]
[...] blogged about this a couple of years ago. My thoughts haven’t changed much, especially now that we are pretty [...]