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Voter fraud probe is an attempt it intimidate voters
Republican Secretary of State Dianna Duran and New Mexico Republicans have trotted out GOP Executive Director Bryan Watkins as the most recent talking head to champion their effort to sell New Mexicans the bill of goods that our state is being overrun with systematic voter fraud.
In Watkins’ op-ed, he argues that we should spend millions of taxpayer dollars adopting a policy that will diminish Hispanics’, senior citizens’, Native Americans’ and African-Americans’ rights to vote.
But to support his case he is only able to cite two – just two – cases of voter fraud in New Mexico. (One was actually a voter registration case from 20 years ago that involved zero actual votes.) Nevertheless, for argument’s sake, let’s say both hold water as actual cases of voter fraud in New Mexico.
Since 1992, over 5.3 million ballots have been cast in the State of New Mexico. Factor in the two cases on which the N.M. GOP is building its entire argument, and that comes out to an alleged fraud rate of 0.000000037 percent of ballots cast. And they had to go back 20 years just to get the percentage up that high!
And considering that in both cases the perpetrators were caught, it would seem to me that the facts of Watkins’ argument go to show that election law in New Mexico is already pretty good.
Not much to hang your hat on there.
Trying to exclude eligible voters
This is a partisan attempt to intimidate voters and a massive waste of taxpayer dollars, and Secretary Duran’s inclusion of state police in the probe is a cynical attempt to hide a nasty political tactic behind a curtain of public safety and up the ante on voter intimidation.
The real issue here is that both nationally and locally, the GOP knows they have to stop intimidated and disenfranchised groups from voting if they want to stand a chance in the 2012 elections.
It’s that simple.
It should come as no surprise that the groups who are most likely to not have the proper ID required for voting – seniors, African-Americans, Native Americans and Latinos – are by-and-large traditional Democratic constituencies.
Voter suppression is a tool long used by the Republicans to keep the poor, minorities and the elderly away from the polls on Election Day. Instead of encouraging wider participation – the lifeblood of any democracy – and making New Mexicans feel comfortable about voting, Republicans are trying to exclude eligible voters and fool the average New Mexican into believing that our democracy is anything but free and fair.
A good use of your tax dollars?
Everyday New Mexicans are struggling. The state budget is ballooning and unemployment is way too high. But instead of proposing solutions, our governor, secretary of state and New Mexico Republicans have decided to focus on their own political future.
They’re trying to pull a fast one with talk of voter fraud and restrictive voter ID laws, and they’re using your money to do it.
Here’s a simple question to ask in these tough economic times: Is spending millions on a voter ID law and fraud cases that go nowhere really a good use of your tax dollars?
Chavez is chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Valencia County.
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stever:
Name and address is all that state law requires from a voter; there is technically a law on the books requires identification, but the list of viable ID is rather long and includes (among other things) any government-issued picture ID (including passports and student IDs), rental agreements, house titles, utility bills, or a verbal statement of… name and address. I seem to recall that it is by court order that only this last is enforceable, though that could just be my memory playing tricks on me.
IP you mentioned current voter ID laws. In Dona Ana County (anyway) they said they were not allowed to ask, for nor look at, any form of identification, you just needed to tell them a name and address.
As I said earlier, I don’t think this is an issue worth pursuing. As someone once said, if its not close, cheating won’t matter.
In any case, beyond saying your name and address is there a voter ID law that you are referring to? Thanks
MJM, I didn’t say “free”, I said “free to the individual”. Also, voting is a right rather than a mere privilege, and hundreds of thousands of Americans have died to make sure of that. Since no one has yet managed to prove that election results are even potentially being affected by illegitimate voters – or, for that matter, that there even are that many voters – I think the whole discussion is a ludicrous red herring that distracts us from the fact that all the proposed solutions actually are effecting the integrity of our elections. It’s rather like hacking off someone’s arm because they have a hangnail.
artiofab:
Frankly, I have no real problems with our current voter ID laws; I find them reasonable, easy to comply with, and they don’t run a real risk of disenfranchisement. Since with them there has yet to be an actual problem with the sorts of illegal voting that they’re meant to prevent – and the statistical probability of them failing in the current climate is miniscule at worst – then why change them? Frankly, I already have problems with the options you suggested for a separate reasons; I think Medicare/Medicaid identification is actually included as one of the myriad of options you are already allowed to use; selective service registration is, of course, already tied to the right-to-vote, something I find offensive and archaic, and the fact that this law is limited to males even more so; as for Social Security, we already use that number for way too much, and since we’ve already made it a one-stop shop for large-scale identity theft and invasions-of-privacy, I think that using it for these purposes actually would make the sort of fraud that certain people are worried about possible. After all, while there have been no documented cases of non-Americans voting illegally, there are literally thousands of cases – every year – of non-Americans with falsified Social Security cards.
IP, I had completely forgotten why requiring a drivers license (or other non-free identification card) to vote was a bad idea, thanks for the reminder. Since there’s only a few kinds of government-issued identifications that are free (social security cards, selective service cards, I can’t think of another example off the top of my head – Medicaid/Medicare?) would it be a good idea to use those cards/numbers to track registered voters?
IP your logic is good here except for one thing. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Thus to offer ID’s free of charge is not possible unless you tax someone to pay for that expense. Voting is a privelege, and a right and lots of individuals of all walks of life have sacrificed their lives to give “legitimate” voters that option. If you want to vote here you have to show an unconditional validation of that right in my opinion.
MJM:
The answer is yes to both questions, several times. I’ve also supervised poll watchers as well. Quite simply, the issue is this; so long as state-issued IDs cost money, requiring them to vote is (in my view) unconstitutional, because any time you have to pay for anything that is required to vote, it’s a poll tax. If they were issued free-of-charge to the individual, that objection would fade.
However, this is remarkably low on the priority scale, since (despite dozens of attempts by the GOP to prove otherwise), this sort of voter fraud just simply doesn’t happen on a scale large enough to have an effect on elections (something that, thanks to dozens of attempts by the GOP to prove otherwise, we have a great deal of evidence for). When it comes to the integrity of elections, I am far more concerned about other things; the demonstrable suppression of legitimate voters brought about by increasingly-onerous ID laws, organizations getting away with obviously illegal challenge and suppression tactics because there is no effective enforcement of existing laws, the insecurity and ease of large-scale tampering that the machines in other states have demonstrated… and an over-zealous Secretary of State launching a criminal investigation of over 10% of the voters in her state, almost all of whom even she admits have broken no laws.
IP you might be right there. Have you everr worked as a poll watcher? Ever worked in the warehouse to watch the vote being counted? Having done both several times, it does appear to me that a fair vote is one that requires a real count of qualified voters. Havng a valid ID seems to provide validation and verification of qualified voters. Would you agree?
If not what is your suggestion?
Well, MJM, since driver’s licenses have nothing to do with voting and the governor is (rather wisely) staying completely out of this particular fight thus far, I think we’re looking at two separate issues.
I think this is part of a larger agenda. Nothing happened at the legislature regarding the drivers licence for undocumented individuals question. Democrats took a hike on this issue and log rolled it for the session. The administration is trying to drive a point home. I think if we could have a few democrats and republicans geta plan together to address some of the issues it would be helpful to documented individuals and the State in General. It is a tough situation, and the administration is looks to be over reacting to some degree here.
Mike Scott:
“But they would be tied to a potential scandal that would grantee they would never again be able to run for office and they would face years in prison” – in New Mexico that is particularly not true.
“Campaigns do not target unregistered citizens or newly registered voters because very few show up. It is a waste of money” – that is so beyond untrue it leads me to believe you have never worked on a political campaign.
Your questions involve potential future realities which makes them quite hard to accurately answer. It is like George W. Bush putting an entire Nation in a bogus oil war using wmd fearmongering to accomplish his true motives. Now, after the deaths of 4000plus Patriots, if there were in fact wmds we certainly don’t know where they are whereas had we continued the no-fly zones, that were successful in their implimentation, we might have found them. So no I don’t “support stripping the constitutionally protected right to vote from one person?” and that is why I believe one vote that is illegal strips the vote of a legal vote cast by someone whose vote has been constitutionally protected. Furthermore to answer your question “What if we strip those rights from 64,000 citizens to prevent 37 people from voting illegally?”, my response to that is just as W was irrational and fearmongering in an arena that involves national security so would such a completely unlikely scenario be judged.
Now here is a question for you, Mr. Scott, why even have laws against and preventing voter fraud?
Hemingway, you too are free to answer that last question.
I would also like to ask Qui a couple of questions. Would you support stripping the constitutionally protected right to vote from one person? What if we strip those rights from 64,000 citizens to prevent 37 people from voting illegally?
It sounds like the cure is by far worse than the disease. Duran said she had proof that there were 37 cases of fraud, and she is willing to take the most important right of 64,000 American citizen to correct this problem.
If new laws would stop the 37 fraud cases she claims to have uncovered, but at the same time disenfranchise 40 people, it is a net loss for America and democracy.
Duran, Martinez, McCluskey, and Rove are using a tank to swat what is likely to be an imaginary fly. This is about using any means necessary to win. It is not about clean elections.
Mr. Pruitt:
I think you’re the one that needs to get your facts straight; the amount of voter fraud that was laid at ACORN’s door was alleged to be rampant… and it was all disproved. In my job, I had my own problems with ACORN and their general incompetence, but no matter how hard they tried, the right never managed to prove that ACORN had done anything wrong, never mind that they were engaging in organized voter fraud – indeed, “organized” is not a word I ever associated with them.
Of course, our experience with you, Mr. Pruitt, is that you’ve rarely met a conspiracy theory you didn’t like, so I’m not surprised that you heard something that fit your preconceived narrative and didn’t bother to pay any attention when you were – as usual – proven wrong.
Mr. Scott and stever (who is hardly a scion of the left) have summarized the matter quite effectively; even if by some miracle there was an organized attempt to steal elections in this state that was operating in the manner you claim it is (which, considering the GOP’s failure to find even a single case for over a decade seems unlikely), it would be an incredibly inefficient system that would have no hope of changing the results.
As has been pointed out, statistically there might be four fraudulent voters out there (“might” being the key word), and in response, you’re advocating the potential disenfranchisement of 64,000 of your fellow citizens, just in case? “Overreaction” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Also, Qui Tam? Why should Ms. Chavez “have” to answer to you? I think you should stop issuing directives.
Here is real voter fraud in our history:
http://budiansky.blogspot.com/2011/06/real-history-of-voter-fraud.html
To all the people who think it is fiscally viable to get thousands of people to get an ID, register to vote, and get them to the polls to cast a ballot, all in an attempt to change the outcome of an election, do not understand campaigns.
Campaigns do not target unregistered citizens or newly registered voters because very few show up. It is a waste of money.
Even if it was financially viable to get 2,000 or 4,000 or 10,000 people to illegally vote, it would not change the election results of a state wide election. Heinrich won by 7,000 votes and that was an extremely close election. The candidate who engages is this kind of activity would rarely, if ever, change the outcome. But they would be tied to a potential scandal that would grantee they would never again be able to run for office and they would face years in prison.
A cost-effective way of impacting an election is to use taxpayer dollars to remove 64,000 voters from the rolls who are likely to vote for your opponent.
The upside of voter fraud is none and the down side is huge. Would a rational politician engage in voter fraud?
The upside of using taxpayer dollars to call into question the integrity of elections to purge tens of thousands of eligible voters is bigger than the downside. It does not cost the campaign a penny and it can change the results of election.
“The real issue here is that both nationally and locally, the GOP knows they have to stop intimidated and disenfranchised groups from voting if they want to stand a chance in the 2012 elections.”
“It’s that simple.”
“It should come as no surprise that the groups who are most likely to not have the proper ID required for voting – seniors, African-Americans, Native Americans and Latinos – are by-and-large traditional Democratic constituencies.”
Wow! Ms. Chavez cites a couple of instances of vote fraud (1 is too many) but apparently she wants to see multiple examples of vote fraud before anything is done to prevent it. How many would be enough?
Ms. Chavez offers no specific examples of “intimidated voters” or “disenfranchised voters” only groups of straw men. Should we mention the fact that the “intimidated, disenfranchised, Democrat constituency” has been able to control the New Mexico legislature for decades? The straw men in the above sentences are tall Ms Chavez but they fall easily.
You have some questions to answer Ms. Chavez.
I think Lisa Chavez and Hemingway should check out their facts better. The amount of voter fraud that was laid at ACORN’s door was not just a couple of cases, it was rampant.
Also there is an old saying that “where there is smoke there is fire.” Even one case of voter fraud is too much. People have been elected to office with just “ONE” vote. Voter fraud is a crime against the people and should be rooted out.
How would either Hemingway of Chavez like it if they were tried for a crime and one vote of a juror could sentence them to death. Maybe they should get behind the effort to root out fraud of any kind, instead of blasting away with guns at nothing.
Lisa Chavez, I think you have some questions to answer.
Dr. J:
If it wasn’t worthy of your commentary, why did you? For that matter, did you read any of the discussion it spawned?
The right wing’s attacks on Acorn had nothing to do with voter fraud (in fact, not a single vote has been found to be illegally cast as the result of Acorn’s activities)! Again racism drives the attacks against ACORN.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/gao-little-evidence-to-support-charges-that-killed-acorn/question-1890997/
An independent investigation of ACORN by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger found no criminal wrongdoing by the organization, and a report released by the Congressional Research Service in 2010 says it couldn’t find any instances in which questionable people registered to vote by ACORN showed up at the polls on Election Day. Republicans are using ACORN as a straw dog for political reasons. It is simply RACISM at its worst. The videos that have been released appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially to attack ACORN. Enough of this nonsense by Republican operatives.
And ACORN itself must be doing alright after fighting off such wild rumors.
ACORN filed Chapter 7 last year but ACORN by another name is, I suppose, doing allright
Another biased politically motivated opinion piece. Are we supposed to comment on this junk?
PS does anyone remember that guy who ran for President in 2008 who claimed that some group named ACORN was committing voter fraud? Even though that was pointed out as being very untrue? And how a bunch of people who voted for that guy, in 2009, thought that the group had somehow stolen the election for a candidate not their own? Even though that was preposterous?
I bet that guy must have egg on his face now. And those voters of his must be sorta embarrassed for ever believing such a thing. And ACORN itself must be doing alright after fighting off such wild rumors.
Interesting article Lisa Chavez. Three questions:
First, how much of what Sec. Duran is doing may be tied to requirements by the Federal Government? It was my understanding that some of these actions were prescribed by federal law. Do you have any problem with requirements given by the Obama Administration?
Second, I can see how heavy handed enforcement of voting regulations (strip search to go in the voting line, etc.) could have the effect of putting all voters off. That said, I do not see how “adopting a policy that will diminish Hispanics’, senior citizens’, Native Americans’ and African-Americans’ rights to vote.” I am a senior citizen, what policy do you think would make me say, “Shuckins, guess I won’t vote?” In almost everything I do I must identify myself robustly, especially when I fly, and I still fly. What could the TSA do that would make me say, no more will I fly… and how close is that to what I might have to do to vote in a right wing state? In those right wing states is the requirement anything like the body pat downs and other obnoxious things the TSA does?
Finally, there is the notion that normal protocols for positive identification should not be used in the arguably most important thing a citizen does to keep his or her government free, that we vote. Why should we not have absolute confidence people voting are who they say they are. Cheaters cannot be caught with the present system that requires I should announce my name loudly and the election official must assume that I am the person I said. Make the point again about why having to positively identify yourself is OK at other state offices but not in voting.
Glad you started the dialog in this area. Thanks.
IP, good point, I was spreading those 600 bad ballots across the country equally, instead of by population. So, yeah, 4 bad ballots in all of New Mexico. Definitely worth complaining about. What’s the error rate on mechanical voting, anywho? Or on scanning of fill-in-the-bubble forms? Seems to me like those would probably invalidate more than 4 votes in an election…
QT, if you believe that “Not one person should have their vote disenfranchised and/or cancelled out because of voter fraud.”, what is your prescription for ending voter fraud around the country? The steps currently in place are largely squashing it, so what additional steps do you think should be taken?
Here is Secretary of State Dianna Duran who said she has proof that foreign nationals and possibly illegal immigrants have cast ballots in elections in the state (March 2011). We never saw any proof except for Duran Duran who lived in Albuquerque and is real person – a shocking revelation to Ms. Duran..
http://www.koat.com/news/27213016/detail.html
Here is the Secretary of State Dianna Duran in March 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEaQBzjhHSA
Here is Ms. Duran in May 2011 – little progress in her investigation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3zcAqkCOwM
In June she turned over approximately 64,000 cases of what she calls possible voter fraud to the State Department of Public Safety for investigation. Maybe she should increase the number to all registered Democrats.
So how long is this investigation going to take – until November 2012 maybe? Where is the proof or evidence? She constantly talks about voter fraud! Maybe she should check out voter intimidation. If she did check this out it would probably be an investigation of how illegal immigrants are intimidating Republican voters.
Republicans are wasting time on this issue. To the extent voter fraud exists and favors Democrats, its hardly worth the political price to pursue it, especially with the political awkwardness of most New Mexico Republicans. Let others go after it, there are plenty on other places to improve things.
Actually, artiofab, there’s a bit of an error in your math; only 6.4 per every 1000 voters is in New Mexico, which means that of those 600 ballots that may be fraudulent, there are perhaps four in New Mexico. In other words, Qui Tam is standing up and cheering because the Secretary of State wants a criminal investigation of 10.5% of this state’s voters because there’s a vague possibility that four completely unidentified people about whom no one has made a specific substantive complaint might have voted illegally. The best part is, she’s not even conducting the investigation herself – as is the job of the Secretary of State – but asking someone else to do it for her.
Tell us, Qui Tam, if by some miracle we find the statistically-possible four fraudulent voters – after trampling the civil rights of 64,000 of our fellow citizens to get to them – and they all turn out to live in, say, Los Ranchos, will you then set fire to the entire place and tell us that you’re destroying the village to save it?
The arguement that it has never been found before so no need to ever look at it or investigate it again is quite frankly ludacrous.
The evidence is out there, it has been reported. The guilty skated. I believe the voter fraud did happen at the same time the Secretary of State and Attorney General were of the same party as the guilty.
btw, I think former Secretary of State Mary Herrera is still under investigation.
It is amazing to me that people argue against Secretary of State Dianna Duran’s investigation. That fact is quite telling in itself.
Interestingly the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud for five years. The result was that the Justice Department turned up nothing serious – no evidence! Let’s have EVIDENCE in New Mexico and soon.
If there is no evidence, it is simply a witch hunt. This short clip of Monty Python pretty much describes the New Mexico Republican witch hunt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU
This video is analogous to the frenzy that Ms. Duran is trying to create among her right wing supporters with her fevered cries of “VOTER FRAUD”! The political philosopher, David Hume said it best: “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”
There has been a lot of investigation into voter fraud in the States. Every investigation shows that extremely little of it happens, at an estimated rate of 0.0004% of all ballots cast.
To put that into stricter numbers, if 150 million Americans vote for the President in 2012, and the usual amount of voter fraud occurs, that would mean that 600 ballots around the country (12 per state) are going to be fraudulent.
If one thinks that making voting more difficult for everyone is worth cutting down on those 600 ballots, then one has some messed up priorities.
Alright, Qui Tam, seriously, who are all these terrible people running around every election voting in multiple places? Where are all these fraudulent signatures? Give us evidence. We have been asking you for evidence for weeks, and you haven’t put forth a single shred of it… which puts you ahead of the NMGOP, who have failed to give us any evidence for over ten years; Delude yourself all you want, but believing otherwise doesn’t change the fact that what you’re really doing is trampling on the civil rights of legitimate voters time and time again; of course, since those voters biggest crime appears to be that they voted for people whose policies you disagree with, I’m not entirely sure that you have a problem with such suppression.
Qui Tam, Ms. Chavez is absolutely correct, and in previous discussions, multiple people have provided you with several documented examples of right-wing intimidation of legitimate voters thinly disguised as protection from non-existent fraud – all of which you ignored. You have been unable to document a single case of actual voter fraud in New Mexico, because in the decade-and-change that the New Mexico GOP has been obsessing over this issue, there hasn’t been one. They have been proven wrong literally dozens of times, yet you assume that because you believe it, it must be true.
I particularly like the Orwellian, “the only voter who will be intimidated is the illegal voter who commits voter fraud,” argument that tops off your second post. Entirely aside from the dozens of documented cases of intimidation of legitimate voters that prove you wrong, “if you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear” is probably the oldest and most ominous argument made by anyone who is infringing on the Civil Rights of others, and no matter how you dress it up and pretend the opposite is your goal, that is exactly what the policies you’re espousing have been proven to do.
No Hemingway, many believe the impeachment should have come with Mary Herrera. Ask yourself, is being registered and voting in two precincts voter fraud? What about fraudulent petition signatures, is that voter fraud? In my opinion, the most obvious waste in taxpayer money is Attorney General Gary King’s salary and that is also the most obvious case of “political gamesmanship for the next election”. Unless you are trying to protect someone, please do your homework. In the meantime, I continue to try to protect the citizenry particularly those who vote legally.
If I recall correctly, more aliens were reported to have landed at Roswell than fraudulent voters have been found in New Mexico. We spent millions looking for aliens and their spaceships, and now we are spending millions looking for fraudulent voters and their votes. Good luck with that.
No investigation and no report of its findings are going to eliminate either the fear of aliens or the fear of fraudulent voters because these fears reflect personal anxieties or political distress.
I would be surprised if the NM state police are under enormous political pressure to report back hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cases of “fraud” in order to protect the Secretary of State from the charges already leveled at her.
The Secretary still has not answered two critical questions. (1) How did she identify these 64,000 cases? (2) Why did she not seek an independent auditor? (Could she have borrowed Skandera’s eight, outside educational consultants? BTW, what have they done for New Mexico lately?)
This investigation has all the hallmarks of corrupt misuse of public funds for political advantage. When the Secretary releases the report, we can expect the usual division along political lines about its merits–which will then become her “proof” that all that smoke proves there is a fire. Put water on it, now.
I am curious where you got your numbers from? Millions of dollars? Please provide supporting documentation.
Here is a case study by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. As the study concluded: “Claims of voter fraud should be carefully tested before they become the basis for action.” Read this study
http://www.truthaboutfraud.org/documents/policy_brief_voter_fraud.html
If there is NO voter fraud, Ms. Dianne Duran should be impeached for incompetence and wasting taxpayers’ money on a political witch hunt! New Mexicans should be watching Ms. Duran closely in this matter. The investigation should be quick. Otherwise it is political gamesmanship for the next election.
Furthermore, I think the only voter who will be intimidated is the illegal voter who commits voter fraud. And I ask, do you really trust that former Secretary of State Mary Herrera performed her duties ethically, honestly, and above the law? She was in Office four years you know and there are countless news stories about her questionable activity. I guess the whistleblowers she fired still have not found justice but we will all see what the FBI finds in their investigation and what that leads to…will it include voter fraud? I for one bet it does.
Excuse me Lisa Chavez, and I am going to try to be polite here, but this commentary you have scribed is the biggest piece of hogwash I have ever read in regard to the ever present political corruption in New Mexico. And this particular segment of political corruption involves the entire United States’ citizenry. Not one person should have their vote disenfranchised and/or cancelled out because of voter fraud. And as New Mexico is a swing state, fraudulent voting in New Mexico could cancel out millions of votes across the Nation and adversely affect the Nations electorial vote outcome. I personally care not to see another Florida debacle where only nine people (in that case the Supreme Courts’) vote count regardless and exluding millions of other votes.
What do you as a Democratic Chairperson have to fear in regard to the investigation? Are you protecting someone, perhaps inadvertantly? Those are questions you might ask yourself along with whether or not you will issue a public apology if the voter fraud is proven and actually prosecuted.
To answer the question you pose in the final paragragh, yes I want my tax dollars spent protecting my vote and it’s sanctity. And yes, I do believe that even if Democrats prosecuting Democrats “go nowhere” it is important and money well spent when the word is out that voter fraud will be investigated and possibly prosecuted – call it preventative medicine.
It is far past time that the political corruption in New Mexico is ended. New Mexico may have an inactive, lazy, and unethical Attorney General but her citizenry does not deserve him nor should they fall victim to his political bias. You Lisa Chavez should not either – please act ethically, logically and morally in the future regarding laws that were written to uphold.