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- Jan 31, 2013
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I guess what bothers me more in Georgia is a group legally, and in constant contact with the Ga Sec. of State, went around and got 85,000 citizens of Georgia to register. These people all believe they've done what's necessary to vote in a few days. But for some reason, as of last writing, 50,000 of those registrations haven't been processed. And no one worried about election integrity seems to care. That's 50,000 people unable to vote, potentially, and a yawn, but right wingers can't do too much to solve the problem of a handful of impersonation fraud cases. Something seems off, and it looks to me like the problem might be the 50,000 registrations were gathered by a liberal leaning group targeting poor people and minorities...
And, sure, we could reform the registration process - I'd prefer a national system, constantly updated, that automatically registers every citizen when they turn 18 and then uses IRS or USPS or other data to reassign them to the correct voting district when they move. It's the dumbest election system anyone could imagine. But that's not really the point - we have what we have.
6% of 13 million is 780,000 illegal voters, and yet we've had GOP officials in many states and U.S. Attorneys under Bush desperately trying to find any evidence that voting by illegals is a big problem and they've failed. There have been almost no prosecutions of this kind of illegal activity. So you'll have to understand why I find those numbers impossible to believe. And if they're true, the "solution" to this problem that's been implemented - Photo ID - will only stop around 25% of this fraud.
I just don't see any evidence that there is a big problem with registered voters. There really IS a big incentive for republicans to find and remove illegals from the rolls of registered voters. I guess I can't think of a reason why people with massive incentives to do so have failed every time, except that there aren't many 'illegals' registered to vote.
I think something needs to be done if we are to have fair elections. The question is what? Is there a happy medium that might not please either side but yet correct most of the problems? Solve the problem or problems we have? It like the illegal immigration problem in total. One side loves the cheap labor but hates the idea that these illegal aliens might someday become citizens and vote. The other side loves the idea these illegal aliens might become citizens someday and vote while they hate the cheap labor aspect. Both sides love using the illegal alien problem as a campaign issue and see it beneficial to them that it never gets solved as it fires up their respective bases.
As for your solution on registration, section 4 of Article I leave the time, places and manner of elections to the states. Hence 50 different election laws with each states election laws written to benefit which ever party is in power. It is like gerrymandering, one party will holler about Texas gerrymandering but will in turn gerrymander the heck out of New York. The other party will holler about gerrymandering in Illinois but gerrymander the heck out of North Carolina. Neither party wants to outlaw gerrymandering only because if they are in power, they can use it for an election advantage.
I think in short, the fear of something, in this case voter fraud is worth more than solving the issue. But neither side would be willing to give up an advantage if they perceive they have one to solve any issue.