One of the chief talking points used by the Obama administration to attack the Texas voter ID law is the idea that over a million Texans don’t have an ID. Setting aside the fact that they could, you know, get one at little cost (or even free) it turns out the list of people who supposedly don’t have ID’s is almost entirely fraudulent.
Surveys of those on the list show that some 90% of the people on it actually do have ID’s.
The Justice Department presented what it said was evidence that as many as 1.5 million Texans don’t have the government issued photo [ID] required to vote, but AttorneyGeneral Greg Abbott says of the people on that roll, 50,000 are dead, 330,000 are over the age of 65 and can vote by mail, where a photo [ID] is not required, and more than 800,000 are on the list improperly.
Among the people who the DOJ listed as ‘lacking the required documentation needed to vote’ are Former President George W. Bush, San Antonio State Senator Leticia Van de Putte, and Licia Ellis, [whose] husband, Houston state Senator Rodney Ellis, on Wednesday blasted the voter [ID] law as ‘just like the racist murder of James Byrd’ who was dragged to death in east Texas in 1998.
In fact, University of Texas students conducted a telephone survey of random people on the DOJ‘s list of people who allegedly don’t have the documents required to vote, and found that more than 90% of them, including 93% of African Americans and 92% of Hispanics on the list, actually have a photo [ID].
Per the article, the DoJ had another less-than-competent moment when their star witness, a teenager from San Antonio named Victoria Rodriguez, testified that she didn’t have the time to get an ID to vote.
Wow, talk about the DoJ being totally incompetent!! This is a disgusting and deplorable display and a clear example of what a farce the argument of racism is. Congrats to the Texas team for doing their job. To bad we have to pay for 0-bama’s idiots.
Who doesn’t have an ID w/photo? I suggest that all persons who are entitled have one. The percentage of people over 18 without an ID has to be very minor.
Victoria Rodriguez…. is the most recent”Poster Child” for all the LEFT’s baseless arguments…rotfl
She is right up there with Sandra Fluke…another Poster Child for the Left’s stupidity…
Seriously, how blatantly stupid are these flimsy Lefty arguments??? Every time they open their mouths the hypocrisy of their so called “victim” arguments comes flowing out.
Sheesh!!
Which basically means that Obama’s henchmen at the DOJ merely pulled up a list of names living in Texas at random and never thought anyone would ever check the validity of it. It’s not incompetence, it’s an intentional fraud upon the Court. Why? Because as Officers of the Court, they had an ethical and legal duty to verify the authenticity of the list. At minimum everyone involved who holds a license to practice law should be brought up on charges of misconduct before their respective State Bar Associations and disbarred.
Of the 254 counties in Texas, 81 don’t even have an operating driver’s license office where locals can apply for an ID. Surveys have revealed that 7.3 percent of Hispanic households in Texas don’t have access to a motor vehicle. It seems reasonable to suppose that distance and a lack of transportation might make getting the newly required voter ID a bit of a problem.
Of course, as this article from KHOU, Houston, clearly indicates, the assertion that there was significant voter fraud in Texas was total B.S. to begin with:
The Texas voter ID law is not about and never has been about protecting the integrity of the vote. It’s about voter suppression, plain and simple. It’s part of a nation-wide republican effort to steal an election that they know they aren’t very likely to win honestly.
Greg, I would suggest you get informed instead of just being opinionated. You’re spouting DNC talking points instead of offering solutions. The Democrats have engaged in massive voter registration fraud every election. (Did you forget the convictions of ACORN members already?) A dead dog won’t have a photo ID. Someone posing as a dead dog could vote if a photo ID weren’t in place. Just how much voter fraud goes on undetected? It doesn’t help when voter intimidation is practiced by Democrats and not prosecuted by the DOJ. Makes many believe there is selective prosecution by the AG (Holder and his racist ilk) who like to throw racist bombs instead of enforcing the laws.
Detroit has more registered voters than residents.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20110822/STAFFBLOG04/110829985/detroit-has-more-registered-voters-than-residents-over-18-census-finds
Minnesota has a history of voter irregularities. Analysis of the 2008 general elections is here.
The Case for Investigation and Reform in Minnesota’s Elections.
http://www.minnesotamajority.org/TheIssues/ElectionIntegrity/tabid/188/Default.aspx
I would opine that the Democrats can’t win an election without voter fraud, as shown in the past. Even with voter fraud, they still manage to lose.
http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2012/07/12/texas-voter-id-clown-show-ends-today/?singlepage=true
It is all about fraud. This is the only way they can win. let illegals and felons vote (some states allow felons to vote once they get out of jail), dead people, and don’t forget the people who vote early and often (like those who live in PA and are protected by the new black panthers). Oh yes and lastly the snow birds from the northeastern states that vote in those states and winter in Florida and vote there to. Yep it is all about fraud.
Herein lies the hypocrisy of this issue:
I’ll bet if they had to apply [in person ] for some Government ‘freebie’ they would “find a way” to get to a Government [agency] office” [to collect]….
I’d feel a whole lot better about this headline if I didn’t keep seeing that headline from just three months ago: ‘Obamacare lawyer blistered by Supremes during his argument for the gob’mint’
We know how that turned out…………
Let me see if I understand the position of the DoJ on this correctly:
they use 18 year old Victoria Rodriquez, who lives in San Antonio, who claims that she did not have the time to utilized the public transportation system (buses) in San Antonio to go to the DPS office and get a free state I.D., but she did have time to go to the SA International Airport, take a plane to D.C., and testify that she was short on time and that is why she doesn’t have a state issued photo I.D.?
Got it.
And let’s not forget that on the Fed’s list of Texans without photo I.D. was Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
It also seems that Greg is unaware of how voter fraud charges are brought to the Attorney General’s office. There first has to be a complain issued to the local sheriff’s department, which is then referred to the local DA’s office, which then is referred to the Attorney General’s office for prosecution. Most local offices just ignore those complaints as the feds refuse to cross check voter registration cards against its own data banks. The DoJ just caved and said that Florida can cross check against DHS’s data bank of known illegal resident. (which poses the question, if DHS knows who these people are, why are they still here?)
Voter fraud is most rampant in Texas in the border districts and Harris County. Just ask Henry Bonilla who lost to Ciro Rodriquez after La Raza and ACORN did a voter registration drive right before the run off election.
Texas needs voter ID
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/jul/06/allegations-voter-fraud-jim-wells-brooks-counties/
@Geezer Geek, #7:
It has been demonstrated that that is not the case.
If voter fraud in Texas is so massive, and if the Attorney General of Texas has made prosecuting voter fraud cases one of his highest priorities as he claims he has, how do we account for the fact that he’s managed to find only 62 cases that even merited further investigation?
Basically we’ve got 2 possibilities here: Either the claim of massive voter fraud is totally bogus, or the state of Texas is totally incompetent in the matter of criminal investigation and prosecution. Take your pick.
The right has been repeatedly making claims about voter fraud that there are absolutely no facts or statistics to back up. None whatsoever. There are studies and statistics compiled by credible sources, however, indicating that voter fraud is negligible to the point of being totally irrelevant.
The reference to Acorn reveals much. The right wing propaganda machine doesn’t even bother to make the critical distinction between registration irregularities and voter fraud. The reason being that, were they to do so, their entire bogus argument wouldn’t even have that weak leg to stand on.
What’s happened is that right wing propaganda machine has sold the belief in massive voter fraud in order to enable radical republican state legislatures across the nation to deal with a problem that didn’t actually exist in the first place. The entire point of the exercise is the disenfranchisement of up to 2 million likely democratic voters before this coming November.
@retire05, #11:
Right. According to the Texas AG’s own records, they could find a total of only 62 cases to investigate in the entire state. Investigations don’t necessarily develop into prosecutions. In other words, the Texas AG is blowing hot air. Although they’ve been beating the bushes to find something to support their allegations that that voter fraud is rampant throughout Texas, they can’t seem to come up with any credible evidence. All you’ve got are anecdotal reports, and tabloid news level “evidence.” As with alien abductions, bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster.
@Greg:
Let’s see how smart you are.
When you pick up a voter registration application at the post office, your local library, or it is handed to you by an ACORN worker, what form do they hand you?
What is the requirement to prove citizenship on that form?
How is the form then handled by the state? What is the process then?
The whole system is primed for fraud.
Pennsylvania admits it: no voter fraud problem
This, of course, comes as no great surprise. The Attorney General of Texas hasn’t been able to document a significant level of voter fraud there, either. No state has done so, and it’s not for want of trying.
@Greg:
Your comment is inaccurate. Texas certainly has documented voter fraud. One primary contest in May was decided by 19 votes. 18 of the “voters” in that election would have to have been over 110 years old.
New Mexico has a case with vote fraud, intimidation, etc.
We saw Democrats BRAGGING about same day registration/early voting in states they did not reside in during the 2008 elections.
Wisconsin is now investigating SEIU “organizers” who came to that state during the recall election and voted with out of state licenses.
It doesn’t take a “significant amount”, it only takes ONE in a tight race. Also, I find this statement curious
” that could potentially disenfranchise a huge number of the state’s voters.”
Do you have any evidence that there is a “huge number” of legitimate voters who do not have access to free id provided by all 50 stats? I think the “huge number” part is made up. It won’t “disenfranchise” anyone. It will make them get off their butts and go down and get an ID.
And by the way, have you heard of the Schmidt Report?
http://articles.philly.com/2012-07-20/news/32747884_1_election-officials-voter-impersonation-new-voter-id-law
That’s interesting Greg.
Perhaps the parties to this particular suit should make themselves familiar with Darnell Nash:
Sure they do. Shall we consider the numbers? There have been a total of 57 prosecutions for the entire state of Texas over the decade from 2002 to 2012. Of those 57 prosecutions, there were only 26 that resulted in convictions. That’s a grand total of 26, out of 12,752,417 registered voters, over a period of 10 years.
That tiny number is what any logical person would call totally irrelevant. What isn’t irrelevant is the number of legitimate voters who will be deprived of the right to vote because they don’t get the newly required documentation and ID. I’ve heard estimates that nationwide that could run over 2 million.
Did you read the final paragraph of the article you linked concerning the Schmidt Report? Here it is:
In other words, they had nothing that justified the new ID requirement to begin with, and still had nothing afterward.
There’s no end to the articles you can find online asserting that voter fraud is totally out of control. None of them can cite credible evidence to support that. They just cite more assertions.
@Aye, #17:
I wonder if they both voted the same way? There is that gender gap thing . . .
Pennsylvania Judge upholds voter ID law
greg, LBJ and his nickname “Landslide”. Know how he got it?