Members of Congress are holding a hearing today, asking whether the slew of new, partisan-pushed voting laws were creating “barriers to the ballot.” Project Vote is among several voting and civil rights groups to attest to the systematic “War on Voting” that has plagued states in advance of the 2012 presidential election.
Today’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights addresses the motivation behind implementing new laws to reduce early voting days, require photo ID, and restrict voter registration drives. Supporters say the reason to implement these restrictive laws is to eliminate voter fraud, but others say these laws only work to reduce turnout among low-income, minority, rural, elderly, and young voters by making it more difficult for them to vote.
As stated in Project Vote’s testimony:
“The rhetoric accompanying this widespread effort has featured appeals to voters’ fears that their democracy is being undermined by an epidemic of voter fraud, that their own votes are being neutralized by legions of unauthorized voters—and, yes, even non-citizens—assaulting polling places across America and stealing elections. It has been very effective rhetoric indeed. But nothing could be further from the truth.”
In fact, the Bush Administration’s investigation of voter fraud revealed that the occurrence of voter impersonation is negligible: only 24 people were convicted of or pleaded guilty to illegal voting, nationwide, between 2002 and 2005.
“This includes 19 people who were ineligible to vote, five because they were still under state supervision for felony convictions, and 14 who were not U.S. citizens; and five people who voted twice in the same election, once in kansas and again in Missouri,” wrote Lorraine Minnite in Project Vote’s 2007 report, The Politics of Voter Fraud. Note: none of these election offenses would have been prevented by a photo ID, which only bars against voter impersonation.
“As long as we have voter registration in this country—and 49 states do–there will be barriers to getting on the rolls. But it is the expansion of the franchise that should guide legislators and election officials in making policy for registration and voting in the United States of America,” Project Vote testified. “And it is the enforcement of the federal laws protecting voting rights that should guide the United States Department of Justice. With a re-energized NVRA and a re-dedicated law enforcement effort, we can move toward a society where it is no more difficult for poor and minority Americans to register than it is for their richer White neighbors.”