As I learned from this post, voting twice, which should meet anyone's definition of vote fraud, is only a misdemeanor. I think we should be tougher on vote fraud. In particular, I think we should adopt an idea from Maryland. That state disenfranchises anyone convicted of vote buying or selling. I think Washington should do the same, and should extend that penalty to other kinds of vote fraud.
That might not be enough by itself to get prosecutors to take vote fraud seriously, but I think it would be a good start.
(For my more general thoughts on voting by felons, see this disclaimer)
Posted by Jim Miller at June 23, 2005 02:54 PM | Email ThisBut they also have to identify and limit the numerous ways and means of voter fraud. Double voting and casting votes for dead people are only a couple of examples of fraud. We know about the felon voters. We need to get tough on those who use fake addresses, rental mail boxes as addresses, county administrative offices and other professional buildings as their residences when registering to vote. We need to crack down on illegal immigrants who register to vote when receiving their drivers licenses.
Most of these instances of illegal and fraudulent voting is possible due to lax security and verification laws within our states absentee voting system! It makes me just want to throw up when I hear of another county adopting an all mail voting system this year! The Democrats in our State Legislature have truly revealed themselves to be the perpetrators of fraudulent voting when they rushed to introduce and pass the state's ALL ABSENTEE VOTING bill while we have been embroiled in these huge controversies over the last general election! No reforms have been put in place to prevent any of the above methods of fraudulent and illegal voting.
We need stiffer penalties - and we need laws in place to cover ALL methods of fraud and illegal voting! We can't penalize an act that isn't clearly against the law!
Posted by: Deborah on June 23, 2005 04:03 PMThe widows and widowers aren't the problem. The problem are the slugs from MoveOn. Nail 'em.
Posted by: Dogbert on June 23, 2005 05:45 PMThey parade these isolated cases of widows voting for their deceased spouses in an effort to villainize the entire premise of prosecuting for voting fraud! Yet - they ignore the many cases of Move-On.org double voting and illegal vote solicitation!
This works great with the liberal Dems anti-Republican message to senior citizens lately..."Gasp!!...Look at what those mean Republicans are doing now to our grieving elderly! Not only are they stealing your social security - but they are prosecuting you for carrying out your dear loved ones final wish to vote!" tsk tsk.....
Let's not look for those 20 to 50 year old little liberal fringers who assume your dead parents identities in an effort to steal an election! Who pour over obituaries just prior to a major election - looking for recently departed citizens that they can vote for! Nah! Let's not spotlight them in our media.....
If you value legal voting or the game-playing with illegal votes, it will hit you where it hurts--like a drunk driver with an ignition lock.
However, the argument will be the standard one--is it a high police priority. Catch a child molester or get an illegal voter. Practically, can it fly? I hope so. These violators are controlling our lives with lousy elections.
Posted by: Jimmie-howya-doin on June 24, 2005 03:34 PMhttp://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/restoring.aspx
Good luck!
Posted by: alphabet soup on June 25, 2005 08:00 AMhttp://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?fuseaction=section§ion=9.94A.637
Posted by: vik on June 27, 2005 10:12 AM