Political tension rises as multiple States vie to set in place voter identification laws requiring voters to produce photo identification in order to cast their ballot. Those on the left make the claim that requiring someone to produce ID to vote is a veiled effort to disenfranchise minority voters. Even though white voters would also be required to show ID it doesn’t stop groups such as the ACLU from making this a racial issue. Is election and voter fraud a real danger that it needs to be protected from “hypothetical” fraudsters? It turns out yes…yes it does.
(Fox News) — Prosecutors in South Bend, Ind., filed charges Monday against four St. Joseph County Democratic officials and deputies as part of a multiple-felony case involving the alleged forging of Democratic presidential primary petitions in the 2008 election, which put then-candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the Indiana ballot.
The officials are accused of taking part in a scheme to fake signatures and names on the primary petitions needed to run for president. Court papers say the plan was hatched by local Democratic Party officials inside the local party headquarters.
[…]
According to affidavits, St. Joseph County Voter Registration Office worker Lucas Burkett told investigators that he was part of the plan that started in January 2008 “to forge signatures on presidential candidate petitions instead of collecting actual signatures from citizens.”
The documents state that Burkett told investigators that “he was heavily involved in St. Joseph County political activities with the local Democratic party,” and that “he had, in fact, personally forged several such signatures,” and had attended meetings at the local Democratic party headquarters, where it was agreed to forge the petitions. Morgan, the County Democratic Chairman, allegedly “instructed Mr. Burkett, Pamela Brunette, Beverly Shelton, and Dustin Blythe to forge ballot petitions for presidential candidates,” and that “all of them agreed to follow these instructions” by copying names and signatures from old election petitions.
According to affidavits, Burkett told investigators it was his job to “forge petitions for candidate Barack Obama,” Shelton “was assigned to forge petitions for candidate Hillary Clinton” and Blythe “was assigned to forge petitions for candidate John Edwards.” When Edwards dropped out of the race at the end of January 2008 and Burkett refused to continue the forgeries, Morgan allegedly ordered Blythe to then forge petitions for Barack Obama.
Since I was 18 years-old I have voted in every election both primaries and general. I have been required to produce a photo ID every time to two different election officials, one team of Republicans and one team of Democrats. Perhaps this is why I don’t see it as an incumbrance to casting my irrelevant ballot each year. Before becoming acquainted with political news and issues, it had never occurred to me that someone would be able to vote without a photo ID. I didn’t even know there were States which had no such protection.
Some people try to frame the debate as Republicans trying to suppress the black or illegal alien vote. But that is really no concern to me. I don’t think illegals are chomping at the bit to vote. And even if they were, many are conservative in their politics. My concern has always been that activist groups such as ACORN would add fraudulent names to the voter registries, then go from county to county casting multiple ballots. This threat is much more serious and real than an illegal alien trying to have a say in the community’s politics.
You would think this would be a bipartisan issue. After all, who could possibly be opposed to a more secure election process? Well, the politicians who stand to benefit most from voter and election fraud, that’s who.
________________________________
Related Article: Voter ID and the Elderly
Sifting Reality 
It’s always about racism. Every time conservatives point out problems in the political system, the charge of racism is made. We have to have an ID to get a library card but that isn’t racist. However, if you demand an ID card for voting, that IS racist. I want to know how it disenfranchises anyone to require they have an ID. You need an ID for just about everything!
@John Barron, here in Finland one defenately does not get to vote, if one does not have a photo ID. It is absurd to even think about such a system in the modern world. Here, if you actually have none and can not afford one, then the police can produce you with one that is temporal for the elections. We have ethnic minorities (like the Gipsies, the Saami and the swedish speaking Finns), but I have never heard any of them complaining it was unfair to them, that the voters need to present an ID with a picture.
We do have our own problems in this matter too, though. Especially on grand scale in the EU. For example Germany holds a number of seats in the EU parliament according to the size of their population total. But a grand part of that population are people from countries outside the EU, like Turkey, who are not allowed to vote for these “extra” representatives. Should that be determined as a racist action? Some German guy representing these Turkish people who may have lived for decades in Germany, but have no say in the matters of the country they live in, nor the politics of the Union. And it is all leagal too.
Have you ever read the Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol? It is a good and famous book, that deals with similar problems.
Up here in Canada, folks on both sides of the political spectrum are confused by this “controversy.” The idea of NOT showing ID to vote is the odd one. Only citizens are allowed to vote and, for provincial elections, you have to have lived in the province for at least 6 months before voting (the only election I ever missed voting on happened within a couple of months after moving to a new province). If someone is in the country illegally, why on earth should they have a vote???
I saw this on facebook:
“The Government wants every citizen to prove they are insured…
But people don’t have to prove they are citizens.”