John Fund of National Review recently wrote a great piece entitled “The Voter Fraud That ‘Never Happens’ Keeps Coming Back.” He outlines the story of an Ohio poll worker who admitted to a Cincinnati news station that she voted twice in the 2012 election:
According to county documents, Richardson’s absentee ballot was accepted on Nov. 1, 2012 along with her signature. On Nov. 11, she told an official she also voted at a precinct because she was afraid her absentee ballot would not be counted in time.
New reports say that Richardson may have voted as many as 6 times — or 60. Or 600. How could we ever know for sure? In addition, the Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating 19 possible cases of alleged voter fraud — a total of 19 voters and nine witnesses are part of the probe, according to NRO.
Now, Arkansans are real smart: we know that voter fraud does not exist! If you don’t believe me, just ask Max Brantley — he knows his facts! But, while we’re on the topic, here’s another recent example of fraud:
In Virginia, the son of U.S. Rep. Patrick Moran was caught on camera coaching an undercover conservative operative on how to forge a utility bill in order to vote for someone else.
We’ve documented other cases here at The Arkansas Project as well:
Maryland’s Wendy Rosen, a candidate for Congress who withdrew from her race after it was revealed that she had voted in multiple states;
Arkansas’s own Hudson Hallum, a state legislator who was forced to resign after being indicted for fraud.
Oh, and for all of the state legislators who keep saying no “in-person” fraud has been uncovered in Arkansas, consider this story we reported on last fall where a young lady from east Arkansas was registered to vote multiple times — but only one of the forms contained her actual signature. The rest were forgeries.
When the recent fraud was uncovered in Virginia, state Senator Chap Petersen said:
Voter fraud isn’t happening. No one would risk a felony conviction to give a politician one more vote.
Very good, Senator. Now, tell us more about unicorns and your picnic with Bigfoot.
Herein lies the problem: the reason voter fraud still exists is because too many politicians still refuse to admit that it exists, despite all of the evidence. We will never be able to address voter fraud and ensure election integrity until a majority of lawmakers remove their heads from the proverbial sand.
With a voter ID bill making its way through the Arkansas legislature right now, the scare tactics and tomfoolery have already begun: politicians are accusing proponents of reasonable election reform of wanting to “suppress votes” and “limit constitutional rights.” But at the end of the day, something must be done because vote fraud does exist, and it is a serious threat to the constitutional rights of all Americans to fair elections. The burden of proving voter fraud does not rest with the voters or proponents of election reform. Ultimately, the burden that rests on state government is to ensure fair elections and to institute common-sense reforms that will give Arkansans confidence in the integrity of the ballot.
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