The constant clamoring this election cycle about voter fraud is nothing more than partisan politicking. Republicans have claimed thousands of voter registrations nationwide to be fraudulent, largely among minority communities. Democrats responded that the registrations are largely legitimate. Conscientious people should approach this issue with facts, not ideology. Since it appears most charges of fraud are exaggerated, supporting a citizen's right to vote is not a partisan act. Instead, both Democrats and Republicans should sidestep party lines and stand up for democracy.
By the time you read this, the ballots will have been cast but this issue will still be relevant. Sadly, it may be that only extensive litigation will settle the matter of who is elected president. The first step will be in disposing of the vast majority of provisional ballots. If you cast a provisional ballot yesterday, you have only until 4 p.m. this very afternoon to get to the clerk's office with whatever documents you lacked yesterday, or your ballot will not be counted.
When political operatives want to suppress the vote among certain groups they can't just come out and say so. Instead, they rely on allegations of voter fraud to provide a veneer of legitimacy for their efforts. That is, they try to prevent some people from voting by suggesting those people are forbidden to vote or their registration is for a fictitious person or address.
Is there any reason to believe extensive fraud might be occurring? Certainly we know accusations are everywhere, but politically motivated accusations are not proof. Most people won't commit voter fraud because it is a felony that carries a possible $10,000 fine and up to three-and-a-half years imprisonment. Even if they tried, the clerk's office would catch them through its numerous precautions against fraud. Dane County Clerk Joe Parisi said only one felon has tried to vote absentee, though others may have ballots which have not been cast. Unless we believe hundreds of crafty, civic-minded felons have risked prison time in a successful bid to fool the clerk's office, we might conclude that voter fraud rarely occurs. Perhaps that's why Parisi says our many safeguards are effective at catching those few fraudulent ballots which are submitted.
Errors in registration campaigns are also not evidence of fraud. It happens that sometimes the pages and pages of new registrations turned out by registration volunteers aren't entirely accurate. That is, sometimes a person is already registered in their last apartment and fills out the form to update it to their new home, or a new voter fails to include their apartment number (so their registration does not exactly match their mailing address.) That's not lying about one's address., it's just the mobile life of a college student.
At other times, somebody, annoyed at being approached by a registration volunteer, gives false information. If the volunteer then submits this registration, it will be flagged as belonging to a fictitious person or address. Again, this isn't evidence of a vast conspiracy among \Rock the Vote"" volunteers. The fact that these false names are flagged and stricken is proof the system works well. In fact, when the Milwaukee County district attorney's office investigated the thousands of allegedly fraudulent new registrants, they found the vast majority of them were properly submitted.
It is also telling that only Republicans have decried voter fraud. Why wouldn't Democrats be concerned about fraudulent voting? Is it likely that, if thousands of fraudulent votes were cast, most would support Democrats? If actual stuffing of the ballot box were occurring, wouldn't both sides be vigilant, constantly accusing the other side of submitting more votes than they had? Instead, we have a pattern of only Republicans objecting and the majority of the challenged voters belonging to traditionally Democratic constituencies.
Both the facts and common sense suggest there is no widespread voting fraud. Putting short-term political gain over the sanctity of the electoral process is always a mistake. Liberals and conservatives of all stripes should oppose such efforts, supporting instead the proud American tradition of democracy.
Josh Gildea is a third-year law student. He can be reached at opinion@dailycardinal.com. His column runs every Wednesday in The Daily Cardinal.
