Voter fraud virtually non-existent

When conservatives claim that voter fraud justifies the odious voter ID laws Republican-run state governments have enacted they invariably bring up ACORN or some other voter registration scandal. The key word is “registration.” This does exist, however, Voter ID at the polls doesn’t prevent it and more importantly the fraud is almost always caught before the voter gets put on the rolls.

The fact is, fraudulently cast ballots are almost non-existent:

A new nationwide analysis of more than 2,000 cases of alleged election fraud over the past dozen years shows that in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which has prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tougher voter ID laws, was virtually nonexistent.

The analysis of 2,068 reported fraud cases by News21, a Carnegie-Knight investigative reporting project, found 10 cases of alleged in-person voter impersonation since 2000. With 146 million registered voters in the United States, those represent about one for every 15 million prospective voters.

Let that sink in for a moment. In twelve years only ten people have successfully cast a fraudulent ballot. This is the only instance in which voter ID laws prevent actual fraud. These voter ID laws do however serve a secondary purpose. They prevent legitimate voters who don’t have a photo ID and do have difficulty in obtaining one, from voting. This would include the disabled and elderly, including elderly military veterans, who no longer drive. Furthermore, the draconian requirements to obtain a photo ID if one doesn’t drive are almost impossible to satsify for millions of Americans.

Indeed, these new voter ID laws could prevent five million legitimate American voters from casting a ballot, as is their Constitutional right. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that many of these disenfranchised voters are likely to vote Democratic.

Oh wait, it’s not a coincidence at all. The authors of these laws have admitted in court they have absolutely no evidence of voter fraud and in an unguarded moment, one state Representative in Pennsylvania admitted voter ID laws were specifically enacted to help the Republicans cheat to win:

When addressing the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee in June, he was listing the accomplishments of the GOP legislature, when he said, “(V)oter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

Which raises the question once again, if Republicans think their ideas are so great, why are they trying to cheat instead of simply allowing a full and fair vote?