STUDY: Feds Prosecuted Only 38 Cases Of Voter Fraud Between 2002-05, 14 Were Thrown Out
STUDY: Feds Prosecuted Only 38 Cases Of Voter Fraud Between 2002-05, 14 Were Thrown Out
In today’s Washington Post, columnist Harold Meyerson highlights a little-noted study on the politics of voting fraud published in March by Lorraine Minnite, a political science professor at Columbia University, for a group called Project Vote. The study “makes unmistakably clear” that “the government’s failure to prosecute or convict more than a handful of people for voter fraud isn’t for lack of trying.”
Since 2002, the Justice Department’s Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative has, as Gonzales put it, “made enforcement of election fraud and corruption offenses a top priority.” And yet between October 2002 and September 2005, just 38 cases were brought nationally, and of those, 14 ended in dismissals or acquittals, 11 in guilty pleas, and 13 in convictions. Though a Justice Department manual on election crime states that these cases “may present an easier means of obtaining convictions than do other forms of public corruption,” federal attorneys have failed to rack up those convictions, for the simple reason that incidents of fraud have been few and far between.
As the Republican Myth has it, nothing is more fraught with fraud than voter-registration campaigns waged in working-class and poor neighborhoods that are largely black or Hispanic. According to the 2004 Census, 15 percent of blacks and Hispanics were registered during such campaigns; the figure for whites is just 9 percent. But of those 38 prosecutions that the Justice Department brought between 2002 and 2005, a grand total of two were for fabricating or falsifying voter registration applications. This qualifies as one of our smaller crime waves.
Here’s a chart from the study:
Given these figures, the Justice Department’s intense focus on voter fraud is hard to explain. Yet, as Meyerson notes, from Karl Rove’s perspective, “a crackdown on voter registration campaigns in minority communities made cold electoral sense.” In close races, a key plank of his strategy “was to suppress black and Hispanic turnout — a task that would become far easier if the airwaves were buzzing with news of voter-fraud indictments. It was a task that required federal prosecutors who would indict first and ask questions later.”
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26 Responses to “STUDY: Feds Prosecuted Only 38 Cases Of Voter Fraud Between 2002-05, 14 Were Thrown Out”
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Indeed, yet another rightwing myth exposed for the self-serving lie that it is.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:57 amElectioneering throught the Justice Department and obstruction of justice.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:59 amIn the olden days, people would actually tar and feather jackasses who tried this sort of shit. It may be time to revive that practice.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:00 amThis has always been about suppressing the vote. It is part of Rove’s plan to win elections by keeping people out of the polling booth. But it is a strategy which is proving to be the undoing of the “permanent majority.”
May 16th, 2007 at 10:02 amIn the olden days, people would actually tar and feather jackasses who tried this sort of shit. It may be time to revive that practice.
Comment by TripMaster Monkey
Oooooh,
Can we do that to the trolls first?
:)
May 16th, 2007 at 10:05 amWar on Fraudism
War on Terrorism
GDumbya’s legacy — all hat and no cattle.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:07 am“nothing is more fraught with fraud than voter-registration campaigns waged in working-class and poor neighborhoods that are largely black or Hispanic.”
they just can’t deal with minorities having the right to vote.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:18 amThis has been Rove’s end game. minimize the voter pool and concentrate neocon voting blocs.
And it would have worked too if it weren’t for those meddling kids and their dog Scooby.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:22 amAnd how many votes were screwed-up in Sarasota,FL and how much time has the DOJ spent on that?
May 16th, 2007 at 10:23 amRFK jr did a nice piece on “voter fraud” for Rolling Stone. I recommend it to anyone that has not read it. In Wisconsin, the radical right (translated:every talk rado station) continues to hammer on voter fraud, even though I am aware of only 1 case where someone was convicted.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:25 amI believe T-blossom’s days in government are rapidly drawing to a close.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:26 amAnd that would be a permanent closure of his slimey, illegal actions, when he finds himself being prosecuted.
OK, so SOME crimes are fine with you guys?
May 16th, 2007 at 10:28 amJake sez:
Just the imaginary ones.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:31 amIf people are legitimately-registered voters, why would this alleged Rovian scheme affect them? Conspiracy theorizing is fun, but not generally productive. There are real problems to be addressed; this is not one of them.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:37 amRuh Roh!!
Rarl Rove!! Rarl Rove!!
Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r!!
May 16th, 2007 at 10:40 amThere are sooo many people registering Democratic. There must be fraud!
May 16th, 2007 at 10:41 am:)
The Reichwingnut “voter fraud” attack is just another piece of Rovian bullshit. It is called projection. Rove projects his side’s faults onto the other side, to minimize the problem. It is a very effective smear tactic.
In this case, the election fraud is being done wholesale by the Repukes. They fixed Florida in 2000, and fixed Ohio and other states in 2004. They are constantly being accused of this with more and more evidence coming in.
So, to defuse the real accusation of election fraud by Repukes, Rove pushes a phony accusation of voter fraud by Dems.
Clever bastard, isn’t he. Someday he is going to come to a bad end.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:43 amScoody Doo, deserve a Scooby snack. Election Fraud is the big dark secret.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:03 amThey need to get rid of all the U.S Attorney’s for failing to prosecute these cases.
Oh wait, never mind.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:21 amRove did not like seeing Black ad Latino people votig. Shameless.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:21 am“OK, so SOME crimes are fine with you guys?” - Jake
Are you really this stupid? This was Gonzales “top priority”? How many votes were cast in 2002-2005? 200 million? And they found 24 cases of fraudulent votes? Great prioritization of the justice department.
With this regime, it’s hard to distinguish between intentional corruption, abject incompetence, and flat-out stupidity. Not unlike Jake and his troll-sisters.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:36 amWith this regime, it’s hard to distinguish between intentional corruption, abject incompetence, and flat-out stupidity. - me
Come to think of it, these are not mutually exclusive properties for this regime. They work in tandem. For example:
1. Idea generation- Karl Rove - intentional corruption
2. Idea implementation - Alleyoop Gonzales - abject incompetence
3. Idea propagation - Jake - flat-out stupidity
4. Repeat loop endlessly
May 16th, 2007 at 11:42 amOK, so SOME crimes are fine with you guys?
Comment by Jake
No crime is ok, that’s why we always call the cops on you for taking those drugs that make you so delusional.
May 16th, 2007 at 12:05 pm“OK, so SOME crimes are fine with you guys?
Comment by Jake — May 16, 2007 @ 10:28 am”
I keep looking for the statement that those 24 individuals found guilty of voter fraud should be released, but I can’t find it. Can you help me out, Jake?
May 16th, 2007 at 12:53 pm#21
When there’s no ID required and anyone can walk in, claim to be whomever they want, vote accordingly, and walk out the door never to be seen again, where exactly would this evidence come from?
May 16th, 2007 at 1:19 pmBut…Ann Coulter got her case dismissed! Her case alone is nearly 3% of the total “voter fraud” cases!
The whole point is not to convict people for voter fraud, but to frighten people away from the poles in the first place; people who already have a negative view of law enforcement; people who have experienced police initmidation tactics; people who lack the financial resources to fight a wrongful arrest.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:40 pm