Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
I'm actually not a fan of voter identification laws, but many on the right are. Eric Holder has condemned efforts to strengthen voter identification laws. So that makes this situation, as described by John Fund, embarrassing:
Filmmaker James O’Keefe demonstrated just how easy it is on Tuesday when he dispatched an assistant to the Nebraska Avenue polling place in Washington where Attorney General Holder has been registered for the last 29 years. O’Keefe specializes in the same use of hidden cameras that was pioneered by the recently deceased Mike Wallace, who used the technique to devastating effect in exposing fraud in Medicare claims and consumer products on 60 Minutes. O’Keefe’s efforts helped expose the fraud-prone voter-registration group ACORN with his video stings, and has had great success demonstrating this year in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Minnesota just how easy it is to obtain a ballot by giving the name of a dead person who is still on the rolls. Indeed, a new study by the Pew Research Center found at least 1.8 million dead people are still registered to vote. They aren’t likely to complain if someone votes in their place.
In Washington, it was child’s play for O’Keefe to beat the system. O’Keefe’s assistant used a hidden camera to document his encounter with the election worker at Holder’s polling place.
Here's the video:
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Oct '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Over the top.
But no matter how much ridicule or scorn you pour upon them, they remain the guys with the guns.
And will remain so as long as the American electorate does not give a damn.
Mar '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Embarrassing indeed.
Mollie, I'm intrigued to hear your reasons for opposing voter-ID laws.
Jun '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
I have to believe there are thousands of college students voting in the state where they attend college, and also voting absentee in their home state. And for the radical student activists, we're lucky if they only vote twice.
There are stories, maybe apocryphal, that activists get on a bus, go precinct to precinct, arriving and getting a new identity at each stop. I don't know if it actually happens much, but if they do their research, it would be easy. You just impersonate people that are very unlikely to come and vote that day.
Feb '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
There's really no need for Holder to be embarrassed that Ricochet readers are mocking him. Is there any evidence this story is getting out to people who only casually follow politics?
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Crow's Nest: Embarrassing indeed.
Mollie, I'm intrigued to hear your reasons for opposing voter-ID laws. · 40 minutes ago
Oh, you probably should not be! I'm aware of how extremist I am in these things. The long and the short of it is that I reflexively oppose state licensing, particularly for things such as voting. I grew up around people who loved to vote but didn't want the government to have too much information on them. This is not completely uncommon -- or wasn't uncommon -- off the grid in Colorado. Try managing that when the state requires identification to vote. And yes, I know that the SCOTUS has ruled state voter ID laws are constitutional. And I think most of the arguments against them are ridiculous. For instance, not only do I not think these laws are racist, I think it's racist to suggest such laws are racist. As if eligible voters of one race are somehow less able to comply with the law than eligible voters of another race.
Feb '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
"Ill be back faster than you can say furious..." Hilarious.
For sheer entertainment value, I think my favorite O'Keefe video is the Taxpayer Clearing House one. Merry pranksters.
Edited on April 9, 2012 at 4:20pmOct '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
God all Mighty, this is scary!!!!
Apr '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
I think in a situation where the pollsters are familiar with the town residents ID seems unnecessary. I mean it will be hard to go up to your neighbor of 10 years and pretend to be some one else. But, in a city like Chicago there is no way you will know everyone in your neighborhood/precinct.
I am willing to bet actually that most people (99%) don't lie when they go to the polls to vote. The problem is in a close races any small discrepancies become magnified and very important, and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election. Thus perhaps voter ID laws can raise the level of confidence in narrow victory margins.
Mar '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Ah, okay. I was intrigued because I often am eager to engage reasonable arguments from the other side of an issue. I hadn't recently heard a libertarian argument against voter ID (national ID cards, on the other hand)...in any event I respect your regard for privacy and understand the general reflex, but I think I'm on the other side on this issue.
While I think such laws must be well-crafted (looking out, for example, for military voters' absentee ballots), I find that most of the leftist arguments against reasonable voter ID laws range from unpersuasive to downright ridiculous.
Indiana's "eminently sensible" law is a pretty good example of legislation I think we'd do well to adopt more broadly.
Sep '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
What kind of information can the government get when a person applies for an ID card that they don't already have when the person registers to vote?
Apr '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
etoiledunord: I have to believe there are thousands of college students voting in the state where they attend college, and also voting absentee in their home state. And for the radical student activists, we're lucky if they only vote twice.
There are stories, maybe apocryphal, that activists get on a bus, go precinct to precinct, arriving and getting a new identity at each stop. I don't know if it actually happens much, but if they do their research, it would be easy. You just impersonate people that are very unlikely to come and vote that day. · 1 hour ago
If Acorn, for instance, had enrolled thousands of entirely fictional voters, those voters would be very safe to impersonate.
Apr '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
The students, retirees, and other people who make up most of the voter fraud don't think of it as lying. Part of the idea with a lot of voter ID is to catch a lot of innocent wrongful voting as well as the knowingly criminal stuff.
Apr '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
James Of England
The students, retirees, and other people who make up most of the voter fraud don't think of it as lying. Part of the idea with a lot of voter ID is to catch a lot of innocent wrongful voting as well as the knowingly criminal stuff. · 23 minutes ago
What is wrongful voting?
Feb '11
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Crow's Nest: Embarrassing indeed.
Mollie, I'm intrigued to hear your reasons for opposing voter-ID laws. · 40 minutes ago
The long and the short of it is that I reflexively oppose state licensing, particularly for things such as voting. I grew up around people who loved to vote but didn't want the government to have too much information on them. This is not completely uncommon -- or wasn't uncommon -- off the grid in Colorado. Try managing that when the state requires identification to vote. · 1 hour ago
Does that mean you don't favor people being required to register to vote?
Jun '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Valiuth
James Of England
The students, retirees, and other people who make up most of the voter fraud don't think of it as lying. Part of the idea with a lot of voter ID is to catch a lot of innocent wrongful voting as well as the knowingly criminal stuff.
What is wrongful voting?
Some voters mistakenly believe that they can vote by proxy for a neighbor who can't get to the polls, but wanted to vote for a certain candidate. If they use that neighbor's name, they only get caught if they have to show a photo-ID. In that case, they're just trying to help a neighbor vote the neighbor's choice, but it's illegal none the less.
Oct '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Voting is the most important civic activity we have. To vote we must register. To be called for jury duty, our second most important civic activity, you must have registered to vote.
In order to register to vote, in most jurisdictions, you must present a valid ID. And, since, with motor-voter, you are getting a drivers license at the time, you are, in fact, very well identified.
The only thing that not presenting an ID can help with is fraud. If you are a thoroughgoing libertarian of the paranoid variety, then you neither register nor vote.
Molly, I cannot think of a rational reason to desire to vote and object to showing the ID that you use while driving, cashing a check, boarding an airplane, registering in a hotel, entering a government building, registering for welfare or food stamps and many other daily activities that rich, poor, black, white, brown, yellow or whatever flavor American citizen might be.
Jun '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Crow's Nest, I don't think there is a libertarian argument against voter ID. If by your vote you have the power to raise my taxes, rezone my property, send me to war, or a host of other things done at the implicit barrel of the government's gun, it's incumbent upon you to prove that you have the right to do so. In the 18 years that I've been involved with the Georgia Libertarian Party - Georgia is a voter ID state - I have yet to hear an argument that trumps the above.
Dec '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Mollie, do you object to presenting ID when you're selected for jury duty? Or cashing a check? Or entering the DOJ or a military installation?
I understand the desire to avoid giving the government too much information, but in fact, the government actually has too much information. Allowing voter fraud on the basis that showing a driver's license when you vote shows the government too much is just silly. And it won't keep them from using what information they already have.
Sep '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
So liberals support card check for union voting, but oppose Voter ID laws? Do I have that right?
Dec '10
Re: Eric Holder's Morning Could Be Better
Since I've been eligible to vote, I'm continually struck by the overwhelming % of poll workers are older than average citizens. In some cases, my polling place has been in a local extended care facility and most of the poll workers were younger than the residents. My point is this, given the exceptionally important nature of voting to a republic such as ours, shouldn't the folks that man the polling booth be a bit more, how to put this, "on edge" and look as though they could actually do something about a fraud such as this?