On voter fraud and exaggerations

[conuly]

What I don't get is how, even if there really is as much voter fraud as some parties claim (something I find doubtful), we expect IDs to curb this.

If TV and movies have taught me anything, it's that fake IDs are not all that hard to obtain. Kids routinely pick them up to buy things they're not old enough to get. People who anticipate having to go on the run have extras made just in case. More sinisterly, real criminals use them to con people and get away with crimes.

If somebody has no scruples about voting twice, why would they care about breaking another law and using one or two or twenty fake IDs to vote as many times as they please? How, exactly, would IDs be more reliable and useful than other methods of verifying identity such as requiring a signature?

Of course, when it comes to that, if I wanted to scam the system it'd probably be easier to simply pick up a group of apathetics, offer them cash, then tell them who to vote for. Sure, there might be some issues with reliability, but there's bound to be ways around that. Or, better yet, rig the machines from the start. With sufficient cash and few enough morals you can do just about anything, and it seems to me that this level of vote manipulation is something rich people are more likely to do.

On that note, United Nations-affiliated election monitors from Europe and central Asia will be at polling places around the U.S. looking for voter suppression activities by conservative groups...

Naturally some people are quite upset by this even though the observers have no power to do anything, and of course there's no way that any American would *ever* do anything to make the election unfair. Which I'd like to believe as well, and *because* I'd like to believe it I have no problem with anybody observing our elections.

Comments

[sayga.livejournal.com]

My aunt is livid about the UN observers, and she also posted on Facebook to encourage everyone to insist that everyone at the polls show their photo ID. I posted back that photo ID is only required in like 2 states (I don't remember, but I linked to an article about it) and encouraged her to stop encouraging other people to kick up a fuss about it because it isn't the law and the people working at the polling places can't DO anything about the law right then and there anyway. So just go and vote quietly, darnit. This aunt is pretty election-crazy. My cousin's boyfriend commented nicely, but in disagreement, on one of her very radical posts and she totally flipped out and insulted him terribly. I was very embarrassed for her. When I went back to re-read it, she'd deleted the whole thing.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

My ballot is already here. (Remember, they took our polling places away.)

I have announced elsewhere that since I believe my personal private vote in the Presidential race will make all the difference of a shrill soprano hoot in a hurricane, I'll accept bids starting at four figures. Funny, nobody took me up on it. ;-)

Seriously, your high cash/low morals thing is spot on, and I seem to recall various close races in decades past where new ballots were "discovered" after the first, second, or third "recount". Garbage-bags-full, sometimes, and strangely enough, they usually were heavily slanted to one party or another. Go figure.

The problem most of my friends have is with foreigners observing the elections. An old joke comes to mind:

Citizen A: "Hey, who're you voting for this election?"
Cit. B: "Nunya."
Cit. A: "Nunya? Don't know him, [which party/what's the full name]?"
Citizen B: "Nunya Bidness. It's secret ballot for a reason."