Voter fraud must stop

Star-Telegram | Greg Abbott:

“With more law enforcement officers and prosecutors on the alert, we hope that those who would commit fraud will think twice. If they do it anyway, let this be their notice that we will come after them. We must do all we can to ensure the validity of our elections. Voter fraud strikes at the heart of our democratic process, and it must stop.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Who could possibly be against a crackdown on voter fraud? Right? The Star-Telegram does a disservice by presenting only one side of this matter. Much of the indignation over voter fraud is not coming from nonpartisan, civic-minded citizens for good government. It is coming from partisan, politically-motivated, Republican activists out to discourage voting by minorities and the poor. Greg Abbott is the Republican Attorney General of Texas.

In many states, this so-called crackdown on voter fraud has led to demands for identification and proof of residence in the form of drivers' licenses, utility bills, etc.. This amounts to a 21st century version of a poll tax. The elderly, the poor, the kind of people most likely to live in apartments and ride the city bus and lack the kind of documentation being insisted on, will be shut out of the polling place. It's no coincidence that these people tend to vote Democratic.

We've seen cases of Republican office-holders warning ex-felons against voting illegally. These threats were delivered to thousands of voters who were eligible to vote, either because of a mix-up in names or just because the officials got the eligibility rules for ex-felons wrong. Again, the target of this intimidation tended to be minorities and the poor.

Attorney General Abbott, wrapping himself in the American flag and claiming to be only fighting voter fraud, conveniently ignores voter intimidation perpetrated by the right. This makes me skeptical of his own intentions. Clean up voter fraud, sure, but tackle it in all its guises, and that includes the current dishonest attacks on our electoral system by those claiming to be defending it.