Is it possible that something good will come out of the immigration bill? My post below blames it for recent plunges in the Dow and calls it a sad sign of creeping idiotarianism on the Right. Nonetheless, just as something good (health savings accounts) accompanied the politically useless and financially disastrous Medicare prescription drug benefit, there is a chance that immigration restrictionism will yield a first step toward urgently needed electoral reform. The National Journal Hotline reports that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.) has introduced an amendment to add a new section to the Help America Vote Act of 2002, one that ought to have been there from the beginning:
SEC. 304. IDENTIFICATION OF VOTERS AT THE POLLS.
(a) IN GENERAL.– Notwithstanding the requirements of section 303(b), each State shall require individuals casting ballots in an election for Federal office in person to present before voting a current valid photo identification which is issued by a governmental entity and which meets the requirements of section 7212 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (49 U.S.C. 30301 note).
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.– Each State shall be required to comply with the requirements of subsection (a) on and after January 1, 2008.
Ideally, Congress would also outlaw promiscuous voting by mail, which both facilitates fraud and makes a mockery of the secret ballot, but a safeguard against cheating at the polls is at least a start.
Well worth noting is this comment on the Hotline post:
I was an international observer for the 1997 Mexican Federal Elections and in Mexico, every registered voter has a Voter ID card that includes their picture, fingerprint, and signature in addition to a magnetic strip, hologram and other security measures to preventfraud. . . .
McConnell’s amendment doesn't go as far as issuing a Voter ID card, but it isn’t a bad idea and it won’t deter anyone from lawfully voting who is entitled to do so.
Of course, our Angry Right nativists may refuse to go along with something that Mexico has been doing for ten years, so my confidence that the McConnell Amendment will pass isn’t unbounded.
Further reading: John Fund, “Jimmy Carter is Right”:
The photo ID issue is being joined with the immigration debate because there is growing anecdotal evidence that voter registration by noncitizens is a problem. All that it takes to register is for someone to fill out a postcard, and I have interviewed people who were still allowed to register without checking the box that indicated they were a citizen. Several California counties report that an increasing number of registered voters called up for jury duty write back saying they are ineligible because they aren’t citizens.
The man who in 1994 assassinated Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio in Tijuana had registered to vote at least twice in the U.S. although he was not a citizen. An investigation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service into alleged fraud in a 1996 Orange County, Calif., congressional race revealed that “4,023 illegal voters possibly cast ballots in the disputed election between Republican Robert Dornan and Democrat Loretta Sanchez.”
It’s certainly true that new ID rules alone wouldn’t eliminate all the potential for fraud. Much of the voter fraud taking place today occurs not at polling places but through absentee ballots. In some states party officials are allowed to pick up absentee ballots, deliver them to voters and return them, creating opportunities for all manner of illegal behavior. Other states allow organizations to pay “bounties” for each absentee ballot they deliver, which provides an economic incentive for fraud. The Carter-Baker commission recommended that states eliminate both practices.
In a politically polarized country, photo ID for voting is a rare issue that enjoys across-the-board support among the general public. A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll last month found that 80% of voters favored a photo ID requirement, with 62% favoring it strongly. Only 7% were opposed. Numbers that high indicate the notion has overwhelming support among all demographic and racial groups.
Unfortunately, the recalcitrant seven percent are overrepresented among politicians whose careers increasingly depend on fraud for their continuance.
You know, I try very hard to write satires but reality always catches up with me. Last year I wrote one where a California resident sued to permit her comfy toy to register and vote, the forces of freedom having already won votes for unnaturalized aliens and then companion animals. How long, O Lord . . .
Posted by: Joseph T Major | Friday, May 19, 2006 at 06:59 PM