The Big Lie…

You know what they say if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it people will believe; well that is what the Republicans are doing about “voter fraud.” If you listen to the Republicans you would think that voter fraud is massive but it is the exact opposite.

Down in Florida the Department of Law Enforcement conducted an investigation to arrest all those people who were voting fraudulently, do you know how many they found in the 2012 presidential election? Two. That’s right only two cases.

Two voter fraud cases close with meager findings
Times Bay Times
By Michael Van Sickler
September 4, 2013

The potential for fraud in the 2012 presidential election was how Florida Republicans justified measures that made it tougher to register voters.

So nine months after ballots were counted, where exactly are the culprits of voter registration fraud?

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement hasn't found them.

The agency released the results of two more cases involving allegations of voter registration fraud.

In an inquiry into the Florida New Majority Education Fund, which aims to increase voter registration among underrepresented groups, the FDLE concluded it could make no arrests.

In another inquiry, involving Strategic Allied Consulting, a vendor for the Republican Party of Florida, an arrest was made of a man who stole the identity of a former girlfriend's ex-husband. He admitted to fraudulently filling out two voter registration forms.

And that was it.

No investigations this year have found fraud on a significant scale.

Two other cases involving Strategic Allied Consulting remain open, but even Gov. Rick Scott, who loudly sounded the alarm of fraud, appears to have moved on.

This isn’t the only time that investigations in to voter fraud has turned up zilch.

In an article in Salon, by Andrew Burmon who wrote about Texas voter fraud, he wrote…

The statistics bear me out. From 2002 to 2005 only one person was found guilty of registration fraud. Twenty people were found guilty of voting while ineligible and five people were found guilty of voting more than once. That’s 26 criminal voters -- voters who vote twice, impersonate other people, vote without being a resident -- the voters that Republicans warn about. Meanwhile thousands of people are getting turned away at the polls.

In an opinion piece in Politico writing by Tova Andrea Wang who wrote…

Yet law enforcement statistics, reports from elections officials and widespread research have proved that voter fraud at the polling place is virtually non-existent. The motivation for ginning up this bogeyman is often to intimidate certain groups of voters and, ultimately, make it harder for minority or disadvantaged groups to exercise their right to vote. It is no accident that these operations have repeatedly focused on minority communities.

A CBS affiliate wrote this about voter fraud in North Carolina…

Elections officials in North Carolina said most of the voting fraud allegations they investigate turn out to be unfounded. Over the past five years, the state has referred about 350 cases to district attorneys for investigation, mostly in cases of felons who cast a ballot without first getting their voting rights restored. There are more than six million registered voters in the state. States already have ways to check the identity of voters when they register and when they go to cast a ballot. North Carolina’s current law requires residents to provide documents proving their name and address in order to register to vote. Those who register improperly can be charged with a felony.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania the Republicans actually boasted about how the voter ID laws will give the elections to the Republicans…

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai was caught on tape this summer boasting about his colleagues' success: "... First pro-life legislation -- abortion facility regulations -- in 22 years, done. Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done."

Law officials said in court case against the law in Pennsylvania,

…in a stipulation agreement signed earlier this month, state officials conceded that they had no evidence of prior in-person voter fraud, or even any reason to believe that such crimes would occur with more frequency if a voter ID law wasn't in effect.
    "There have been no investigations or prosecutions of in-person voter fraud in Pennsylvania; and the parties do not have direct personal knowledge of any such investigations or prosecutions in other states,” the statement reads.

Here in Connecticut the only thing that you need for identification is an electric bill with your name and address on it. After every election the Secretary of State’s office audits the elections, for the 2012 elections they reported "empirical evidence shows that fraud by people voting in person is extremely rare."

So the next time you hear someone who want “voter ID laws” to stop “voter fraud” ask them where is their proof? Demand facts. Don’t buy into the Republican’s BIG LIE.