In today’s hearing, Republican Dan Lungren tried to help Alberto Gonzales out by asking whether or not prosecuting voter fraud is one of the White House’s priorities. Gonzales was happy for the help, and agreed readily
Gonzales said that "as a minority" he felt it was important to go after vote fraud cases.
As a minority? As a minority?!
Perhaps Alberto Gonzales has forgotten a few key facts about voter fraud. Let’s review them after the jump.
1 - Systemic voter fraud doesn’t exist. Since 2002, voter fraud has been a top priority for the Bush Justice Department. The initiative resulted in only 24 convictions against individuals for voting illegally nationwide from 2002 to 2005, out of the hundreds of millions of votes cast during that period. A voter is more likely to be struck by lightning than to cast an illegal vote.
2 – Overzealous vote fraud investigations create an environment which discourages minorities from voting. Even Wan Kim, Gonzales’ own Assistant Attorney General, has said publicly that the presence of prosecutors at polling places has an intimidating effect on voters.
3 - Vote fraud investigations – which by and large do not result in actual prosecutions or convictions - provide justification for Republican state legislators to enact overly burdensome voter ID laws. Laws that require government ID to vote are another form of poll tax (the ID required can cost more than a hundred dollars in some cases), and they’ve been shown to disproportionately disenfranchise minorities, the poor, students and the elderly.
I’ve no doubt that Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales wanted the U.S. Attorneys to prosecute voter fraud. Voter fraud investigations help Republicans get elected. When Attorneys like David Iglesias and John McKay refused to prosecute baseless claims of voter fraud, they were fired. What the White House wants instead are attorneys like Bradley Schlozman in Missouri, then indicted liberal voter registration workers just days before a close election.
Alberto Gonzales clearly wants to prosecute voter fraud. It may be a dirty way to win elections, but at least he’s honest about that.
But claiming that it’s important to him "as a minority?" Shame on him . . .
Debbie Liu is Deputy General Counsel at People For the American Way