In Crawford v. Marion County Board of Elections, the landmark Voter ID case presently before the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has taken the lead for the right wing and, along with eight other state attorneys general, filed a brief in support of an Indiana Voter ID law.
The problem is that the brief [.pdf], written by Abbott and his staff at the AG's office is riddled with errors and outright lies.
You have to look no further than page four to find both the first major error and the first major lie of the brief:
Petitioners’ claim that voting fraud is largely chimerical is belied by the facts. For example, for decades, the State of Texas has grappled with the challenges of voting fraud. Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1946 Senate campaign is only the most infamous instance, but serious allegations of voter fraud have persisted, especially in South Texas, for more than a century.
Can you spot the error? That's right! The "Ballot Box 13" affair happened in 1948, not 1946. Evidently, the folks in the AG's shop are too busy attending Federalist Society meetings to actually do any fact checking. Second, the first lie is about the "serious allegations of voter fraud," that have persisted in Texas for more than a century.
For voter fraud allegations to "have persisted for more than a century," that means--at minimum--there would have to have been documented cases of voter fraud going back to 1906 or earlier in Texas. I don't believe there is much evidence at all about voter fraud until after the 1920s. This is simply a lie.
Abbot immediately goes on to toot his own horn and crow about voter fraud prosecutions his office has been involved in over the last five years [Note: Abbott's folks put some URLs in the text, which I've converted to hyperlinks]:
Over the past five years, the Texas Attorney General’s Office has vigorously enforced the voter-fraud laws, and has obtained numerous indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions. In one case, a city councilwoman was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for registering noncitizens to vote an then facilitating noncitizen voting by tampering with government documents. See Former Port Lavaca Councilwoman Briseno to Serve Five Years in Prison for Voter Fraud, June 25, 2007. [Note: The Free Republic link Abbott lists in the brief actually doesn't work] Another instance of voter fraud involved allegations that a woman escorted voters into polling sites and illegally marked ballots without their consent. See Robstown Woman Indicted and Jailed in Voter-Fraud Case, CALLER-TIMES, June 16, 2006. In yet another case, a man was indicted for double voting in the November 2006 general election. See Five Rio Grande Valley Residents Indicted for Voter Fraud Allegedly from 2006 Election Cycle, June 1, 2007. There was also a Refugio County Commissioner who pled guilty to the felony of tampering with government documents during a primary election, an East Texas former State Senator who was indicted for official oppression in trying to keep two candidates for a water board off the ballot, and a Beeville, Texas resident who pleaded guilty to casting ballots for her deceased mother. And many more instances of voting fraud relating to the illegal possession, handling, and transport of mail-in ballots have occurred. See, e.g.,Refugio County Commissioner Pleads Guilty to Election Fraud Scheme, Oct. 9, 2007; Nueces County Indictment in Voter Fraud Investigation; Reeves County Woman Convicted for Voter Fraud, June 28, 2006; Commissioner Given Probation for Voting Fraud [again, a bad link].
What Abbott's brief fails to note, however, is that none of these cases would have been prevented by voter ID laws and that, in fact, most of these cases have to do with Abbott's overzealous prosecution of fairly new absentee ballot laws.
Let's take a look at these case by case. First off, the Briseno case. This wasn't a case of at-the-polls voter fraud. It was a case in which the defendant allegedly filled out voter registration cards for non-citizens. There is no way Voter ID would have prevented the necessity of that prosecution.
The second case mentioned, that of 65-year-old Maria Dora Flores, is yet another case in which Voter ID would not have helped. Under Texas law, you are allowed to have another voter help you cast or mark your ballot for various reasons. In this case, in the face of new voting machines, Flores simply went too far and marked voters' ballots for them electronically. Again, this isn't a case in which Voter ID would have helped. This is the case of a helper allegedly going to far, and is in no way related to Voter ID. Flores' defense attorney says as much in the August 9, 2006 Corpus Christi Caller-Times [no link]:
Flores' defense attorney Fred Jimenez said his client was not familiar with the voting process and made a mistake.
"Part of the problem was that on this past election there were some new machines put in place," Jimenez said. "She would walk somebody to the machine, there was some confusion how to operate it, then she would operate it for them. That was the problem."
This was a machine operations/helper case, not a case Voter ID would have prevented.
With regard to the Rio Grande Valley cases mentioned in the brief, again they relate to mail-in ballots and voter registration and are not something that Voter ID could have prevented:
According to the Attorney General’s investigation, false addresses and the names of nonexistent Starr County voters were used to illegally obtain voter registration cards. The addresses that appeared on those cards were not actual voters’ residences, but rather were vacant lots and condemned buildings.
Fraudulently obtained registration cards enabled the defendants to complete mail-in ballot applications, which instructed the Starr County elections office to send mail-in ballots to Hidalgo County addresses, presumably where the "voters" would be present during the March 2006 Starr County Democratic primary election. The four defendants picked up the ballots at the Hidalgo County addresses. The ballots were then filled out and mailed them to the Starr County elections office.
Again, this is an absentee voting case, not one that has anything really to do with Voter ID.
And, it's pretty much the same with the rest of the cases. How about the Reeves County woman listed in Abbott's brief?
Trinidad Villalobos, 60, of Pecos was found guilty by a Reeves County jury and sentenced to six months probation on each count of illegally possessing and transporting election ballots of several voters.
Once again, this has to do with mail-in ballots. This has nothing to do with Voter ID.
Abbott also fails to mention in any significant way that his office's mail-in ballot prosecutions have come under significant fire and legal challenges and that this office's unconstitutional enforcement of a 2003 mail-in ballot statute was actually enjoined for a time.
Even more troubling is that Abbott cites the testimony of partisan GOP hacks Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector employee Ed Johnson and Skipper Wallace, the State Legislative chairman of the Texas Republican County Chairman's Association, before state House and Senate committees on Voter ID legislation during the 80th Texas Legislature.
Johnson, an employee of Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector Paul Bettencourt (one of the biggest Voter ID shrills in Texas), tells tales but offers no documentary evidence which would show his claims are anything but exaggerations:
Although Johnson claims this to be a widespread "fraud" perpetrated on the voting public, he doesn't tell the House Committee on Elections who did it and offers not one name of one single voter who was allegedly victimized by it. All he does is claim it was a Democratic candidate in a Democratic Primary, thus painting Democrats as huge proponents of voter fraud. Jones, of course, was serving as an unofficial stand-in for his boss, Bettencourt. Bettencourt is such a polarizing figure his testimony would have caused an unwanted controversy--something the Harris County Tax Assessor doesn't want casting a pall on his future bids for higher office.
Furthermore, this isn't a situation that Voter ID could help because it is a situation of voter impersonation and filing of false registrations. If someone is going to file false registrations, they can also create false ID. This isn't something Voter ID legislation can or would help in any way.
There are far more problems with the brief. Check out this paragraph:
Second, the requirement of a photo ID is becoming all but ubiquitous in the modern age. Photo IDs are required to drive a car; to board an airplane; to travel abroad; to enter many state and federal government buildings; to buy alcohol or cigarettes; to purchase firearms; to obtain a hunting or fishing license; to open a bank account; to purchase medical prescriptions; to obtain most health care or dental care; to rent a hotel room, a car, or a DVD from Blockbuster; and even to watch an R-rated movie at the cinema.
We know that much of this is incorrect. For example, photo ID is not really required to board an airplane. Not only is it not a federal law, there are FAA directives to instruct airport personnel on how to fly passengers without photo ID.
As far as State ID being required to enter many state buildings, they are not required at the Texas Capitol.
They aren't required to buy alcohol or cigarettes unless the clerk deems you to be too young to purchase them.
As for a Texas fishing license, a photo id isn't required either. The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife specifies that an applicant may produce three different forms of identification--but one doesn't have to be a driver's license--in order to obtain a fishing license.
And, anyone who has ever opened a bank account online knows that a driver's license or state ID isn't required to complete this transaction, either.
As for purchasing medical prescriptions, no Texas law requires a person to submit ID when picking up their prescriptions, and I'm aware of no instance in my life where I've been asked for ID to secure my own prescriptions--or those for anyone in my family, for that matter. If there is such a law on the books, then darned near every pharmacy in Texas could be shut down tomorrow.
As for obtaining health care, federal law requires an emergency room to treat you regardless--and while ID may be sought, it certainly isn't required.
As for renting a DVD from Blockbuster, a photo ID isn't required, either. All that's required is your Blockbuster card. And, depending upon the location, most Blockbusters simply require "two forms of ID," and prefer that one be a credit card. In fact, a call to my neighborhood Blockbuster to inquire about this resulted in being told that a photo ID isn't required--a utility bill will suffice.
As for that R-rated movie claim, again, that's merely if you don't look old enough.