The GOP has found new grist for their voter suppression mill. The misleading lede:
State elections officials said Wednesday that they're investigating hundreds of cases of voters who appear to have voted in two states and several dozen who appear to have voted after their deaths.
Imagine, PROVEN voter fraud. Finally they are vindicated. And they have numbers to back up their claims:
1. People who voted in two states in the same election.
Strach said North Carolina's check found 765 registered North Carolina voters who appear to match registered voters in other states on their first names, last names, dates of birth and the final four digits of their Social Security numbers. Those voters appear to have voted in North Carolina in 2012 and also voted in another state in 2012.
Appear to have. Hmm.
2. Voted in two states in the same election. Records not a complete match, but could be.
The crosscheck also found 35,570 voters in North Carolina who voted in 2012 whose first names, last names and dates of birth match those of voters who voted in other states in 2012, but whose Social Security numbers were not matched.
Maybe, maybe not.
3. People registered in two states, who most recently voted elsewhere.
Additionally, the analysis found 155,692 registered North Carolina voters whose first and last names, dates of birth and final four Social Security number digits match voters registered in other states but who most recently registered or voted elsewhere.
And? This is fraud, how?
4. Zombie voters.
Strach also said a "10-year death audit" found 13,416 deceased voters who had not been removed from voter rolls as of October 2013. Eighty-one of those individuals, she said, died before an election in which they are recorded as having voted.
30 of these have already been shown to have voted absentee shortly before they died.
Weak tea, to be sure, but if your mindset is that voter fraud is rampant, this is startling, earth-shattering proof that you are right. There is more. Like all GOP hysteria, there is a chance to make money off the paranoia. Read on.
Here is an opportunity to simultaneously suppress the vote AND make some money off the process. The party of less government is prepared to add layer after layer of bureaucracy onto an already strained electoral process. And these layers are high tech/high cost. Taxpayers paying corporate overlords for unnecessary technology to protect us against unsubstantiated fraud.
First, the elections board is asking for permission to compile a secure database of digital photographs and electronic signatures that would be available to county elections workers through the state's secure electronic poll book system.
Costing counties money to buy the equipment and train poll workers.
The board is proposing to use state Division of Motor Vehicles photos where possible but is also seeking permission to start a pilot program to take digital photos of voters at voting sites. Those photos would be stored securely and would allow poll workers to use biometrics or facial recognition systems to verify voters' identity.
Slowing down an already slow system on election days, and doing nothing about absentee voting.
First it was money spent on voting machines. There was suspicion that these were being tampered with especially after Karl Rove's meltdown when the GOP lost Ohio. To some it appeared that the GOP was nearly caught. Maybe that is our shade of paranoia. Then they instituted all kinds of voter suppression measures that had absolutely nothing to do with the problems they claimed they were trying to solve (elimination of early voting, weekend voting, same day registration). Now they have found scheme to have it all: fewer voters and more money. How perfect is that?