The GOP loves to scream about “voter fraud” and pass voter photo ID laws that disenfranchise mostly African-American and Hispanic voters — the ones who might be more likely to vote for Democrats. So why is it that whenever there’s an actual case of voter fraud, it’s always by a Republican? (I see another diarist has beaten me to this, but I'm publishing this anyway.)
The latest example is from no less than the Arkansas Republican attorney general candidate, Leslie Rutledge. She’s an attorney, remember, so of course she knows better. But she’s registered to vote in Washington, D.C., (and perhaps Virginia as well) and Arkansas, and is running for statewide office in Arkansas.
After learning of the multiple voter registrations, the Pulaski County (Arkansas) County Clerk cancelled her Arkansas voting registration. Which means she can’t run for office, either, because, as the state constitution says, “No persons shall be elected to, or appointed to fill a vacancy in, any office who does not possess the qualifications of an elector.” And the “qualifications of an elector” include the fact that the person must be “lawfully registered to vote in the election.”
So here we have an attorney who served on the legal team for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and she thinks it’s fine and dandy to vote in multiple places.
Rutledge, of course, claimed she was legally registered in Arkansas and did not addresss the multiple voter registrations. She blamed “big bureaucrat, big government” politics. But here’s the thing. Voting records show that she registered to vote in Arkansas 2006. She registered to vote in Washington in 2008 and then voted absentee in Arkansas in 2008 in the general election.
I understand that people move, and it takes a while to clean the voter rolls, so it’s not surprising that someone would be on two different voter rolls at once. But that doesn’t mean you get to vote in both places.
Another recent case involves another Republican candidate, this time in Illinois. Kathy Myalls is running for the Illinois General Assembly this fall, but she’s registered to vote — and has voted twice, in the same year — in both Illinois and Wisconsin. She’s been registered to vote in Wilmette, Ill., since 2005, and in Fontana, Wis., since 1996. Voting records show she voted in both states in both the 2008 and 2012 elections. According to Illinois election officials, the time to challenge her residency has passed, and if she wins in November, the General Assembly can challenge whether to seat her.
The dual voting gambit also was tried by another Wisconsin resident in a different way. Robert D. Monroe, described as a supporter of Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Republican state Sen. Alberta Darling, was charged with more than a dozen counts of illegal voting, casting multiple ballots in four elections in 2011 and 2012, including five in the 2012 gubernatorial recall. He used addresses in Milwaukee, Shorewood (a Milwaukee suburb), and Indiana, and cast some votes in the names of his son and his girlfriend’s son. According to a criminal complaint, Monroe cast two ballots in the April 2011 Supreme Court election, two in the August 2011 recall election for state Sen. Darling, five in the Scott Walker-Tom Barrett recall, one illegal ballot in an August 2012 primary, and two ballots in the November 2012 presidential election. According to a John Doe voting records investigation, “Monroe was considered by investigators to be the most prolific multiple voter in memory.” Also, according to the John Doe records, Monroe claimed to have a form of temporary amnesia and did not recall the election day events when confronted by investigators.
That’s it! You just forgot! When all else fails, claim amnesia.
What other cases have there been? Here’s a sampling, taken from the MaddowBlog for MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show: “Remember the Nevada voter who cast multiple ballots in the same election because she wanted to test the integrity of the elections system? She was a Republican voter. Remember the Texas voter who cast absentee ballots on behalf of his girlfriend for the five years after she died? He was a Republican voter, too. Remember the Indiana secretary of state convicted of voter fraud? Yep, a Republican.”
Republican voter ID laws stop people from voting. These people are legal residents but have no photo ID because they don’t drive anymore, are out-of-state students (remember the Supreme Court said it was OK to vote where you go to college), or have no birth certificate to get another form of ID. Many have voted for years, but are now out of luck. But these same voter ID laws don’t stop the kind of fraud these Republicans are committing.
Are you noticing a pattern here?
This is cross-posted at my own blog, politicalmurder.com. And from the Dept. of Shameless Self-Promotion, if you're interested in a funny murder mystery mixed with political media satire set at a Netroots Nation-type convention, check out The Political Blogging Murder, available at the site as an e-book in a variety of formats for a mere $2.99.