Voter ID rules protect seniors, minorities from fraudsters, says new study
Published: 12:10 AM 08/02/12

Criminal justice data shows that blacks and poor people are the most common victims of voter fraud and are the greatest beneficiaries of voter identification rules, according to a new study.

The courtroom evidence “completely contradicts the [progressive claim] that blacks, seniors, college students and other disadvantages groups are being victimized,” said Horace Cooper, an adjunct fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research.

“The truth is … [that] the criminals — more often than not — are Democrats violating the rights of people who tend to be black or senior,” he told The Daily Caller.

A large investigation in Virginia, for example, showed that 30 percent of fraud allegations were centered in Richmond, which has the highest percentage of African-Americans in the state. In the state a wide investigation of voter fraud produced criminal charges against 38 people.

Good voter identification procedures would reduce that fraudulent voting, and aid minorities most, Cooper said.

The new study damages progressives’ claims that the popular demand for voter identification laws mask a GOP effort to suppress the vote of racial and ethnic minorities who support Democratic candidates.

That claim has been central to a variety of Democratic efforts to block voter ID laws in critical swing-states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.



For example, the New York-based Brennan Center claims that “as many as 11 percent of eligible voters do not have government-issued photo,” and that people should be allowed to use other form of identification when voting.

President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice has also sued to block voter ID laws. Attorney General Eric Holder has repeatedly suggested these laws are racist and intended to suppress African-American voting.

But GOP politicians and activists say voter ID laws are needed to suppress a significant level of fraudulent voting in general elections and in primaries.

The campaign for better voter-identification laws has public support — polls show overwhelming support for new laws — as well as support from the Supreme Court.

The court has already approved voter ID laws in various states, including Georgia, despite furious opposition among progressives and Democratic activists.

Cooper’s study highlighted cases where inadequate voter ID rules allowed political operatives to submit fraudulent votes under the names of local minorities.

Three times as many Democrats as Republicans have been charged with voter fraud, he said.

In Troy, New York, four Democratic officials have pled guilty to forging mail-in ballots. The fake ballots were submitted under the names of people who “live in low-income housing [because] there is a sense that they are a lot less likely to ask any questions. … What appears as a huge conspiracy to nonpolitical persons is really a normal political tactic,” Democratic Committeeman Anthony DeFiglio told the police as he plead guilty.

A particular problem is fraudulent voting during low-turnout primary elections, which allows corrupt Democratic party bosses to keep control over elected representatives, former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis told TheDC.

“The people who engage in the in-person fraud, or the theft and interception of ballots, or the people who try to [arrange votes by] illegal felons and aliens … are doing so at the expense of minorities that they fear won’t show up” during the election, Cooper said.

Often, “it is their view that minorities aren’t reliable voters and that they need to manipulate the outcome on their behalf,” he said.

“If that’s not bigoted and racist, I don’t know what it,” he added.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/02/voter-id-rules-protect-seniors-minorities-from-fraudsters-says-new-study/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFo26u6K-Gg&feature=g-vrec