According to this article http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/374882/nc-state-board-finds-more-35k-incidents-double-voting-2012-andrew-johnson#!
there were 35K incidents of double voting in NC in 2012.
The article is moot on whether this was in
the Presidential election or all elections in NC in 2012. If the numbers are accurate it would seem that
the argument that fraudulent voting (voter ID fraud) is an insignificant
occurrence is demonstrably incorrect.
Wow, National Review, eh?
ReplyDeleteHere's a link from the other end of the spectrum, Think Progress.
North Carolina Legislators Justify Voter Suppression With An Inconclusive Report
"But there is substantial reason to doubt the accuracy of the matches. For years, North Carolina used a default date of birth of 01/01/1900 for voters whose date of birth could not be ascertained — Joshua Lawson, a spokesman for the North Carolina Board of Elections, confirmed to ThinkProgress that one of the 35,750 voters had the same name as an Arkansas voter who was listed with that default date in both states. And, of course, sometimes multiple people with the same first and last name are born on the same date. A quick ThinkProgress public records search found both a John M. Smith in Mississippi and a John J. Smith in South Carolina were born on May 15, 1979. Since the database does not compare middle initials, North Carolina would likely flag these John Smiths as one possible double-voter. Indeed two John D. Smiths were apparently born on August 14, 1974 in opposite parts of Illinois. "
And here's an article from Fox News, that seems to be more your style, but is a bit more balanced that NR.
Hundreds of cases of potential voter fraud uncovered in North Carolina
"Could it be voter fraud? Sure, it could be voter fraud," Strach said. "Could it be an error on the part of a precinct person choosing the wrong person's name in the first place? It could be. We're looking at each of these individual cases."
WRAL.com reported that 81 residents who died before election day were recorded as casting a ballot. While about 30 of those voters appear to have legally cast ballots before election day, Strach said "there are between 40 and 50 [voters] who had died at a time that that's not possible."
"We have the 'Walking Dead,' and now we've got the 'Voting Dead,'" said state Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg. "I guess the reason there's no proof of voter fraud is because we weren't looking for it."
Strach cautioned, however, that in several past cases, instances of so-called zombie voters turned out to be the result of clerical errors.
"We're in the process of looking at each of these to see," Strach said. "That means either a poll or precinct worker made a mistake and marked the wrong person, or someone voted for them. That's something we can't determine until we look into each case."
...
Only 11 people were prosecuted on allegations of double-voting as a result of the 15 states that performed similar database checks following the 2010 elections, according to data compiled by elections officials in Kansas, where the cross-check program originated.
Bob Hall, director of the non-profit group Democracy North Carolina, cautioned officials not to jump to conclusions based on the preliminary database check.
"I know there is more than one Bob Hall with my birth date who lives among the 28 states researched," Hall said. "There may be cases of fraud, but the true scale and conspiracy involved need to be examined more closely before those with political agendas claim they've proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."
None of this is proof of actual voter fraud.This is the beginning of the investigation, and a purely political move to release these numbers without hard evidence of actual voter fraud. The just have big, impressive numbers, of which they don't tell you the context.
35,570 duplicates!
(Out of 4,100,000 votes casts, compared with a databases of 101,000,000 names from other states)
So (and someone check my math)... that comes out to a possible .8%?
{did anyone else know there's a ~4,000 character limit?}
DeleteI'd like to revisit this when the investigation is done, because when South Carolina went through a similar "WE NEED VOTER ID LAWS" it turned out to be nothing but BS. But now SC has voter ID laws, so what didn't happen before won't happen again, right?
Not surprisingly, Michael, I did know of the 4,000 character limit.
DeleteI am against voter fraud...period. Voter fraud is bad. Don't do voter fraud. BUT, the sudden obsession of the right with it seems disingenuous, at best, at this particular point in history. In my lifetime I have heard legendary stories of politicians, from Presidents on down, winning due to "ballot box stuffing" and whatever other creative ideas that such people think up. Landslide Lyndon comes to mind. I don't have any knowledge of whether these stories are true or not. But voter fraud is legendary in this country, whether it actually happened or not. Yet the right is suddenly outraged by voter fraud, as if it were a brand new issue, and grasping at every little piece of evidence that might show grounds for their outrage. It reminds me greatly of FOX News after the invasion of Iraq (yes I used to watch Fox News regularly) hoping and praying, almost aloud, that the WMD would be found soon. And every little story that came out that perhaps the infamous WMD had been found just put a bounce in their step and a smile on their faces. And they would say something like "of course, we knew they were there, it was just a matter of finding them. You don't think Sadam just kept them in his bedroom do you?" But eventually you have to put up or shut up. FOX News eventually shut up on finding WMDs in Iraq. I for one am hopeful that that point is in the not too distant future for the right on this voter fraud "issue". On the other hand I'm not betting any money on it.
DeleteI think that the left has won big on this by succeeding in focusing the debate on three things:
"How much voter fraud is there?",
"There must be some huge amount of it before any action is taken.", and
"We can measure how much voter fraud there is by how much we find without looking."
.Because of this you have people who are emphatically opposed to voter fraud and resolutely opposed to doing anything about it.