The War on Voters

The Voter-ID requirements may seem pointless, but they are not. The point is to discourage young people, poor people, and disabled people from voting.

Posted by John Denker

1) The good news is, you don't need to worry about bad guys stealing elections by sending bogus voters to the polling place on election  day.  We have three ways of knowing this is a non-issue:

• If it were happening on a large scale, at least a few of the perpetrators would get caught, but there is no record of this.  Anybody who got caught would get arrested on the spot.  Jesse Kelly says this is happening on a massive scale, but it isn't.
• The people who pretend to be worried about this aren't actually doing anything to defend against it.  Their so-called security measures serve another purpose entirely: they decrease election integrity rather than increasing it, as discussed below.
•  It stands to reason that nobody would bother sending bogus voters to the polls, since there are far easier ways  to subvert an election.

2) No photo ID of any kind is required to vote in Arizona.  Under state law, it suffices to have two utility bills with name and address.  As mentioned in item (1), this is not a problem in practice.  However, hypothetically speaking, all a bad guy would need to do is show up with two stolen utility bills, or two photoshopped utility bills. Then he could vote with no hassle at all.

Clearly, the laws as they stand would not prevent dishonest people from voting.  The primary effect of these laws is to prevent honest people from voting.

3) There are numerous ways in which bad guys could steal votes 100 or 1000 at a time, after the polls are closed.  The chance of getting caught at this is very small compared to the chance of getting caught impersonating a voter.

4) Let's be clear: Items (2) and (3) explain item (1).  It is easy to subvert an election is by taking away votes from good guys in broad daylight, by imposing onerous ID requirements.  It is also easy to tamper with votes "wholesale" in large batches.  Therefore it's just not worth trying to add bogus votes "retail" one at a time; the risk/reward ratio is all wrong.

The existing laws are what we call "security theater" :  They make it look like there is security in place, when in fact there isn't.  Security theater creates burdens for good guys, and disproportionately small burdens for bad guys.  As such, it is the exact opposite of real security.

Anecdotes

Here is how the Arizona voter-ID laws work in practice:

A) John Smith is a disabled military retiree.  He lives with his son, Bubba Smith.  Both are properly registered voters.  On election day, Bubba drives them both to the polling place.  Bubba identifies himself using his driver's license, which takes only a few seconds.  He gets to vote in the usual way.  So far so good.

Alas, John's driver's license is not acceptable because it is expired.  He didn't bother to get it renewed because that costs money, and he doesn't drive.  Remember, he's disabled.  He has a current, valid military ID, but that doesn't count, because it doesn't have his photo or address on it.

In accordance with Federal laws enacted in the wake of the stolen election back in 2000, John (like anyone else) is entitled to cast a so-called Conditional Provisional Ballot.  That requires about ten minutes of paperwork on election day … and then within three days John must go to the County Recorder's office in person and show ID that meets Arizona's strict voter-ID requirements.  Obviously he can't drive himself to the office, so either he needs to hire a taxi, or Bubba needs to take off work and go with him.  So at this point, a task that should have taken a few seconds now looks like it is going to take a couple of hours.

However, it's even worse than that, because John cannot easily lay hands on the required ID, not on election day or otherwise.  He has a voter-registration wallet card with his name and address, but that's only one thing, and he needs two.  Any sort of utility bill would have sufficed, but all those bills are in his son's name.

The sample ballot that the Department of Elections sent out has John's address on it, but that doesn't count because it doesn't have his name.  The Department of Elections perfectly well knows the names of the voters at that address, but they send the mail to "Registered Voters" at such-and-such address, rather than using the names.

One possibility is that Bubba could take John to the DMV to obtain a state-issued walker's license … and then take him to the recorder's office.  However, you have to pay money for a walker's license, and waiting in line at the DMV takes forever.  At this point John decides the hassle is not worth it, so he goes home without even bothering to cast a Conditional Provisional Ballot.

B) Bubba's daughter, Suzie Q. Smith, goes to the University of Arizona.  She never bothered to get a driver's license.  Getting around by bike is a lot greener and a lot cheaper.  There's no good place to park downtown anyway.  She lives in campus housing, so she never gets any utility bills.  She has a credit card in her own name, but she does all her banking online, so she doesn't have any bank statements to use as ID.

Her University-issued photo ID is not acceptable for voter-ID purposes.  She could spend money to get a copy of her birth certificate, and then spend more money to get a walker's license, but she doesn't have time for all that.

In theory, she has a right to vote, protected by the constitution and by federal voting-rights laws … but in practice there is no way for her to register, let alone vote.

If she had a driver's license, should could easily register online (or otherwise).  However, the rule around here seems to be:  If you don't drive a car, you are less than 3/5ths of a person and you shouldn't be allowed to vote.

I am all in favor of election integrity.  Alas, the voter-ID laws do not increase election integrity, but rather decrease it.  The ID requirements may seem pointless, but they are not.  The point is to discourage young people, poor people, and disabled people from voting.