A new Washington Post poll found that 74 percent of Americans support having voters show ID at the polls, and a full 81 percent think voter fraud is a problem.
They have reason to be concerned. This month, four staffers for former Michigan congressman Thad McCotter were indicted for forging signatures on petitions to place him on the ballot. McCotter resigned from Congress after evidence surfaced that his district office had been run like a political version of Animal House.
Democrats are, of course, outraged. “It’s a real punch in the gut, and I hope that voters out there are really watching and listening,” said Natalie Mosher, who ran against McCotter as a Democrat in 2010. “I’m angry, because I think the voters of the district got taken for a ride by this guy.”
Would that Democrats summoned as much outrage over the long history of voter fraud that has surrounded Michigan elections. In 2005, Detroit city clerk Jackie Currie was removed from office after Detroit mayor Kwame Kirkpatrick won a disputed second term partly on the basis of illegal absentee ballots cast in the names of dead people. Currie’s employees were accused of illegally assisting incapacitated people to vote by absentee ballot. Kirkpatrick himself was later forced to resign after being convicted on corruption charges.
But Democrats have been vociferous opponents of Michigan’s photo-ID law and other measures to clean up the voter rolls. The McCotter scandal should remind all of us that voter fraud is serious business and can be bipartisan. The laws and safeguards against it protect all of us.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
