On Monday, top Justice Department officials met with the leaders of key civil rights groups and election watchdog organizations to discuss the department’s plans to assure that the November 4th election operates smoothly and fairly. Sounds promising, right?
Problem is: most of the voter advocates weren’t satisfied with what they heard. Apparently, the Justice Department’s plan will include some actions to protect voter access to the polls, but department officials will be putting equal weight on detecting voter fraud. But is voter fraud such a prevalent problem that it should be occupying half of the department’s resources? A 2007 study on the issue by Lorraine Minnite, a political science professor at Columbia University, found that actual instances of voter fraud are rare. The study found that only 24 people were convicted of or pleaded guilty to illegal voting between 2002 and 2005 -- so roughly eight instances each year.
"For the department, the focus should be on voter access," said Kristen Clarke, voter-participation co-director for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, when quoted by the Wall Street Journal about the meeting. "It does seem the criminal division is spending some of their capital on vote fraud, which is disconcerting."
I agree. In the rare instances where voter fraud occurs, it should be stopped. But too many state and national elections bring dozens of stories of voters who are denied access to a ballot -- or whose vote is not counted -- because of poor government planning or outright vote suppression. The Justice Department should be spending more of its resources tackling these larger, more pervasive problems.
We all remember the voting machine problems in Florida in 2000; and the long lines at polling places in Ohio in 2004. But did you realize that many of those problems still haven’t been resolved? Palm Beach County in Florida held a judicial race just last August where a recount returned a total vote that was 3,500 ballots short of the original vote count (the margin between the candidates is only 60 votes). No one knows whether the 3,500 ballots are missing or just never existed. In Michigan, the chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County (in Detroit) plans to challenge the voting rights of every citizen whose house has been sent a foreclosure notice. Of course, many people remain in their homes for quite some time after receiving such a notice and frequently homeowners even renegotiate the terms of their mortgage; but the action may well disrupt many Detroit polling places and disproportionately limit the voting rights of poor and minority citizens in an important urban area of a key swing state. According the Michigan Messanger, one in every 285 homes in Macomb County -- 1,834 total -- received a foreclosure notice during the month of July.
These are the types of outrageous schemes that we need to publicize, oppose and stop.
The Justice Department should do it; but if they won't, then we must. Join our team of Election Watchdogs and tell us about suspicious attempts at voter suppression in your state or town. We'll publicize them and then work together to stop them.
