this is ********. the chicken little pandering to fear mentality for the reality:Out of the 197 million votes cast for federal candidates between 2002
and 2005, only 40 voters were indicted for voter fraud, according to a Department of Justice study
outlined during a 2006 Congressional hearing. Only 26 of those cases,
or about .00000013 percent of the votes cast, resulted in convictions or
guilty pleas.
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Illegal immigrant vote-fraud cases rare in Arizona
Records cast doubt on official’s claims
An examination of voter-fraud cases in Maricopa County shows those
involving illegal immigrants are nearly non-existent, and have been
since before the changes to voter-ID requirements were enacted in 2004.
In response to an Arizona Republic records request, the
Maricopa County Attorney’s Office provided a list of 21 criminal cases
since January 2005 in which the suspect was charged with a felony
related to voter fraud. A search of court records found 13 other cases.
Of the 34 Maricopa County cases, two of the suspects were in the
country illegally and 12 were not citizens but living in the U.S.
legally, court records showed. One of the suspect’s legal-residency
status was unclear from the records.
The non-citizens came from around the world — Indonesia, Canada,
Mexico, Yugoslavia, the Philippines and Thailand. Most had been living
legally in the U.S. for decades. Several stated in court documents that
they thought they were permitted to vote because they were legal
permanent residents of the United States.
None was convicted of a felony or given any jail time. A couple of
the cases were dismissed; the other suspects pleaded guilty to
misdemeanors and served a few months of probation.
Eighteen of the cases involved convicted felons who had lost the
right to vote. In several of the cases, the felons told the court no one
had ever explained to them that they no longer could vote even after
serving their time. One said he was sent an early ballot in the mail and
thought he was permitted to vote.
Presented with this information, Horne maintained that voter fraud by illegal immigrants is a problem in Arizona.
“There are thousands of people who were non-citizens who registered to vote, and many of them voted,” he said.
He said he based his statements on court testimony by county
recorders, who said more than 200 people in a single year had stated on a
jury-duty summons that they weren’t citizens. “And jury forms only go
to a small percentage of residents, so you have to multiply that to get
the number of non-citizens who actually registered statewide,” Horne
said.
But Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell said Horne’s numbers aren’t accurate.
She agreed there are a couple of hundred instances each year in which
the county jury commissioner notifies her that someone has stated on a
jury form that he or she is not a citizen. But Purcell said not all of
those are cases involve a person who is illegally registered to vote,
much less one who has illegally cast a ballot.
“The jury summons is a combination of voter registration and driver’s
licenses,” she said, explaining that an individual does not have to be a
registered voter to be summoned for jury duty. “They may go to some
people that have a driver’s license and are not citizens but are legal
aliens.”
If they are registered to vote, Purcell said she immediately removes them from the registration rolls.
If they actually are citizens and lied in order to avoid being
summoned for jury duty — which Purcell said happens regularly — they can
re-register.
If Purcell determines someone has registered and voted illegally, she
forwards the case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for
prosecution. She didn’t know the exact numbers of such cases, but said
they amount to a handful each year.
“I don’t see it as a big problem,” she said. “We send very few to the County Attorney’s Office.”
Other county recorders echoed Purcell’s assessment.
Christine Rhodes has been county recorder in Cochise County since 1973.
“Much of our land here is on the border, and I can’t remember ever going to court on any voter-fraud case,” she said.
Horne said the low number of prosecutions doesn’t prove anything.
“A lot of them don’t get prosecuted,” Horne said. “(The county attorneys) have scarce resources and bigger fish to fry.”
According to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, over the past
nine years there were four cases of voter fraud that the office decided
not to prosecute.
Despite the numbers, Horne said he will continue to defend the
voter-approved requirement for proof of identification to register to
vote as it moves through the courts. He said he believes voters agree
that voter fraud by illegal immigrants is a problem in Arizona, and
that’s why they passed the requirements.
“If people believe that their votes are diluted by people voting
illegally, they lose faith in the system and you can get a decline in
participation,” he said.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down parts of the
voter-registration law, ruling that Arizona cannot demand proof of
citizenship from people who register using the federal form but can from
those who use the state form.
Horne said he expects the case to end up back before the U.S. Supreme
Court at least once more before the issue is resolved. In the meantime,
voters who registered using the federal form will be allowed to vote
only in federal elections.
Arizona voters in November 2014 may get to decide for themselves whether they think Arizona has a fraud problem.
The ballot will include election-law changes the Legislature approved
earlier this year, partially based on the argument that they were
needed to stop voter fraud.
The legislation tightened procedures for citizen initiatives and
referendums, limited who can return a voter’s ballot to the polls, and
allowed dropping people from the permanent early-voting list if they
fail to vote by mail in consecutive elections.
Opponents, who gathered enough signatures to halt the law and take it
to voters, argue the real motivation behind the law — and the voter-ID
requirements — is to stifle minority voters.
“This is not about voter integrity and fraud, it’s about suppressing
the vote,” said Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix. “It’s about ‘How do we
reduce the number of folks participating in our elections? Because if
you start opening the door to higher voter participation, then we’ll see
more young voters, minority voters, those who tend to be more
centrist.’ And that’s the population they are trying to shut the doors
on.”
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