Archive for July, 2011

Check out the latest piece by RSLC President Chris Jankowski as published on Politico:

Former President Bill Clinton, addressing a liberal group Wednesday, likened Republican state legislative efforts to address voter fraud to the days of Jim Crow and poll taxes.

Aside from the fact that his charges are designed to distract and manipulate public opinion using the worst kind of racial politics, his line of attack is only the latest attempt to shift the nation’s focus from the Democrats’ failure to address critical economic problems facing American families and businesses.

It will not work.

The reality is that Democrats can’t seem to grasp that voter fraud is a crime and a fundamental danger to our democracy. Every time voter fraud is committed, the value of every vote is diminished and the fundamental principle of one person, one vote is undermined.

Or, according to the report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, “fraud in any degree and in any circumstance is subversive to the electoral process.”

Clinton’s assertion — like the one from the Democratic National Committee chairman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), that “You’re more likely to get hit by lightning than you are to see an instance of voter fraud in this country” — shows just how out of touch national Democrats are with state legislative issues.

As the law professor James Woodruff, of the Florida Coastal School of Law, wrote in an op-ed article last year, “the practice of vote fraud is alive and well in the 21st Century.”

From ACORN registering Mickey Mouse, to illegal payments for people to vote multiple times, to dead voters casting ballots, state legislators of all political stripes can attest that the list of voting crimes across the country is a problem that needs to be addressed. Countless cases of voter fraud are identified, investigated and prosecuted annually, while scores more go undetected.

The Carter-Baker Report concluded, “states need to do more to prevent voter registration and absentee ballot fraud.” Like many state legislatures across the country, the panel called for a uniform photo ID voting requirement.

States, whether Republican and Democratic controlled, aim to implement simple, common-sense voter protection provisions that could help restore public faith in voting.

Georgia is a good example. Secretary of State Brian Kemp noted that instances of voter fraud decreased, and turnout of Latino and African American voters significantly increased, after Georgia implemented a photo ID requirement for in-person voting in 2007. Comparing the 2006 to the 2010 general election, voter turnout among African Americans outpaced the growth of that population’s pool of registered voters by more than 20 percentage points.

From 2004 to 2008, Latino and African American voter turnout increased by 140 percent and 42 percent, respectively — rates that align with the growth rates of voter registration in those demographics.

The judicial system has supported state efforts to protect law-abiding voters through common sense regulations. The most notable example was the Supreme Court’s decision recognizing Indiana’s “valid interest” in requiring photo identification. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the 6-3 majority, noted “the flagrant examples of voter fraud in American history.”

Clinton was off base in his remarks and he should retract his statements and apologize. More important, national Democrats need to recognize that voter fraud is a reality, that the solutions being presented work, that they empower the electorate and have been deemed effective by national leaders, scholars and the courts.

Only when we set aside these divisive, emotionally based sidebars can we collectively return to a productive discussion of how to provide concrete solutions to the real problems that America’s families and businesses face everyday.

From PoliticalTicker:

Democratic Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz made similar comments in June, calling attention to the Sunshine State effort. The Florida congresswoman told CNN contributor Roland Martin Republicans “want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws” and block Democratic voters from the polls.

Schultz later said “Jim Crow was the wrong analogy to use.”

Chris Jankowski, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, said Clinton was using Schutlz’s talking and points “owes an apology to Republican legislators that are seeking sensible steps to protect the integrity of elections in our country.”

“Maybe it was an attempt to distract from the Democrats’ abysmal record of tax hikes and shutdowns over spending cuts, or perhaps he was simply trying to be provocative while speaking to a super-liberal audience,” Jankowski said in a statement. “Either way, such rhetoric is out of bounds.”

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