Voter fraud is real — and voter ID is the answer – Latest News
Voter fraud is real — and it is an pressing downside, for which solely voter ID is the answer.
The proof arrived in a courtroom in Orange County on Monday, as Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of paying one other individual to register to vote.
Armstrong allegedly went to Skid Row and paid the most determined homeless people in the metropolis to register to vote, then obtained their signatures on poll petitions. She additionally allegedly used the names and addresses of real voters when signing them up.
A person stroll on a avenue in the Skid Row space in Los Angeles. Jonathan Alcorn for NY Post
She mentioned that she was being paid by higher-ups. We don’t but know who they’re, and how high up the scheme went. We additionally don’t know how broad the downside is.
But we all know it exists.
Thanks partly to the work of citizen journalists, who’ve caught people in the act, we all know how simple it is to pay people to register, or to register dozens of people to uninhabitable areas, like parking heaps.
And because of Bill Essayli, the prime federal prosecutor in the Central District of California, there shall be penalties on this case. Perhaps the first of many.
Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong, 64, is seen strolling into courtroom. Katie Avery for CA Post
We have been informed for years that voter fraud is simply a figment of the Republican creativeness. Or that the penalty for unlawful voting is enough of a deterrent. Or that the authorities catch most of the instances that come up. Or that voter fraud is so uncommon as to be unimportant.
But all of these are simply excuses. The reality is that our present system makes it simple to commit voter fraud — as simple as a journey to Skid Row with a few {dollars} in your pocket and a clipboard in your hand.
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This is half of the purpose public confidence in democracy has been falling. The reality is that we can not say with any degree of certainty that everybody who is voting is doing so correctly, and that each vote is being counted precisely.
The solely answer is voter ID — the extraordinary observe, common in 36 states and most democracies round the world, of proving that you’re who you say you might be if you register and show up to vote.
It’s not “racist.” It’s simply common sense.
Voter ID is favored by the overwhelming majority of voters, even in California — that is, till you inform them that it is a Republican precedence. Then people fall back into their celebration loyalties.
But look previous celebration labels. There is a real probability to cross voter ID this yr, one we dare not miss.
