Title: Who Can Vote? - A News21 2012 National Project
Headings: Comprehensive Database of U.S. Voter Fraud Uncovers No Evidence That Photo ID Is Needed
Comprehensive Database of U.S. Voter Fraud Uncovers No Evidence That Photo ID Is Needed
Content: “It makes much more sense if you are trying to steal an election by either manipulating results on the back end through election official misconduct or to use absentee ballots which are easier to control and to maintain,” said Hasen, the UC, Irvine, professor of political science. The News21 analysis shows 185 election fraud cases linked to campaign officials or politicians involving absentee or mail-in ballots. In 2003, the Indiana Supreme Court invalidated East Chicago Democratic Mayor Rob Pastrick’s primary victory because of massive fraud. Pastrick, an eight-term incumbent, lost in a 2004 repeat election. Forty-six people, mainly city workers, were found guilty in a wide-ranging conspiracy to purchase votes through the use of absentee ballots. John Fortier, a political scientist at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank, said there are “more direct problems” with absentee ballots because the person casting the ballot can be pressured or coerced. Keesha Gaskins, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, a public policy group that opposed many of the voting-law changes nationally, recognizes that absentee-ballot fraud occurs more than other election fraud, but still doesn’t consider it a threat. “There are more concerns in terms of absentee fraud but, again, it is easier to catch,” she said. Minnite, the Rutgers University professor who researched election fraud from 2006-2010 for her book, “The Myth of Voter Fraud,” agrees with Gaskins. “Corruption works when it’s orga